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abeautifulblog · 9 months

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thoughts on the Barbie movie

Finally got around to seeing the Barbie movie -- I think some of its messaging could have been clearer, but on the whole it was a lot of fun, and one of the most visually-innovative things I've seen onscreen in ages. So much stuff these days bills itself as "deconstruction," when more often than not it's just a mean-spirited mockery of something the writers don't actually understand. The Barbie movie is deconstruction done right, by people who are deeply in the know about the material (which in this case equals the entire Barbie mythos/ideology), and love it anyway, warts and all. Good deconstruction is both a critique and a love letter.

The theme that the movie understands and communicates most clearly is about the impossible, contradictory directives that are constantly put on women -- "you need to be assertive, but you mustn't be a bitch", etc -- and how unfair it is that half the population isn't given the same respect and the same chance at success. Barbieland flips the script so that the Kens are the empty-headed ornaments while Barbies run the world (which I suspect is what made a lot of men so viscerally uncomfortable with the movie), but that's also eventually recognized to be just as unfair as the Real World where patriarchy reigns.

What's a lot muddier is the messaging around how exactly men participate in the patriarchal oppression of women, and how the patriarchy harms them too. Because patriarchy is a pyramid scheme -- and not all men are on the top of that pyramid, nor can they all be. It convinces men to strive for an unattainable ideal of masculinity (not unlike the unattainable ideal that Barbie represents for femininity, actually!) and then penalizes those who fall short for not being "man enough," and paints it as a personal failing, not one that's baked into the system.

A lot of the gags around Ken Discovers Toxic Masculinity legitimately had me in stitches, because oh my god, too true, but then it didn't really offer any conclusions about it. Granted, this is the Barbie Movie not the Ken Movie, and he already gets more of a character arc than female love interests usually do, so I'm not going to rend my garments all "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MENNNNS??"..... but if you're not going to follow through on toxic masculinity, then maybe better to leave that particular can of worms unopened. There's more than enough for feminism to talk about without it.

Personally, I would have preferred if Ken weren't an antagonist -- if he'd just been the supportive himbo boyfriend who cheerfully follows Barbie on her journey of self-discovery, and backs her every play, and has never had a mean thought in his empty head, which is kind of what the promo materials led me to expect -- but that would have been an entirely different plot. (Possibly one in which Ken encounters the real world and finds that the men there think he should tone down his self-expression (for coming off as too GAY) and be less of a simp for his girlfriend, and he's like, Wow that sounds terrible actually, no thank you!)

In any case, I don't envy the women who are now having uncomfortable conversations with their husbands and boyfriends who got mad about the movie and went on the offensive. Because this is not a movie that softshoes its message to coddle to men's fee-fees -- its male characters are largely mocked and/or marginalized, and I imagine that a lot of men who saw it, and who haven't ever examined their privilege, came out of it feeling personally attacked, and reflexively wanted to attack it in turn and reject everything it's saying.

To which I'm like… y'all need to sit with your feelings for a minute. Remember that one movie taking the piss out of men does not actually make a single dent in the power and privilege that men enjoy in the real world. And then think about the fact that media BY men (which is most of it) routinely treats women the same way -- frivolous and sidelined, ornaments and sex objects. And the fact that we consider that the normal way of things -- that women are expected to watch themselves being portrayed like that and enjoy it.

(A line that I think should have gotten more weight is at the end when Barbie says, "I want to be the one doing the making, not the thing being made," because it's such a clear, straightforward articulation of the subject vs. object distinction.)

Storytelling-wise (to put on my nerd-for-narrative hat), the third act of the movie runs into difficulty with the fact that this is not about human characters, but about anthropomorphized archetypes of femininity and masculinity -- and how do you write a narratively satisfying "ending" for things that don't actually end? And how do you do that within the context of not just a doll world, but the Barbie world, with a gender-unequal status quo that isn't actually going to change either? With the conflicts they set up, I'm not sure there was a wholly satisfactory way to end it.

But anyway, none of that detracted from my enjoyment of the movie -- it's fun, heartfelt, thought-provoking, a continuous source of pleasure and novelty for the eyeballs, and consistently hilarious. Definitely worth the watch.

(And if you want some feminist-themed media that does do a complex exploration of how the patriarchy fucks men over too, even the men who think they're winning at it, I recommend Agent Carter, it is so so good. (The first season, anyway. 😑) There are five notable male characters in it, and the only one having a good time is the one who's declined to buy into society's narrow idea of what constitutes acceptable masculinity.)

#the barbie movie #for context #gremble is a dude #but a gay dude who doesn't get butthurt over criticisms of the patriarchy

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coffeebanana · 1 year

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In honour of today being the one-year anniversary of when I posted the first chapter of Say Something, I wanted to--ahem--say something about this fic. And I thought about sharing the beginning of the next chapter, but 1. it's still the first draft so it's fairly rough, and 2. it's not very representative of the fic as a whole.

Instead, I thought I'd pick short passage I like from each chapter I've posted so far, because what is my tumblr for if not a little shameless self-promo, and I'm proud of the writing (read: neverending rewriting) I've done for this fic!! Plus this gives me an excuse to list all of my chapter titles which I really love as well ahaha.

(And for anyone who hasn't had a chance to read yet, I'll drop the link to chapter 1 here!! If you're interested in ladrien and/or prpr hurt/comfort featuring sentiadrien angst, then this is the fic for you!!)

