It's hard to overstate the massive cultural impact of the Barbie movie "Hi Barbie" "Hi Ken" The film Enchanted audiences wowed critics sparked heated debates and made a truly obscene amount of money at the box office Barbie continues breaking records with over 1 billion dollars at the global box office It's an impressive cultural achievement, especially considering that the film doubles as a feature-length commercial for a line of plastic dolls There was however one group who were decidedly unenthusiastic "Despite all the bubbly pink fun, the movie's become a target" "of some right-wing personalities" "They are preaching empowerment by making men look weak and dumb" "Feminist (diet tribe?) about the evils of the modern patriarchy" "It's a trojan horse to to teach girls daddy is really a dummy" "or domineering idiots" "It's feminist garbage and it's really about hating men" And Ken is like stupid and unlikable" "This is an assault on not just Ken, but all men" If you've seen the movie you might be confused Because the Barbie script goes out of it's way to show Ken in a sympathetic light If anything the movie might be a little too sympathetic to Ken "I think I owe you an apology" "Huh?" Now it's tempting to dismiss this clearly performative outrage as just another attempt to fan the flame of the culture war But there is something really poisonous under-pinning this backlash that I do think is worth taking seriously One word in particular seem to touch a nerve "Well, I haven't seen Barbie yet, um" "but I've seen people talking about the number of times they use" "the word patriarchy in it" "Feminism and the patriarchy and fighting it, and all that" "And actually to call it the patriarchy in the film that phrase is used many times" "If you take a shot every time Barbie says the word 'patriarchy', you will pass out before the movie ends" "As we learned that the use of word 'patriarchy' no less than ten times in this film" "The patriarchy is a big part of this Barbie film" "The word is used endlessly in the movie even though most people" "even me actually has no idea that what 'patriarchy' really means" That is a truly staggering level of defensiveness especially coming from people who don't really seem to understand what the word even means While there are many legitimate criticisms of the Barbie movie's feminism or lack thereof this video essay is not going to address those questions Instead, we're going to use the movie as a sort of primary to help explain what patriarchy actually is what it isn't and how it ends up harming everyone including men "Watch your flank" To have any kind of productive conversation we have to get over that defensiveness that so many mem feel whenever they come across the word patriarchy "This is a real hornets nest in here" Contrary to popular belief patriarchy is not a synonym for men nor is it a code word for masculinity and it certainly has nothing to do with hating men "yeah I am confused about that" General confusion about what patriarchy means is perhaps not surprising given that the word very rarely appears in popular media When the term has been used it's traditionally been as a joke to mock feminists or feminism "let's take off our brows and burn them in defiance of the misogynistic patriarchy" "you know what I think I have to meet Harvey, but um" "maybe we can burn our underwear together later" "when the last time we had a conversation over 3 minutes it was about" "the patriarchal bias of the Mr. Roger's show" "Well with King Friday lording it over all the Lesser puppets" "What did I miss?" "The oppressive patriarchal values that dictate our education" "good" It's only after the rise of the me too movement that we begin to see a shift in this pattern "Stay out of it Courtney" "You stay out of it. I'm dismantling the patriarchy this year" "and I'm not afraid to start with you" These days the word is most often written for snarky teenage characters "So you were Guided by Lon chivalry" "a tool of the patriarchy to extract my undying gratitude?" "mhm, you know most people just say thank you" It's meant to identify them as brash, rebellious or naively idealistic though not necessarily wrong in their observations "I think marriage is just a patriarchal system designed to make women less autonomous" "You become your husband's property, you have to bear his children" "you even have to take his name" "Hey, didn't you say that prom was a..." "A postcolonial patriarchal construct" "It is" "But we would go as a group as a form of protest" "Hey hey, ho ho, patriarchy has got to go" "Hey hey, ho ho, patriarchy has got to go" Even in this new limited context the word is still delivered as a punch "I'm jus... I mean is that it?" and its meaning is left intentionally vague "it's called Little Women and it's about four sisters" "who overcome poverty and the patriarchy..." "Nope, dolls" The lack of specificity guarantees that only those who are already in the know will get the joke "Down with the patriarchy" "Idiots ah" Everyone else is left either bewildered or extremely threatened "Why didn't Barbie tell me about patriarchy?" "Which to my understanding is where men and horses run everything?" "I'll silver away!" Sorry, Ken, but there are no horses involved Although, it does kind of make sense why he might think that "That's not fair is it? You know is it the fault of the patriarchy?" "Also, what is a patriarchy?" In its modern usage patriarchy refers to a type of society that's constructed to promote male power and authority in sociological terms it's what's called a social system rooted in four distinct principles a society is patriarchal to the degree that it's