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 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 men feel whenever
they 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 Rogers 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 silver away"
Sorry Ken but there are no horses involved
although it does kind of make sense
why he might think that.