DIRECTOR'S CUT: Psychology of a Hero: BARBIE
Added 2023-10-19 14:46:13 +0000 UTCHow do you figure out who you want to be?
Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker, filmmaker Alan Seawright, and producer Megan Seawright are talking about Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and the journey of self-discovery. They take a look at Barbie's literal hero's journey and how she discovers who she wants to be and how she helps Ken do the same. Megan speaks to the powerful effect this movie had and why it's so important for a movie to be by women, about women, and for women. Jonathan touches on the psychology of going through an existential crisis, trying to figure out who you are, and how women struggle with societal expectations. Alan talks about the production and costume design that make Barbieland look flawless, and he is in awe of how perfect Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie are!
Comments
One notable difference between kendomland and barbie land is that in barbieland the Kens just exist. Some of them choose to cheer on the barbies, others choose just hang out with their ken friends. In kendomland, the barbies are servants. They exist to elevate the Kens. If they want to just hang out with other barbies they literally have to become outcasts like weird barbie. There's no barbie who feel good about herself by telling a ken to take off his glasses, how to invest or anything. Barbies are confident in their existence without needing to feel needed by the kens
NotASong
2024-12-10 07:37:13 +0000 UTCI just watched this movie with my extremely female friend at her insistence and loved it. However, I didn't cry. I watch this, see Allen cry, and BAM. Tears. Thanks for covering this movie! You guys are such great influences.
SaucyJTD
2024-05-05 23:42:58 +0000 UTCI have never heard of Gretta Gerwig before this movie. She is a genius. So many writers and directors take the 2 hours to make 1 point and in some cases don't manage to successfully make a point at all. This movie works on so many levels. Gretta captures what its like to be a woman using both Barbie and Ken, represents patriarchy and capitalism. Challenges the tropes of being a man. Allows for the whole conversation about Barbie to evolve throughout the movie. We get a strong intelligent female lead going through the Hero's journey with out being born great or behaving like a man, while learning about her feelings. It does all this while still being a funny comedy with out being insulting to the point it is making. I will say it again Gretta Gerwig is a genius and I look forward to her future works.
Heather George
2024-02-15 14:26:26 +0000 UTCI agree. I am so glad someone else thinks this too. That speech wasn't what touched me. I thought that stuff has been discussed so much already. The line by lawyer Barbie is what I identified with more, which addresses how you feel when you apply feminist principles in the real world.
Heather George
2024-02-15 13:58:11 +0000 UTCI love what this movie has done. It's so hard for me to find the words to say for what this movie ment to me as a woman and as a human being and my journey in life. The struggles, the good, the bad, the middle, the hard, the easy. Trying to discover at my core through my decisions, my actions,my experiences what I want to be.
KrissyArtist
2024-01-27 04:08:54 +0000 UTCI had the same thought. I didn't know that it was all home footage and I appreciate the symbolism of including real life experiences at that moment but it it is such a small, curated fragment of life that it feels false and manipulative which felt like a true dishonesty in a story that states truth openly.
BJ
2023-12-24 22:07:22 +0000 UTCWell it was a "wave" of like five "Barbie made me leave my boyfriend" posts I saw on tumblr, I didn't mean to suggest anyone thought it was a huge phenomenon.
All mankind
2023-12-12 15:19:24 +0000 UTCI would be VERY skeptical that there was a phenomenon of women en masse breaking up with their men as a result of Barbie. It would not be the first time that the media reported on a trend that turned out not to be a thing.
Amy Petty
2023-12-08 00:24:57 +0000 UTCI absolutely love this movie for its *many* layers of social commentary. It's no exaggeration to say I think it has one of the most complex meta-narratives of any film I've ever seen. One of my favorite lines is around 11:15ish or so. "Don't blame me, blame Mattel. They make the rules." That - the corporate-driven indoctrination of consumerism into the fabric of American culture, is part of Barbie-as-product's reason for existing - and has had a profound effect on American girlhood. Jono wasn't at all kidding when he said you could do a college-level deep dive on this movie.
Amy Petty
2023-12-07 23:37:09 +0000 UTCI'm a trans woman. I came out when I was 36, but I think I figured out binary gender roles are bad and limiting to human freedoms about when I was 12 thanks to how everyone treated me on account of being so bad at being a man. That is to say, I thought the things the movie said was pretty basic feminism, though pleasant. But then I read about the wave of women ending their relationships after seeing the movie and thought, we do still need to talk about these basics a lot. In witty and accessible ways so more people can get it, even. This movie can teach everyone something. I never had any strong feelings about Barbie either way, but it's for me too!
All mankind
2023-11-27 09:50:16 +0000 UTC45:50 I'm a sympathetic Cryer Shawn.