male-dominated male centered, male identified and organized around an obsession with control We're going to go over what all of that means in detail but the important thing to remember about social systems is that we are not those systems and those systems are not us "Because Barbie land, is now Kenland" So in the Barbie movie The Kens have a (coup?) and Implement patriarchy But the Kens as a group are not patriarchy itself "Here I'm just a dude" The Kens make patriarchy happen by doing it When they stop participating the social system effectively ceases to exist In the same way that we can describe a board game and its rules without saying anything about the personality of the individual players so too can we talk about the system of patriarchy and how it works without condemning every individual man Now keep in mind that the Barbie movie focuses mostly on Straight White characters but patriarchy impacts people in different ways based on their sexuality race, class or geographical location "Is there a problem offices?" Moving forward in this video I'm going to be heavily borrowing from a book called the gender knot by sociologist Alan G Johnson Since the devil is in the details let's use Kenland "Kendom" "Kendom" "Kendomland" "Land of the" "Land of the free of the men" "Right. Well, this place" Let's use Kendomland to help illustrate how patriarchy works "I shall seek my fortune there" "Alright" The first characteristic of a patriarchal society is that it's male dominated this is relatively straightforward all it means is that positions of authority are generally reserved for men Basically when you look up in the various hierarchies of society you'll tend to see more and more men the Barbie movie gives us a vivid illustration of what male dominance looks like We are presented with a montage of images featuring powerful and important men It's notable that up until recently women have largely been excluded from these fields "I'll take a highlight level" "high paying job with influence, please" "Okay you'll need at least an NBA" Ken also learns an important lesson when he demands to be given a powerful position he has unceremoniously rejected "No I won't let you do" "just one appendectomy" "But I'm a man" "But not a doctor" "Please" "No" This is because male dominance does not mean that every individual man is powerful "I'm a man with no power" "does that make me a woman?" In fact most men living in patriarchy will never acquire a formal position of power "This is bad this is really bad" "What?" Instead they'll spend their entire lives laboring under the boot of other more powerful men "Are any women in charge?" Despite what this Mattel boardroom scene implies It's not impossible for a woman to ascend to the top in patriarchy It just means it'll be much much harder for women to gain and maintain power and she will be tokenized and regarded as a special exception to the rule "I love you guys" Unlike in the fantasy world of Barbie land there has never been a female president of the United States "How come you're so amazing?" "No comment" "Ah ha ha ha" But even when a woman eventually does win that position it will not mean that patriarchy is over because patriarchy is a dynamic and resilient system It has evolved and changed over the decades and indeed centuries Thanks to countless women who have fought hard for a few seats at the table but the table is still male-dominated "You guys are clearly" "not doing patriarchy very well" "Ha ha, no, we're uh" "We're doing it well yeah" "We're just uh hide it better now" The second aspect of a patriarchal society is that it's male centered This simply means that the focus of attention is primarily on men and boys and what they do one of the reasons Barbie land is so visually startling is because it's a rare vision of a female centered world It's something we almost never see in Hollywood outside of cheesy Sci-Fi movies from the 1950s "Landing on an unknown planet" "they are captured by long limb beauties" "When they say take me to your leader" "and they take them to a creature like this" "you know they're on planet Venus" "Hi Barbie" "Yay space" In Barbie land the focus of attention is naturally placed on the Barbies and what they do But after the coup the Kens immediately push the Barbies aside and put themselves and masculinity at the center of absolutely everything "Everything basically everything" "Exists to expand and elevate" "the presence of men" This is an exaggerated reflection of our own male centered world All you have to do is turn on the news or or go to the movies and you'll be inundated with endless stories centering men "A symbol to the nation" "a hero to the world" "The Beacon of Hope shining up" Obviously this doesn't mean that women are never centered under patriarchy But when they are it's often framed as a woman's story rather than a human story The Barbie movie for example is very specifically a story about the gendered experience of being a woman in society "Anxiety, panic attacks and OCD sold separately" We can contrast that with a movie like Oppenheimer which is a story about becoming death the destroyer of worlds Yes this destroyer of worlds happens to be a man But notice the story isn't focused on the gendered experience of being a man in society In fact all of Christopher Nolan's film center very important men but none are about their gender They are built as stories representative of the human experience (rit?) large Greta Gerwig's movies on the other hand all Center women and are very explicitly about being a woman trying to navigate a man's world "Very well" [Inaudible] That's not a criticism of either director