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,
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