Amber
2023-11-09 17:06:48 +0000 UTC"Be a Lady They Said" narrated by Cynthia Nixon is a video I watch sometimes that, I think, perfectly shows what is asked of women in society; and it's impossible. Just be yourself and you will find your people.
Amber
2023-11-09 16:54:24 +0000 UTCMy favorite grandmother and her sister collected Barbies, basically because we granddaughters were ALL obsessed. She had the entire Holiday Barbie series. I just went through my collection for a moving purge, and still kept one LARGE box full of them. They're my top 20, and hopefully they stay with me until I die. They're such a vivid memory of my childhood, and each represents something about me or is a wonderful memory. My older daughter has my old collection, and both of my daughters were able to pick out 5 from my other large selling pile for their own.
just me
2023-10-24 15:30:44 +0000 UTCI'm curious what viewers favorite Barbie memories are? I'll start in the comments.
just me
2023-10-24 15:26:29 +0000 UTCThank you for this. I can't watch the Rhea Perlman scene without crying - both because on its own it's a killer AND because I found out that my husband's grandmother died at roughly the same time that this scene was playing in the movie theater. She lived an amazing life, both before Barbie and after. :)
just me
2023-10-24 15:25:59 +0000 UTCThat was one of the surprising things that came out of Summer 2020 to me - Black women pushing back hard against the idea of Black Exceptionalism. They started speaking out against this whole idea that to be a Black woman meant you HAD to be better at everything in a way that I, as a white woman, had never really appreciated. I remember the idea of Black Mediocrity - the idea that everyone in the Black community can simply BE without having to be excellent all the time - striking a note within me, too.
just me
2023-10-24 15:22:47 +0000 UTCI was a bit relieved that none of that darkness was brought into the movie. I've been in the world of child psychology long enough to know that dolls are a very valuable tool in therapy. I LOVE Weird Barbie, though!
just me
2023-10-24 15:18:57 +0000 UTCOh, wow! I was thinking, especially for the older films, how many of those women had passed on? How many had grown old, to show the face of beauty like the woman at the bus stop?
just me
2023-10-24 15:16:34 +0000 UTCOur girl Greta got hold of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and made the world do a re-read.
jeneskew
2023-10-24 01:24:00 +0000 UTCAnother biblical reference within the movie. When Ruth and Barbie touch hands is a reference to the Michelangelo painting God Creating Adam
Shani Gribben
2023-10-21 08:32:26 +0000 UTCI wasn't that moved by the big feminism speech - but I learned a lot of that in college. What I was surprised by was by HOW MANY people - especially my family, had their minds blown by it. it highlighted my privilege working as an activist with a college education, because I get to have those conversations all the time. But Gerwig knew where to meet people, and that was beautiful. My second watch of the Barbie movie was about the Ken dance. And while Ken was not intelligent or admirable, that whole song and dance was about finding a moment of pure self-love and pure self-acceptance... something I've had a hell of a time trying to find. Ken being women's story made his more compelling to me than actual Barbie's because I know so much how it feels to be defined by relationships - especially romantic ones. To have your value determined by the warmth of the gaze of the person who loves you, and to have it dashed into nothingness when they leave.
Ze Villmark
2023-10-20 19:21:20 +0000 UTCI love how you addressed that sometimes there are more expectations put on women. As someone who has been to church my entire life, I have realized as I've gotten older that 'church people' are by far the worst offenders in this (at least here in the states) It's been implied to me that maybe the reason I'm not married is because God knows I'd be a bad wife. Why? Because I'm assertive. I have strong opinions. I won't be submissive. I want to have a career. And I won't be afraid to call out guys on their bulls..t. Or that I'll be a bad mom because I want to work. I had a very powerful conversation with one of my professors last year. We were talking about gender roles and the pressure the church puts on women. I asked him if his wife works on his films with him (He teaches and makes movies) and this was his response 'Oh she's done all kinds of things. She did stay home with our kids when they were young. Because she wanted to. But a few years ago I told her that she'd supported me for so long traveling and making movies. 'it's your turn. What do you want to do.' So she went back to school and got her masters in divinity, got ordained and now she's a hospital chaplain. Because that was something she'd always been interested in.' She didn't resent him at all for the time she spent with their kids. But he wanted to support her in her dreams and goals. I almost melted into a puddle. We need more of those men. In church and everywhere. To contrast that, I had a guy in one of my classes declare to the entire room (with more girls than guys btw) that it's a sin to NOT have children because the Bible says that's how women are redeemed. Like what Bible was he reading? Disgusting! Let's just say I called him out!!! Love the episode. And I also think Alan and Jono do such a great job demonstrating being healthy husbands!! Love it!!
