The observation of culture, its representations and meaning can be found all around.

Below are a few examples of my recent writing covering film, sport, social media and myth making.

Barbie beyond Barbie Land

The postfeminism lurking in Barbie’s marketing campaign 

Abstract

In 2023, Barbie entered cinemas worldwide as an instant box office hit. The film became the most successful feature directed by a woman and was both ridiculed and adored for its exploration of woman and girlhood. Barbie did seem to be ‘everything’. However, during the film's global promotional tour, Margot Robbie, adorned in various iconic Barbie outfits, appeared as unattainable and perfect as her film counterpart, the aptly named ‘Stereotypical Barbie’. This essay will compare the film's rejection of ‘Stereotypical Barbie’ with its marketing to illustrate the complex interplay of feminist narrative within the film and anti-feminist practices outside. Challenging the authenticity of feminism beyond the screen and into its promotional marketing uncovers the entanglement of feminist and post-feminist themes within contemporary media pieces. This essay explores the incompatibility of the themes messaging with the reality of the contemporary commercial realm outside of Barbie Land.

Introducing Barbie

On 16th of December 2022, the first trailer of the feature length film Barbie, directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, hit the internet. The teaser paid homage to the sci-fi classic 2000 AD: A Space Odyssey, and saw young girls discard their baby dolls and embrace their new favourite toy, Barbie. Complete with her classic swimsuit from her first appearance on the shelves in 1959, the trailer framed the introduction of the Barbie doll as evolutionary, transforming the way that little girls played and imagined themselves forever for the better. The Barbie movie was set to be similarly evolutionary, new and transformative, a fresh take on the classic character that was both aware of the criticism the intellectual property (IP) had developed over time and actively counteracted it. Yet, amongst this promise of a celebration of womanhood, the film received a mixed reception. Some embraced the film as a celebration of womanhood and applauding its overt feminist narrative, others were critical of its supposed simplified approach to ongoing issues of sexual inequality and patriarchal control.

To understand the Barbie movie this paper will examine the authenticity of the film’s feminist themes whilst challenging its promotional marketing. In doing so, we aim to expose the paradoxical interplay of feminist narrative within the film and anti-feminist practices outside. Initially read as post-feminism, we argue a closer look at the film and its marketing suggests a more nuanced possible subterfuge reinterpretation, in which the realities of a post-feminist mediascape are recognised and utilised to promote a feminist narrative within the commercial realm. Firstly we will contextualise Barbie within the feminist and post-feminist practices of contemporary media. Then, exploring the film's feminist narrative and rejections of ‘Stereotypical Barbie’s’ unattainable practices, we will consider how this works in relation to the film's external marketing.

Commercial Barbie - she’s whatever you want her to be!

In the commercial realm, there is the fundamental notion that women and womanhood have been liberated from outdated patriarchal expectations. Angela McRobbie's feminist writing on the media and cultural landscape argues that this liberation is part of the new economy; women's roles within home and motherhood have shifted into active members in the workplace and economy. Rosalind Gill (2016) additionally argues that within post-feminist media products, the performance of maternal acts is no longer central to femininity. Post-feminism, "involved in the undoing of feminism" (Gill, 613), acknowledges the work of feminism and incorporates it back into a world of inequality, "a (double) entanglement with feminism in which it is 'taken into account' yet attacked" (Gill, 621). Rather than being abolished, the expectations placed on women have simply been transformed to continue their subordination through the beauty and fashion industries. Consequently, there is a proliferation of unattainable media images and texts that simultaneously embody feminist and anti-feminist themes.

Barbie has been a controversial figure within feminist discourse, with some seeing her unrealistic proportions and hyper-feminine appearance as a sign of the sexualised and sexist expectations placed on girls and women alike. While later iterations of the doll addressed these controversies by presenting both differently abled dolls and dolls from a diverse range of racial and ethnic backgrounds, the quintessential ‘Barbie’, or ‘stereotypical Barbie’, remained the impossibly thin blond bombshell she originated as. Over time she has taken on many roles and countless careers that show girls the limitless possibilities available to them, however, Barbie can still be seen in two contradictory lights; A hollow plastic embodiment of the false promises of post-feminism and the ultimate symbol of white materialist culture. Or a beautiful successful career-driven feminist figure whose critiques are more representative of surrounding culture. As an IP, Barbie stands as a prime example of the tension present within feminism and post-feminism.

