No film has made such a social impact this year as “Barbie”. The story of the most famous doll in the world touched the hearts of many young people – and especially young women.
She is wearing a pink satin dress and pink hair clips. Alina Grützmacher from Berlin dressed thematically for the “Barbie” film. It’s 2023, and there’s hardly a trendier color than pink among many young women right now. Who doesn’t remember how much hate and malice the Paris Hiltons and Daniela Katzenbergers of this world got a few years ago, or how many films have relied on the bitchy blonde in pink as the antagonist.
Everything is different now. The “Barbie” film by director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig (40) makes it possible: Being particularly feminine has become cool – without the restriction of being one-dimensional.
The hype surrounding the “Barbie” film started weeks before the film premiered. Many were looking forward to a scenically impressive but otherwise perhaps shallow comedy. Many fans are now reporting on the Internet that they came out of this film “healed” or at least redeemed in a way. Some say they can now take back something that seemed devalued and lost.
That’s why they dress like Grützmacher in the “Barbiecore” style. That’s what the pink, doll-like looking and somewhat childish-hyperfeminine attitude to life in the form of pink handbags, ruffled pink tops or glittering pink eyeshadow is called. “Barbie” is a stimulus for many to no longer hold back in the representation of their femininity. In this way they settle accounts with patriarchy and the oppression of women. With “Barbie” pop feminism has probably reached its peak so far.
“Barbie” connects
This “Barbiecore” can not only be seen on the Internet. It’s the general sign of recognition for “Barbie” film-goers: “There was such a great sense of community. Everyone was wearing something pink and everyone smiled at each other when they saw that the others were wearing something pink,” says the 25 -year-old Grützmacher. The film touched her and in some places she cried a little.
Berliner Rosa Neidhardt, another visitor to the film, also sees weaknesses. “It’s mainstream feminism and doesn’t offer any real solutions,” the 19-year-old criticized. And yet: “Whether mainstream feminism or not, it creates visibility and awakens feelings of “girlhood” in women.” There it is again, togetherness.
Christian Bräuer, chairman of the Guild of German Film Art Theaters (AG Kino), is delighted with the success of the arthouse film, which obviously has mainstream potential. “The great success has now come about through an internet movement, mainly through social media. The phenomenon was created by the viewers and not the film studio.”
Success is not just felt
The hype surrounding “Barbie” can also be measured in numbers. The film broke the one billion dollar mark (around 910 million euros) at the box office, as the Hollywood studio Warner Bros. recently announced. According to the German Cinema Association, 4.05 million cinema tickets were sold in Germany by Sunday. The market research company GfK Entertainment recently announced that the film had boosted the merchandising business with Barbie in Germany – 19 percent more licensed items had been sold since the film started.
The Barbie brand Mattel itself initially does not provide any information on current sales figures, but in the last two quarters before the film premiere an internationally declining trend was reported. That is precisely why the film comes at the right time, and further films for the other Mattel brands are already being planned.
“The fact that Barbie remains relevant and popular shows us that our efforts to create a doll that encourages empowerment, creativity and fun are successful,” said a spokeswoman for Mattel’s German subsidiary. The Barbies, which reflect the diversity of society, are particularly in demand. More than half of the ten most popular Barbies worldwide were not white.
AG-Kino boss Bräuer emphasizes that the visitors to this film in the Arthaus cinemas are also very diverse. “The film, about a blonde, white woman, managed to appeal to a very diverse audience – young, older, alternative, queer, people of color, and so on. All of these people are coming together to share the promise of a new, improved society dream,” says Bräuer. The pop culture scientist Annekathrin Kohout explains it by saying that the “Barbie” film with its forgiving tone connects feminists from different schools of thought.
The men thing
On the other hand, the Barbie film about female self-empowerment has received a lot of structural criticism, for example from conservative voices. They see the film as feminist propaganda and see it as proof that feminists hate men, as the American political commentator Matt Walsh, with 2.7 million subscribers, thoroughly explained.
Because it’s like this: In the film, the male lead Ken is nothing more than Barbie’s sidekick. That changes when he enters our world from the Barbie fantasy world – which is like patriarchy, only the other way around. Here he is so enthusiastic about the patriarchy that he travels back home to establish it there. Warning, spoilers: The self-made patriarchy is not good for Ken either. The filmmaker’s underlying political commentary not only aims to empower women – which has so far also worked for women like Alina Grützmacher. But also to show men what they themselves would gain as part of an equal society.