Kate Larson
2023-10-20 18:41:55 +0000 UTCThat montage is actually home video footage that was provided by the cast and crew, which might be why there's no real world tragedy stuff
Shani Gribben
2023-10-20 10:15:58 +0000 UTCI wish the montage at the end of the movie included scenes of world tragedies and death - there's a way to do that tastefully without showing too much graphic stuff. But without the negative, only showing all of the positive images she was shown, I don't feel like Barbie was given enough accurate information to make an informed decision. Which I only bring up because Ruth made a point of saying she can't "in good conscience" let Barbie become human without showing her what it's really like. But then she proceeded to only show her positive things. Beautiful montage. Just incomplete.
Julia & Daisy
2023-10-20 02:34:58 +0000 UTCThis movie was like the the best Rollercoaster ride. I smiled, I laughed, I cried. “When I found out the patriarchy wasn't about horses, I just lost interest anyway", is my new life motto. Thank you for all your insight and experiences!
Summer McIntosh
2023-10-20 02:29:04 +0000 UTCAhhh we have inside jokes now! Geese 🪿🪿🪿🪿🪿🪿🪿
Omen the Black Cat
2023-10-19 23:06:33 +0000 UTCI’m also glad that the Alan erasure got called out, because I kept saying “except Alan” when Jono was talking 😂
Jimmy Danielle
2023-10-19 21:07:32 +0000 UTCI’m sure everyone went into this episode ready to cry along with Alan, and it didn’t disappoint. Being a human comes with all of the feels. Something that really stuck out to me that seems to fly under the radar is the fact that America had to point out to Barbie that empathizing with Ken doesn’t negate the violence he committed. The Mattel CEO reinforced the general acceptance of women needing to be the “cost of a man’s growth” by saying that Barbie’s ending is their repaired relationship rather than acknowledging that Ken isn’t entitled to Barbie just because his insurrection didn’t stick.
Jimmy Danielle
2023-10-19 21:07:30 +0000 UTCI (a man) watchet this movie with two women. We laughed our asses off, but the first thing I said after the credits rolled was that I didn't expect a comedy about dolls to make me cry. If Alan sees this: I am curious what your impressions are about the lighting in the white void scene, because the light on Barbie's face has its changes between warmer and colder, brighter and darker. To me it gave the impression of different emotions quickly running through her head.
András Balogh
2023-10-19 20:36:38 +0000 UTCThis was a great episode! I loved seeing Megan in it. I've understood that she doesn't feel very comfortable in front of the camera but she always brings great insight.
Seldanz_
2023-10-19 19:51:27 +0000 UTCI don't think people realize how *dark* kids can get playing with Barbies. I know the Toy Story franchise dug into this but I literally cannot tell you how often my friends and I "murdered" Ken just so the Barbies could solve the mystery, lol. He also fell off the townhouse. Constantly.
Eve72
2023-10-19 19:09:50 +0000 UTCA fair bit of the movie's humor reminds me of the dryness of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Helen Mirren narrating is a huge Deep Thought vibe. 💕
Smidge
2023-10-19 16:36:14 +0000 UTCYou are not :D
Kris Mahoney
2023-10-19 16:20:22 +0000 UTCThe most amazing part if seeing this in theaters was knowing who got the jokes. First time I saw it, when Ken was yelling about how Barbie failed him, you could hear a pin drop because it was clear everyone realized we weren't joking anymore, this is how it feels to have your concerns brushed aside day after day. Second time, one guy laughed and everyone knew he was not getting a second date.
Demi
2023-10-19 16:18:30 +0000 UTCWOOT WOOT YES!!!
Angie
2023-10-19 16:16:24 +0000 UTCI cry everytime I hear America's speech. Because I have always struggled with the expectations that I'm order to be a good feminist I have to be extraordinary. Thank you for this episode.
Chelsea Seachord
2023-10-19 15:48:30 +0000 UTCI'm SO glad to see this is being covered! This movie should impact everyone. It impacted me hard as well because I'm a transman who grew up with the womanly expectations and HATING it, not only because it was sexist, unfair and oppressive but because it wasn't who I was. Trying to do things with boys growing up was hard because I wasn't "ladylike" or acting like a woman when I could beat the guys at sports or didn't wear makeup like every other girl my age. I had nothing in common with the girls but the guys found me intimidating so I never really had friends because of these stereotypes placing me in a "third category" that no one else really fell into as well. But then there were things that men were expected to do that I didn't like, so I felt stuck in the middle but leaning more towards male. So, seeing the stereotypes of both sides being called out in this movie was awesome to see! It finally made the "Not everyone is going to feel/like or live life the way their gender determines" point that I've been living the creed of for years!
Victor G. of Myth And Magic Artisans
2023-10-19 14:57:46 +0000 UTCI know I am not the only one who said “hi” when Alan said “hi viewer!”
Lauren Frey
2023-10-19 14:49:00 +0000 UTC