by the way It's just a stark illustration of what male centered means In patriarchy men are viewed as the default for human and Therefore experiences are framed as an exploration of the human condition While women's experiences are first and foremost framed as being about womanhood "Okay" Incidentally this deep-seated cultural expectation of male centrality helps explain the waves of backlash against any entertainment that's made for a general audience but doesn't center men or masculinity Male identification is a little more complicated But it is a critical piece of the patriarchal puzzle It means that core cultural ideas about what is considered good, desirable, preferable or normal are culturally associated with how we think about men, manhood and masculinity this is why professions that elevate qualities like toughness, competitiveness strength, control, rationality and invulnerability are so highly valued and highly paid in our society "Monsters" While occupations that revolve around qualities thought of as feminine like compassion, sharing or caregiving tend to be systematically devalued and underfunded "You know Greg's in medicine too Larry" "Oh really what field?" "Uh nursing" [Laughter] In the Barbie movie The Ken establish an aggressively male identified society They do this by stripping Barbie land of its feminine identity and superimposing a version of hyper masculinity that seems to have been lifted from 1980s action movies They replace all the pink furniture with black leather recliners drape everything in obnoxious cowboy motifs and litter the landscape with gym equipment and sporting gear "Don't question it just roll with, tiny baby" "He call me baby?" But male identification goes much deeper than Aesthetics when Ken decides to embrace patriarchy his behavior shifts accordingly as he tries to project male identified values "You can stay if you want as my bride wife or my long-term" "low commitment distance girlfriend" He buries self-doubt and hides his hurt feelings behind a layer of false bravado "Bruski beer me?" "I will not Bruski beer you" "Ha ha ha, that's fine" Under patriarchy the concept of leadership and indeed power itself is closely identified with masculinity It follows then that all men are socially elevated by default while women and feminine things are devalued and seen as inferior "Oh you got fries with that?" "If I said you had a hot body would you hold it?" Against this means that even men who don't hold any institutional power can still see themselves as superior to women That point is underscored when we seethat the Kens are generally inept at running Society "Go face day drunk right now" [Laughter] "(?)" They spend their time day drinking, playing games, and goofing off "Every night is boy's night" And yet they still see themselves as superior simply by virtue of being men living in a patriarchy "You're like I can't believe how great this place is" In Kendom land all the Barbies are reduced to servants "Where are my hungry boys who want snacks" But in the real world a small number of women can gain power even inside of male identified systems However in order to do so they must prove themselves worthy by appearing to be just as aggressive competitive and even less emotional Than any man in that same position In other words even though they are women they must adopt and perform male identified patriarchal values The fourth and final feature of patriarchy is an obsession with control as a core value around which social and personal life are organized Men maintain their privilege by controlling both women and other men who might threaten it The Barbie movie downplays it but men's violence against women and the everpresent threat thereof "Give us a smile Blondie" is a critical element in maintaining patriarchal control "I'm not getting any of that I feel that can only be described as admired" "but not (?) and there's no undertone of violence" "Mine very much has an undertone of violence" Control can also be achieved in other ways and since the Kens don't really understand violence they use coercion and manipulation to control daily life in Barbie land "What is wrong with them?" "We just explain to them the immaculate impeccable seamless gaunlet of logic" "that is patriarchy and they crumbled" Not the Kens take over for every institution they also take control of the dream houses "This shall henceforth be known as Ken's Mojo Dojo Kasa house" and they manipulate the Barbies into embracing their new status as objectified servants "Anyone need a Bruski beer?" "What are you doing? You're a doctor" I like being a helpful decoration The illusion of intellectual and rational superiority is critical to enforcing the myth that men are in control of every situation "Let me show you" "Here let me show you" "Here let us show you" and therefore deserve their privilege status "Now you listen to me" This is emblematic of how men in the real world will often compensate for feelings of personal inadequacy by exercising extreme control over those closest to them "You are going to be home at 6:00 every night" "and you are going to have dinner ready on this table" Especially women and children "No" "[Singing] I don't want to push you around" Returning to the gender knot men are assumed and expected to be in control at all times to be unemotional except for anger and rage to present themselves as invulnerable, autonomous, independent logical, dispassionate, knowledgeable, always right and in command of every situation especially those involving women [Laughter] "Who are you texting?" "Huh?" "Who are you texting?" "No one" "hmm let me just" "Ken" This obsession with