Feminist Barbie (Terms and condition apply)

Barbie, directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, is a feminist narrative that challenges post-feminism discourse and the patriarchy head-on. The film features a cast of diverse and inclusive Barbies, each with a special talent or role. Issa Rae's Barbie is a Black female president, while Nicola Coughlan's Barbie is a plus-size diplomat. Barbie Land is a highly-feminised dressed-to-impress matriarch that comprises economically independent women and indicative of McRobbie's ‘post-feminist masquerade’. McRobbie argues that when “confronted with the prospect of women becoming less dependent on men as a result of participation in work and with the possible de-stabilisation of gender hierarchy…it becomes all the more important…to re-secure the terms of heterosexual desire” (McRobbie, 57). The main Barbie, at the centre of the narrative played by actress Margo Robbie, dubbed Stereotypical Barbie, accentuates this notion. Defined within the film as “the Barbie you think of when someone says “‘think of a Barbie’” (Barbie, 00:22:45) remains conventionally attractive, able-bodied, white and highly feminised. While the other Barbies demonstrate the diversity present within Barbie Land, the framing of Robbie’s Barbie as the default, or stereotypical, version of the character acts to reinforce the normative terms of heterosexual desire.

Barbie's utopia comes undone; failing to meet the unrelenting standards, she begins to malfunction. Hilarity ensues as she has morning breath, her feet become flat, she develops cellulite, and she has thoughts of death and to return to her former perfect self Barbie must head to the real world to set things straight. What follows is a self-discovery of womanhood that, through situational humour, perfectly balances hyperbole and irony while exploring the unattainability of being a Barbie in a man’s world. Upon entering the real world, Barbie verbalises the crushing invisible force of the patriarchy and how she is somehow conscious of herself. The overwhelming sense of patriarchy objectification is encapsulated when she is unconsensually groped by a passerby, something unimaginable in Barbie Land. Barbie then meets Sasha, a strong minded teenager who informs her of her real-world reputation. Sasha states that Barbie has -

been making women feel bad about themselves since she was invented…(she) represent(s) everything wrong with our cultural sexualised capitalism…setting the feminist movement back 50 years, you destroyed girls innate sense of worth you are killing the planet with your glorification of rampant consumerism (Barbie, 00:40:31).

Sasha argues that Barbie is an anti-feminist figure whose attributes contribute to the unhappiness and unrelenting standards women face. This mini monologue acts as an ironic nod to the historical criticism the doll has received, while stripping away the validity of such critics. However, by blaming Barbie for capitalism not capitalism for Barbie, the onus for systemic issues are placed on a fictitious woman rather than the system that created her.

Ken’s experience of the real world is markedly different to Barbie’s. As Ken stows away with Barbie on her journey, he finds himself empowered due to his masculinity and feels liberated from irrelevance. The film depicts Ken unashamedly trying to perform surgery or become a CEO simply because he is a man. In one exchange where Ken is convinced that the men aren't doing patriarchy well, he is told that they are, they just hide it better. With newfound confidence, Ken returns to Barbie Land and informs the other Kens of the powers of the patriarchy. Whilst Stereotypical Barbie is still away, the Kens seize control and reduce the other Barbies to subservience. Where once a strong woman served as president, she now serves drinks. The Barbies, unable to recognise the patriarchal power influencing them, inadvertently become defined by the Kens. Simply done but exceptionally executed, these montages of masculine dominance critically parody the real problems women face and the systemic inequality intertwined between men and women.

