WEBVTT

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it's hard to overstate the massive

NOTE Paragraph

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cultural impact of the Barbie movie

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Hi Barbie

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Hi Ken

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the film Enchanted audiences wowed critics

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sparked heated debates

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and made a truly obscene amount of money

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at the box office

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Barbie continues breaking records

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with over 1 billion dollars

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at the global box office

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it's an impressive cultural achievement

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especially considering that the film

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doubles as a feature-length commercial

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for a line of plastic dolls

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there was however one group

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who were decidedly unenthusiastic

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Despite all the bubbly pink fun

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the movie's become a target

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of some right-wing personalities

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they are preaching empowerment

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by making men look weak and dumb

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feminist diet tribe about the evils of

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the modern patriarchy

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It's a trojan horse to to teach girls

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daddy is really a dummy or

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domineering idiots

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It's feminist garbage and

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it's really about hating men

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And Ken is like stupid and unlikable

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This is an assault on not just Ken

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but all men

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If you've seen the movie

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you might be confused

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Because the Barbie script goes out of

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it's way to show Ken

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in a sympathetic light

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If anything the movie might be

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a little too sympathetic to Ken

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"I think I owe you an apology"

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"Huh?"
Now it's tempting to dismiss this

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clearly performative outrage

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as just another attempt to fan the flame

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of the culture war

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But there is something really poisonous

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under-pinning this backlash

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that I do think is worth taking seriously

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One word in particular

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seem to touch a nerve

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"Well I haven't seen Barbie yet,

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but I've seen people talking about

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the number of times they use

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the word patriarchy in it"

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"Feminism and the patriarchy

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and fighting it, and all that"

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"And actually to call it the patriarchy

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in the film that phrase is used many times"

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"If you take a shot every time

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Barbie says the word 'patriarchy',

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you will pass out before the movie ends"

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"As we learned that the use of word

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'patriarchy' no less than ten times

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in this film"

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"The patriarchy is a big part of this

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Barbie film"

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"The word is used endlessly in the movie

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even though most people

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even me actually has no idea that

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what 'patriarchy' really means"

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That is a truly staggering

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level of defensiveness especially

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coming from people who don't really

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seem to understand what the word

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even means

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while there are many legitimate criticisms

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of the Barbie movie's feminism

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or lack thereof

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this video essay is not going to

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address those questions

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instead we're going to use the movie

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as a sort of primary to help explain

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what patriarchy actually is

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what it isn't and how it ends up

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harming everyone including men

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"Watch your flank"

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to have any kind of

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productive conversation

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we have to get over that defensiveness

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that so many men feel whenever

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they they come across

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the word patriarchy

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"this is a real hornets nest in here"

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contrary to popular belief

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patriarchy is not a synonym for men

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nor is it a code word for masculinity

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and it certainly has nothing to do with

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hating men

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"yeah I am confused about that"

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General confusion about

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what patriarchy means is perhaps

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not surprising given that the word

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very rarely appears in popular media

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when the term has been used

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it's traditionally been as a joke

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to mock feminists or feminism

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"let's take off our brows and burn them

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in defiance of the misogynistic patriarchy"

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"you know what I think

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I have to meet Harvey

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but um maybe we can burn

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our underwear together later"

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"when the last time we had a conversation

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over 3 minutes it was about

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the patriarchal bias of

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the Mr Rogers show

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well with King Friday lording it

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over all the Lesser puppets

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what did I miss

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the oppressive patriarchal values

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that dictate our education" "good"

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It's only after the rise of the me too

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movement that we begin to see

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a shift in this pattern

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"stay out of it Courtney

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you stay out of it

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I'm dismantling the patriarchy this year

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and I'm not afraid to start with you"

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These days the word is most often

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written for snarky teenage characters

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"So you were Guided by Lon chivalry

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a tool of the patriarchy to extract

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my undying gratitude?"

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"mhm, you know

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most people just say thank you"

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it's meant to identify them as brash

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rebellious or naively idealistic

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though not necessarily wrong

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in their observations

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"I think marriage is

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just a patriarchal system designed to

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make women less autonomous

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you become your husband's property

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you have to bear his children

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you even have to take his name"

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hey didn't you say that prom was a

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a postcolonial patriarchal construct

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it is

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but we would go as a group

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as a form of protest

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hey hey ho ho

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patriarchy has got to go

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hey hey ho ho

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patriarchy has got to go"

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even in this new limited context

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the word is still delivered as a punch

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"I'm jus... I mean is that it?"

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and its meaning is left

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intentionally vague

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"it's called Little Women

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and it's about four sisters

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who overcome poverty and the patriarchy"

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"Nope, dolls"

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the lack of specificity guarantees that

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only those who are already in the know

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will get the joke

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"Down with the patriarchy"

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"Idiots ah"

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everyone else is left

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either bewildered or extremely threatened

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"why didn't Barbie tell

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me about patriarchy?"

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"Which to my understanding

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is where men and horses

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run everything"

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"I silver away"

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Sorry Ken but there are no horses involved

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although it does kind of make sense

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why he might think that.