control is so strong in our culture that any man who is perceived as not exerting enough control over women is likely to be ridiculed as pussy whipped packed or tethered to the old balling chain Notice that there are no equivalent derogatory terms for men Who do control women only for men who don't The obsession with control manifests in countless ways, big and small. "We would love it, if you could just get into that giant box." But, control over women, their bodies and their sexuality is a core tenant under patriarchy "Get in the box! you Jezebel" Recall that the Kens take control of the government and use its power to actively exclude the Barbies from civic life "That's right. In just 48 hours all the Kens will head to the polls" "and vote to change the Constitution to a government for the Kens of the Kens," "and by the Kens!" Since these are children's toys the Barbies can't reproduce Well, aside from Midge that one time But, the rest of the Barbies can't have babies but if they could the Kens would have no doubt curtailed their reproductive rights just like in the real world The social system I've just described is very obviously oppressive to women But while patriarchy definitely benefits men it's paradoxically a poison chalice because it robs men of their full humanity "Okay here's the deal: it's not just about how they see us" "it's about how they see themselves" We only have time to scratch the surface on this topic But embedded in Ken's story, we can find a few hints as to how patriarchy ends up harming men Even though Hollywood loves to play on themes of a war between the genders that framing misses a critical point because patriarchy is not a competition between men and women Rather, it's an endless competition for dominance wherein men are pitted against each other for a place in what RW Connell calls: the hierarchy of masculinities The white heterosexual hyper masculine ideal is at the top of the hierarchy All other forms of manhood especially those in any way associated with homosexuality or femininity are pushed further down on the hierarchy "When you're slapped you'll take it and like it" Recall that when the Kens go to war it isn't against the Barbies it's against the other Kens "We go to war" "Against the Barbies?" "No, against the Kens" "But we are the Kens" "The other Kens" Up until this point, I've been mining the Barbies movie to illustrate how patriarchy works But the usefulness of the film's narrative is limited especially when it comes to male competition "Oh ha ha ha, looks this beach is a little too much beach for you, Ken" "If I wasn't severely injured, I would beat you off right now, Ken" " I'll beat you up with you any day, Ken" You may remember for example, that long before they ever discover what patriarchy even is, Ken and Ken are engaged in a bitter competition over control of Barbie's time and attention "You can't do a flip like that' Ken" This is where the Barbies script is perhaps a little too clever for its own good Because it's many overlapping metaphors and allegories leave us with some mixed messages about the Kens the rivalry between the Kens may work as a sort of gender flipped commentary on how women are taught to seek validation through male attention "I only exist within the warmth of your gaze" It is less successful however as part of the film's larger critique of patriarchy because the Ken's competitive rivalry carries with it some uncomfortable echoes of male (entitl?) "I bet you're scared and I bet she doesn't even wanted to go" And that behavior is not attributed to patriarchy in the first half of the movie which is confusing because it definitely should be "Hi, Barbie" [grunt] "Hi, Ken" "Hi, Ken" The thing about being obsessed with control is that it traps men in a cycle of fear "Hi, Barbie" "Hi, Ken" The more men value control, the more they're afraid of losing it This leaves men riddled with anxiety about not measuring up to other men which means they can never truly feel secure in their own masculinity "I made a double bet with Ken and you can't make me look uncool in front of other Ken" "Ken's not cool" "He is to me" In the movie the patriarchal battle for dominance culminates in an absurdest dream ballet but in reality the consequences can be deadly serious Most violence in the real world is perpetrated by men against other men This Grim reality is part of why the Barbie's plan to overthrow patriarchy by tricking the Kens into fighting each other is so wildly misguided "You play on their egos and their petty jealousies" "and you turn them against each other" While the scene is undoubtedly funny and the song choice, absolutely perfect aggressive competitive male behavior is a core feature of patriarchy Not a bug that can be exploited "And now they destroy themselves" And for the record, men's violence is definitely not something that women manipulate men into doing Something else the movie doesn't show is how the enormous pressures patriarchy places on men can lead to self harm Either directly or indirectly through addiction and other risky behaviors The prohibition on expressing vulnerability compounds the problem by making it difficult if not impossible for men to ask for help or build emotional support networks "Ken?" "Oh, hey Barbie" "Hi" "How much of that did you see?" Of course all people need love, intimacy and nurture But since patriarchy devalues caregiving and labels it as feminine many men feel compelled to sacrifice their emotional sides in order to preserve their identity as real men As a result, many guys, especially straight guys falsely believe that women are somehow responsible "Oh, but I don't want you