Barbie is rescued from her real-world problems by Gloria, her human owner and Gloria's daughter Sasha, the teenager from early. All three of them head to Barbie Land. Initially excited to show them her wonderful matriarchy, Barbie is horrified to observe that Barbie Land is now a patriarchy and everything that once was is gone. Barbie falls into despair and what follows is the iconic speech from America Ferrera’s Gloria which exposes the contradictory hardship in the everyday lives of women:

you have to be thin…but you can never say you want to be thin…You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too…You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people…You have to answer for men's bad behaviour…but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining….You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line, it’s too hard (Barbie, 1:14:16).

The double standards exposed within this speech expresses the hopelessness of striving for the ‘perfect’ that, “through self-regulation and self-discipline, signals some elevated and rarely described benchmarks' and is innately unattainable” (McRobbie, 9). It is the striving for these benchmarks and expecting excellence within an environment of inequality that reinforces the patriarchy. The speech doubles down on the rejection of post-feminism; women are no longer willing to play along and stay silent with the contradictory female position, sexism is now being questioned and challenged. Where Sasha's speech projected the blame back onto Barbie, this speech takes a reflexive approach and looks at women's position within a wider and more nuanced structure. This is a crucial deviation from previous post-feminism text; as McRobbie (2004) states when writing about post-feminism in popular culture, “the new female subject is, despite her freedom, called upon to be silent, to withhold critique, to count as a modern, sophisticated girl or indeed this withholding of critique is a condition of her freedom” (McRobbie, 260). Twenty years after McRobbie's writings Barbie presents itselves as a bold defiance, that signifies the subtle nuances, shifts, and sensitivity of feminism in the commercial realm.

This speech, a tidal wave of pent-up female plight, awakens several of the Barbies from their patriarchal slubber. Upon being liberated, the Barbies continue to enact their roles as subservient and complicit while systematically working to dismantle the patriarchal control and the repressive system the Kens have put in place. By using the insecurities of the men around them and playing into the roles of “bride wifes or… long-term long-distance low-commitment casual girlfriend” (Barbie, 1:00:41), they are able to actively regain their agency. The Barbies take back control of the capital and reinstate their Black female president. Relieved of their power, the Kens seem reluctantly pacified that they are no longer in charge.

In the final scenes, we see Barbie, having chosen the real world over Barbie Land ditching the pastel dresses and instead wearing Birkenstocks, jeans, and messy hair, heading triumphantly to the gynaecologist. Rejecting the standards placed on her and accepting the real is transformative; the film demonstrates self-awareness and acknowledges the past meanings associated with Barbie. The film's satirical voice takes concepts and conversations out of traditional feminist discourse and presents them commercially to the wider public. In short, while ridiculing the patriarchal power systems it provides a sense of unity and universality to the female experience, while also providing an optimistic and contemporary view on how the brand can sit within a contemporary feminist market.

Post-Feminist Barbie - this Barbie hits the Pink Carpet

On July 9th 2023, Margo Robbie, captivating the cameras, made her way down the pink carpet at the world premiere of Barbie. Wearing a long, tight, sequined dress, evening gloves, high black stilettos and an immaculate assemblage of hair and makeup, Robbie represented the perfect Hollywood starlet and embodies hyper-femininity. However, it was not Robbie on the carpet; it was Barbie complete in a replica of the 1960s ‘Solo in the Spotlight’ Barbie. Robbie would go on to embody Barbie throughout the press tour; at the London Premier, in a floor-length pink satin gown, faux fur stole, and long white gloves, we saw the reincarnation of ‘Enchanted Evening’ Barbie. At the Seoul premiere, it was the 1980s ‘Day to Night’ Barbie, and on Sydney's Bondi Beach, it was the original 1959 Barbie similarly referenced in the original trailer.

Despite the film liberating Barbie from such attire and lamenting the pressure placed upon women to embody a specific form of hyper-femininity, we paradoxically see a creative choice made to have Robbie reembody the very expectations the film sought to dismount. Long gone are the Birkenstocks, jeans and messy hair. Robbie, as Barbie, is returned to the unrelenting standards and post-feminism practices that accompany women's everyday lives. However, this may not be a straight undoing of feminism but rather the paradoxical, complex, and nuanced interplay of feminism played out in the commercial realm.

