I completely agree with your Barbie analysis. Growing up, I don't see Barbie as the bimbofied or being "too feminine". I saw her as being passionate and driven to achieve her goals no matter if she wants to be a princess or a musketeer. I saw her as being genuinely lovely and supportive of everybody as she did her best to ensure her team (no matter what movie) to also achieve their own dreams, all those teamwork and persistence finally payed off.
I used to wait until the ending of the movie to actually literally take a photo of the Barbie quote. (All I had was a camera back then hahah) Barbie literally changed my mindset that even I can achieve what I want without comprising my own identity.
The good ol’ days of physical cameras :’] That’s really cool! Barbie is a great character and honestly I didn’t realise that until six months ago.
I wasn’t like super into Barbie growing up. I had a few because people liked gifting them to me, and I did play with them, but I guess reading worked better for me as a form of escapism than playing. I also felt very self-conscious playing. I had a few VHSs in my father's place, Barbie Rapunzel, the Nutcracker, and Swan Lake, but I was sort of embarrassed of watching them around him. But I loved watching my aunt play with hers (she’s 5 years older, and had all the things).
As I grew, I became more and more embarrassed of being a girl, of my curves, of my existence. Obviously this common demeaning of femininity had a lot to do with it, and my father’s attitude as well. I needed to be strong and I didn’t want to be objectified and started to reject all that was feminine and bury myself under clothes. Also, I was an emokid, so a lot of black and sadness inside, not much space for pink confidence. At the start of my teen years I began to absorb the critiques on Barbie; they dressed themselves as intellectualism, so of course I would.
The Barbie message is exactly what I needed and didn’t get.
But when I started design school, I met my best friend and she is the most Barbie-Sharpay Evans-Elle Woods person to ever exist. She loves pink, her house is pink, and she’s confidence itself. Besides, by studying in an art building you start to get in touch with the nuances and importance of real feminism, body positivity, body neutrality, unconditional respect, bodily autonomy, etc. So I started to make peace with femininity again.
I only became an actual Barbie stan last september. We had to pick a brand for a class project so I picked Barbie because I thought it’d be fun and did a deep dive on the history to begin with. And BOY, was I pleasantly surprised! I'm no expert, but I am a fan now.
I would never say she has been stellar in all representation facets since 1959, absolutely not! I myself am a 1,51m tall latina, I have brown eyes, brown curly hair I straightened from 11 to 19 years old… I never felt represented in her, but the actual problem was that I didn’t feel represented anywhere else either. Barbie can be incredible in some aspects and fall short in others, those things can be true at the same time. Besides, it’s okay for a thing to not cover absolutely all bases, we really need to take it easy. The point of her is "hey, you can be pink AND president, if you want to". And that's still revolutionary. She's actually a really great character, with really great messages.
We give Barbie way more grief than she deserves.