here" "Is it Ken?" "Ken's just a really good friend" "Goodnight" That being rejected is tantamount to women holding emotional intimacy hostage when in reality it's not women but patriarchy that's blocking men's access to emotional and physical intimacy So when Barbie refuses Ken's advances he becomes resentful he lashes out "No you failed me" And he ends up harming everyone including himself [Cry] "Don't look at me" In her excellent book: The Will to Change Bell Hooks doesn't mince words when describing what happens to men inside of patriarchy "Teaching boys to despise their vulnerability is one way to socialize them" "to engage in self-inflicted soul murder" It's no wonder then that Ken isn't really happy living in patriarchy In fact in Kendom land he was even further alienated from Barbie From his own feelings and from the other Kens Part of this interview with Julia Fox where she's hooked up to a polygraph machine became a viral meme on Tik Tok "I hate the patriarchy there's a lot of really good men" "Answer the question" "Do I hate men? No" "That's a lie" The viral audio snippet stopped there But when we play the rest of it her answer is Illuminating and nuanced "There's a lot of men that benefit from the systemic oppression of women" "In our culture and society and religions and I do wish that" "more men could stand up for us" She explains that she obviously does not hate all individual men What she hates is the fact that most men do absolutely nothing to help end the oppression of women So what can men do to make a difference in ending this system? "The Kens" "They found us" Let's use Allan as our proxy for this part of the discussion since he's the only guy who joins the Barbies' revolution Well, aside from these two brief cameos "Sugar daddy?" "No no no no, I'm not a sugar daddy" "This is sugar and I'm her daddy" "And I have an earring, a magic earring" Notice that all three of these characters are queer coded and despite being men, they're marginalized in the hierarchy of masculinities Allan in particular, embodies a bunch of common mistakes that men make when trying to disentangle themselves from the system of patriarchy The first thing Allan does is nothing He is a bystander who is nonetheless still afforded a measure of privilege in Kendom Land that the Barbies are not "And Alan likes to help me give all the Kens foot massages" "No, I don't, I don't like that" "We love it" Like some men in the real world, Alan might not be actively or consciously participating in the oppression of women but he doesn't speak out against it either The next thing Allan does is try to escape As soon as he spies a way out for himself, he tries to take it "How are you?" "I'm Allan. Don't tell the Ken I'm trying to escape" "I cannot sit on one more leather couch it's going to break my spirit" The problem is man can't just opt out of patriarchy because it's been woven into the very fabric of our whole society "What, what do we do?" "Just get in the car and keep it singing" The next thing Allan tries is to engage in displays of chivalrous violence After learning the extent of the injustice women face some men try to distance themselves from the problem and from any personal culpability by going after particularly, bad men But, patriarchy isn't a person and you can't punch a a social system in the face as much as you might want to "Guess what happened?" "I, I got into a fight I'm fine but I..." "I think we solved feminism" "Yeah! once and for all" "It was just like a a total melee, like on the news" And most of the time men lashing out in violence isn't helpful as it simply replicates the core values of patriarchy Allan fumbles around for a while but eventually he joins the Barbies' revolution Notably though, Allan never tries to confront the Kens about what they're doing And that's unfortunate because the most important thing men can do is challenge other men on their behavior and encourage them to rebel against patriarchal expectations Despite all the harm it does to women and to men's well-being the system of patriarchy remains invisible to most people And the Barbie movie for all its flaws, makes it visible This is I'd argue at the root of why so many right-wing pundits Were so extremely threatened by this cartoony fantasy land Not only does the film acknowledge the existence of patriarchy it dares to suggest that it's not a natural or inevitable institution And in doing so it lays bare the fundamental truth about all social systems they can be dismantled "No Barbie or Ken should be living in the shadows" "Or Allan" Choosing to confront such an entrenched system can be risky for men and extremely dangerous for women Nonetheless, all over the world women are challenging patriarchy like never before in modern history And the reality is that every day more and more men are choosing to stand with those women to join the struggle for liberation and to reclaim their full humanity "Thank you" Thanks for watching If you like these kind of llong form video essays please consider going over to Patreon to help back our project there I've also left a link to Paypal in the description below if you prefer that Uh, these videos are 100% funded by viewers like you There are no ads and no corporate sponsorships so anything you can do to help out is much appreciated I have a whole bunch of other videos in the works including one on the myth of the alpha male another one on redemption in death for male characters in Hollywood and finally a project on board games and colonialism So if you'd like to see any of those uh, please make sure you subscribe leave a like, all the jazz and I will see you again next time