The contradiction between Barbie's liberation in the film and real-world pink carpet attire comes at a cost. The images of Robbie as Barbie on the pink carpet inadvertently reorder “femininity so that old-fashioned styles…which signal submission to some invisible authority” (McRobbie, 62) are reinstated. In Barbie’s marketing across newspapers, magazines and the internet, we see the proliferation of idealised versions of 1960s femininity repackaged in the present day. McRobbie argues that this repackaging of old-fashioned femininity “derives(s) from the new economy, whereby women are becoming less dependent on men” (McRobbie, 57). As depicted by the film, independence from men leads to the possible destabilisation of traditional gender hierarchy. However, in the real world, to avoid such destabilising effects, “it becomes all the more important...to re-secure the terms of heterosexual desire” (McRobbie, 57), that is, the reassertion of the objectified female body for masculine desire.

The Barbie movie appears to take two steps into the 21st century only to be usurped by the proverbial three steps back into the mid-20th century. Robbie, in one small step from screen to carpet, has been recaptured by the grips of post-feminism and is answerable to all those unrelenting standards criticised in America Ferrera monologue. This could signal submission to the very patriarchy the film challenged; no longer in a playful parody, gendered order must be restored. Through this perspective, the marketing and its reassertion and reinstating of Stereotypical Barbie on the pink carpet undoes the hard work of the film and reinscribes a form of white femininity for masculine desire. This, as the film states, could be viewed as the patriarchy getting better at hiding their domination.

From another perspective, Robbie, on the pink carpet is playing the character she needs to. By playing into the highly feminised tropes, the beauty, the ‘perfect’, a previously unacknowledged feminist narrative that challenges systemic issues slipped into the mainstream and inadvertently became a box office hit. This notion of playing into tropes of femininity to regain power mimics the film. Upon being liberated from the patriarchal control of Ken, the Barbies continue to perform subservience. By using the insecurities of the men around them and playing into traditional gendered roles, they were able to play the system to their advantage. Robbie's presentation on the red carpets and the film's marketing similarly lean into gendered expectations, presenting itself as hollow and plastic under a hot pink veneer to gain attention and interest in a film that itself is critical of such expectations. In short, in order to subvert and escape the traditional notion of gender domination, one must play along and whisper messages of freedom and independence, all wrapped up in a joke.

Conclusion - just Barbie

Barbie became the highest-grossing film by a female director and in the words of the narrator, ‘Barbie changed everything’. Barbie has a complicated and controversial history as an icon of both female empowerment and the embodiment of capitalist objectification, which is encapsulated within Sasha’s monologue. However, with America Ferrar’s iconic speech, the imperfection of the human condition and being a woman were made compatible with the historically untouchable icon that was Barbie. Funded by massive commercial powerhouses Mattel and Warner Brothers, and with female creatives at the centre of its production and direction, the film sits as a fascinating site of tension between feminist and post-feminist discourse and was the topic of massive debate.

The simplification of the issues facing women, a lack of intersectionality and the seeming undoing of the message at the core of the film within its promotional material were all central to the debate surrounding the validity and value of the film's feminist message. Robbie’s pink carpet looks that sought to cast the actor in the a perfect plastic pastiche of her on-screen counterpart became iconic. They sparked inspiration amongst fans, who went to screenings of the film dressed to the nines in their Barbie pink best, however also promoted criticism for their perceived undoing to the films central themes.

It would seem that while Barbie is ‘everything’, she is still not quite ‘(k)enough’. The question remains if the film is a game well played - a complex and sophisticated use of subterfuge that leans into post-feminism to sell its feminist message - or simply an outstanding example of the capitalist objectification of women. Just as Barbie dolls and the stories they're used to tell are innately in the hands of their owners, how one chooses to interpret the Barbie film is itself up to its individual audience.

