Others include persistent thoughts of death, the abrupt intrusion of cellulite into a previously PVC-smooth existence, scathing critiques of her brand from Gen-Zers, and sexism. The suits try to corral Barbie after she makes her way to the real world with her platinum-blond Ken (Ryan Gosling) in tow, but they’re only one of the obstacles she has to contend with. To be fair, Gerwig’s Barbie doesn’t try to, or at least it incorporates a bumbling all-male Mattel C-suite led by Will Ferrell into its world-hopping adventures. Barbie may be a pop-culture icon and an emblem for the inconsistent impulses stuffed into the concept of female empowerment, but more than anything else, hers is a story about money, and it’s impossible to separate what she means for women from her existence as a business proposition. There’s another facet of the Barbie origin tale, which is that Handler came across a doll called Bild Lilli while in Europe and ripped it off, settling with the German company responsible for the toy after they sued. By that measure, Handler is the closest thing that the ultrapink realm of Barbie Land has to a God. Director Greta Gerwig has tended to talk about her film in spiritual terms, citing the Apostles’ Creed and the creation myth in Genesis. Barbie gives the wildly popular doll her most challenging role yet: that of a big-screen protagonist played by producer and star Margot Robbie, who finds herself in the midst of a surreal existential crisis.
The first Barbie may have been a statuesque model in a bathing suit, but subsequent versions would be chefs, pediatricians, beekeepers, flight attendants, soccer players, astronauts, and, yes, presidents. The doll Handler proposed, and which she named after her daughter, was aspirational, a vision of the future (albeit one with anatomically impossible proportions). Handler, or so the story goes, noticed that her child Barbara liked to imagine grown-up lives for her paper dolls instead of treating them like babies to mother. Should that be enough?īarbie was born in 1959 - the creation of Ruth Handler, who was one of the founders of the furniture company turned toy manufacturer that became the Mattel empire. Greta Gerwig made a weird movie based on a famous toy line.
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