Snippets are under the cut!

from chapter 1: Maybe They Sell Amok Chains at the Hospital Gift Shop

Ladybug faced away from him now, her stance rigid as she stared out the window. She kept one hand wrapped around the ring, which hung from a chain around her neck. Adrien wondered for a moment where she’d found the chain—she hadn’t left his side for long yesterday. Maybe her yo-yo had a secret stash of Amok chains. Maybe they were sold at the hospital gift shop. She could have fetched one when the doctors took him for scans. When they’d ensured he wasn’t quite bleeding to death by his father’s hand—only almost. Was a gift shop trinket really strong enough to entrust with the ring responsible for Adrien’s life? Hard to tell—that wasn’t the sort of thing people included on promotional signage. And that was…just about right. Adrien’s very existence was false advertising.

from chapter 2: Failure Sounds Like a Dripping Tap

The bathroom sink had been dripping the entire time, but suddenly it was all Marinette could hear. Suddenly it made her skin crawl. She knew there was a way to make it stop—a particular way to twist the handle—but she couldn’t find the energy for that. So the tap kept dripping, each drop serving as a reminder of the mess she'd made. Drip. She let Gabriel get away. Drip. She was failing her team. Drip. Adrien wouldn’t even look her in the eyes.

from chapter 3: Popcorn Ceilings Are No Substitute For Cloud Watching

This time when she sighed, Adrien felt her breath against the back of his neck, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Would those bumps make patterns like the ceiling? If Ladybug could read their warnings, would she back down? “Please,” Adrien whispered. He didn’t have words to explain, but he needed this. Panic sank its claws into him, tearing through old scars that never had a proper chance to heal. The chain bearing his Amok grew heavier. Would he ever get to make his own decisions?

from chapter 4: The Stars Don’t Always Lie

Outside had been about…existing, mostly. About casual touches and errant thoughts. Inside expected a certain something. Words. Interaction. Progress. Adrien had no idea how to go about any of that. He didn’t even realize Ladybug had spoken until she placed a hand on his arm. “Chaton? You okay?” “Fine.” He couldn’t be terrible if he wasn’t entirely present, right? If some part of him seemed to have remained up on the roof, still longing for that freedom he’d barely gotten a taste of?

from chapter 5: Still A Mere Facade

Adrien was curled up on his side, sliding his phone lethargically back and forth across the blanket. He’d been listless all morning, answering her questions a beat too late or not at all. It wasn’t quite the same as the past few days’ silent treatment, but he was still a far cry from the Adrien—and the Chat Noir—that she knew. Marinette just wished she could think of something to say. But the longer she sat there, the more pressure she felt to speak, which in turn made it even harder to cobble together coherent thoughts. And she really had tried everything—there were shockingly few internet resources for how to help your partner come out as a sentibeing. In a last ditch attempt at finding some guidance, she was about to check the copy of the Guardians’ Grimoire she kept on her phone when Adrien froze, inhaling sharply. It took her a moment to figure out why, a moment to process that the other sound she’d heard was that of his phone rolling over the chain bearing his Amok. It always came back to the ring.

from chapter 6: As The World Flickers In Slow Motion

“It’s not stupid.” Nino assured him. “Your feelings aren’t stupid. They’re just… they’re you.” Adrien bit his lip. “Are they, though?” “What do you mean?” Adrien hooked a thumb under the chain around his neck, watching as his Amok hung in the space between him and Nino. “My father had this. The man who never wanted me to go anywhere or do anything. You really think he didn’t use it?”

from chapter 7: Believing in Moments To Come

Nino and Adrien sat side by side against the headboard, Nino smiling at Alya who stood beside him. She was still pulling out folders, stacking them on the bedside table while her eyes lingered on the pizza boxes stacked between the boys. Adrien paid them no attention—his eyes were glued to the spot where Marinette entered the room. He smiled when he saw her. Marinette would have done anything to freeze that moment—finally, a moment where his smile felt real. Where his eyes sparkled the way they had for years whenever he saw her, where his lips curved softly like every time he’d caught her before she could fall. Maybe Alya was right. Maybe she hadn’t screwed everything up.

from chapter 8: Like Molecules In A Gas

He flinched when Ladybug touched his shoulder. “Are you ready?” Midway through her question, an air vent whirred to life overhead, almost seeming to trap her words inside. It would explain why they sounded so far away. Adrien felt just like the air forced through the tube—it didn’t matter what trajectory its individual molecules took, how many times they collided with each other or the walls throughout their journey. In the end, they had no choice but to follow an overarching path, and he had no choice but to keep moving forward either. If only he could remember how to reply.

from chapter 9: A Colour of Wanting More

[...] “The point is, you have strengths and flaws. You make mistakes. You learn. You…you’re human.” His gut plummeted. “Am I, though?” “Yes,” she insisted. “I don’t know how to convince you, but—well, okay, how about this? They took a blood sample, when you were in the hospital. In case…” She shuddered. “Obviously they didn’t find anything strange, or they would have said something. And I’m sure if they did a DNA test, that would come back normal too. If you wanted, I could figure out how to get one done. I’m sure it’s easy.” “I…maybe. But—” “But what? You have a blood type, and…a heartbeat—probably all your organs in the right place too, because they never said anything about that either. And you just…you have this incredible capacity to love people, and you have—” “Existential crises?” “I—well,” she spluttered. “That’s not exactly what I was going for, but…yeah.” She gave a huff of amusement. “I suppose that’s pretty human of you.”

💜 💜 💜

Thank you to everyone who's been reading and interacting with this fic so far! I appreciate you all so much!!

#miraculous ladybug #say something #coffeebanana fics #aaah this post feels like a tiny word scrapbook of the fic so far #these are not necessarily my FAVOURITE bits of each chapter because how am i supposed to choose?#and also i wanted to have things that aren't too spoilery but give a good feel for the fic in case i can entice someone new to read haha #anyways i definitely thought this fic would be DONE by now instead of like half-done buuuuuuut oh well #hopefully it'll be done within the NEXT year haha #sentiadrien #long post

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