I left the Barbie movie feeling slightly ill. Even though there were amusing moments, overall, it felt like an insult to women who have experienced sexual and physical violence at the hands of men. Just like The Help and The Secret Life of Bees made racism seem survivable, Barbie presented men’s insecurities and anger in a way that undercut the truth. Uncle Tom’s Children by Richard Wright taught me about lynching, and my experiences of rape and physical abuse have made it impossible for me to view men’s fear and hatred of women as benign. Yes, Ken was primarily a joke, but when someone holds you down and explains that you are being raped because you are smart and beautiful, someone much stronger than you who is angry because you flirted with another man, someone who calls you terrible names and makes your first time the stuff of nightmares and shame, you have a hard time laughing.

Molly MoynahanAugust 17, 2023

Growing Up Barbie-less

There were no full-length mirrors in our house. One could stand on the downstairs toilet (forbidden!) and glimpse parts of yourself or stand on a dining room chair and see your body from the waist down. I wanted curly long hair and was given uneven bangs and a Dutch boy haircut. There was Chanel N°5, but that was the extent of the mystery surrounding the womanly future. There was a high price for beauty taught to me in the constant reading of fairy tales with The Little Mermaid’s fate of walking on glass, Snow White, the targeting of the pretty one by the cruel sisters, the death of Anna Karenina and Nora: a Doll’s House and all the beautiful women loved by James Bond who were invariably shot or poisoned or painted gold so they suffocated. And my mother’s ambition was thwarted by her being female, so it made sense to reject most of those things, but I did not.

Blog

The teachers Way