Reference List

2001: A Space Odyssey. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1968. Barbie . Directed by Greta Gerwigg, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2023.

Rosalind, Gill. "Post-postfeminism?: new feminist visibilities in postfeminist times." Feminist

Media Studies, 16 (2016).:610-630.

Mcrobbie, Angela. “Notes on the Perfect.” Australian Feminist Studies 30 (2015): 20 - 3.

Mcrobbie, Angela. “The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change.” (2008).

Mcrobbie, Angela. “Notes on ‘What Not to Wear’ and Post-Feminist Symbolic Violence.” The

Sociological Review 52 (2004): 109 - 99.

Why the representation of The Little Mermaid matters to young Black girls, and does it come at a cost?

     In September 2022, Disney released the first official trailer of The Little Mermaid, instantaneously backlash against the casting of Halle Bailey played out on social media with the hashtag #notmyariel. The reason? Unlike Disney's original The Little Mermaid (1988) where Ariel is portrayed as white, she is now played by Halle Bailey, a twenty-two-year-old Black woman. However, amongst the discomfort some audiences displayed, something else was forming, Black parents were capturing the moment their little girls first saw The Little Mermaid trailer, and their reaction, true to Disney, is magical. 

Through this essay, I will explore the significance of Ariel being portrayed by a Black actress for young Black girls and ask if this new presentation comes at a cost. To begin, I will consider the historical context of Black princesses within Disney films, then I will contextualise a fifteen-minute Youtube film that combines twenty different Tik Tok videos showing young Black girls reacting to the Little Mermaid trailer. Finally, I will explore Ariel beyond the context of race to consider if there are any negative impacts of this representation….click here for more 

An exploration into the representation of Chloe Kelly: 

Why was the image of her winning celebration considered an iconic moment?  

     On August 1st 2022, twenty-two-year-old England striker Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal in the UEFA Euros final; it would be England's first championship win since 1966. Moments later, Kelly would run across the pitch, remove her shirt and celebrate with what The Guardian describes as pure joy. The image of Kelly celebrating sparked conversation within U.K. newspapers; it represents 'a powerful moment in women's sport' (Grey, 2002), 'a new chapter' (Ward, 2022) and is 'one of the most iconic celebrations' (Blow, 2022). With cultural studies' interest in the production of meaning and representation, this seems the right place to ask why this image of Kelly sparked such reactions. Using Stuart Hall's, The Work of Representation (1997), the aim is to clear away some of the ambiguity surrounding the meaning of Kelly's celebration. First, the essay will contextualise the history of women's football in England. Second, the image will be critiqued from a semiotics point of view and consider my implicity. Then through contextual analysis, the essay will explore six articles that use the image of Kelly celebrating. To grasp a broad meaning and representation of Kelly's celebration may be beyond the scope of this essay; however, it feels a relevant starting point to consider the 'play or slippage of meaning' (Hall, 1997, p33) around women's football…click here for more

Does Celeste Barber’s subversive parody bring the Carnival to Instagram or conform to Instagram's unattainable feminine beauty standards?

     Celeste Barber is an Instagram influencer who uses parody to subvert the unattainable beauty standards on Instagram. The campaign #CelesteChallengeAccepted started on Instagram in 2015 and set out to recreate the unattainable images that celebrities and models post of themselves. Eight years later, Barber has acquired over 9.2 M followers and is celebrated for her fresh approach to the unattainable beauty standards women face on Instagram. However, how much power does Barber's parody have when it lives in the apparatus that sets up the beauty standards? This essay will consider Bakhtin's theories on humour, the Carnival and grotesque realism to ask if Barber's parody challenges the dominant beauty culture on Instagram. Using Berger's ideas of the visual presentation of women in media and Butler's notions of gender performativity, this essay will consider the traditional notions of femininity and if Barber's parody subverts or conforms to them. Finally, asking who the joke is on, this essay wants to establish if Barber is challenging a complete rethinking of feminine beauty or if the subversive parody is simply gaining more currency in a structure that can not be challenged...click her for more