Patriarchy According to The Barbie Movie

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.