To think America Ferrera’s speech in Barbie isn’t that great?

[Prrambulate]

BARBIE SPOILERS BELOW

Everyone seems to be raving about this moment in the Barbie movie - possibly worthy of an Oscar nomination, and a quintessential characterisation of what it’s like to be a women in modern society.

I thought it was lacklustre. There are parts of it that ring true - the incessant need to be likeable - but they’re kind of cliched. And other parts I just don’t agree with (love your kids but don’t talk about them all time, ie retain a semblance of identity beyond motherhood. Isn’t that a good thing? And who’s saying we always have to be grateful? I feel there’s much more collective understanding now about the challenges of being a woman and/or mother…)

*

Speech:

”It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong.

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass.

You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman, but also always be looking out for other people.

You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood.

But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. 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! It’s too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.

I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don’t even know.”

The movie doesn’t say womanhood = motherhood. However, it does tackle the misogyny faced by women in modern society, AND touches on some the challenges of motherhood and its expectations, vis a vis the figure of America Ferrera. It does both of those things without contradiction.

This is standard fare for Greta Gerwig.

The message seems to be 'It's really hard to get people to like you, which is why women try to do all these things - to be liked'.

Personally, I think not getting beaten up, raped or murdered is more of a concern. People thinking your only value is in your body - and whether it's acceptably thin or acceptably curvy or acceptably Barbie-like in its whiteness, blondeness, big blue eyes-ness, huge high breastedness, along with thinking that its existence is an open invitation to male touch and gaze is more of a concern that some mean girls not liking you because you're slim or not.

The shocking rejection of femininity that the criticism scene represents is them being wrong and 'misunderstanding' the representation of female experience, not recognising that the idealised body and life of the dolls bears absolutely no resemblance to the experiences of women and girls worldwide. There's no place for rape, disfigurement and domestic violence - when the real foundation of the Patriarchy is the underlying threat that they could and frequently do beat, rape and murder you if you do not comply.

It's also notable that the gynaecologist 'twist' is supposed to be the big punchline. It's all about the sexual organs in the end. It's her ultimate prize, to have the organs that men seek to gain access to and power over, that is the thing that the girls watching leave with.

Amazing marketing, convincing people that it's a profoundly feminist thing to sell a story that says it's empowering to look gorgeous and be rich, be loved and, most importantly, have sex organs in good working order. All those misgivings about what Barbie represents? Pshaw, you don't get it. Now buy the merchandise.

When I was watching it reminded me of the speech by Laura Dern in Marriage Story (written by Noah Baumbach who I didn't realise until after also co-wrote Barbie).

"Don’t ever say that. People don’t accept a mother who drinks too much wine and yells at her child and calls him an asshole. I get it. I do it too. We can accept an imperfect Dad. Let’s face it, the idea of a good father was only invented like 30 years ago. Before that fathers were expected to be silent and absent and unreliable and selfish and we can all say that we want them to be different but on some basic level we accept them, we love them for their fallibilities. But people absolutely don’t accept those same failings in mothers.

“We don’t accept it structurally and we don’t accept it spiritually because the basis of our Judeo-Christian Whatever is Mary Mother of Jesus and she’s perfect. She’s a virgin who gives birth, unwaveringly supports her child, and holds his dead body when he’s gone. But the Dad isn’t there. He didn’t even do the fing because God’s in heaven. God is the father and God didn’t show up so you have to be perfect and Charlie can be a f up and it doesn’t matter. You’ll always be held to a different, higher standard and it’s f*ed up, but that’s the way it is."

There is the fact that the movie is essentially an exercise in corporate rebranding by Mattel. They can greenwash by making meta jokes about capitalism and everyone nods approvingly. Polly Pocket movie is coming next.

But maybe this is too cynical and the movie can just be enjoyed for what it does. I honestly don’t know. I liked it in a lot of parts.

But that’s the point- at the end she asks for a mediocre Barbie because it’s ok to just be you!

Just enjoy a film. Christ.

I liked it. It gave my pre-teen daughter and her friends something to think and talk about afterwards. I prefer the 'cool girl' monologue from Gone Girl but that may be more suitable in a few years!

The whole film was shit

'Amazing marketing, convincing people that it's a profoundly feminist thing to sell a story that says it's empowering to look gorgeous and be rich, be loved and, most importantly, have sex organs in good working order. All those misgivings about what Barbie represents? Pshaw, you don't get it. Now buy the merchandise.'

Agree completely!

I haven't seen the film, as all the pink makes me feel ill. I read this speech and it hacks me off. To me it's the kind of self absorbed, 1st world problems that the feminism of people like Betty Friedan was criticised for. No mention of the terrible suffering of the women who work in factories putting those dolls together. Being thin, asking for a raise, pointing out misogyny are probably non existent problems for those women who are just focused on surviving the tiny wages, sexual harassment, lack of maternity protection, no health and safety, dreadful living conditions. People may say that women in the 1st world have problems too, which is true, but I'm annoyed by the complete lack of awareness of reality for other women across the world, and the ways in which capitalism and companies like Mattel exploit them.

I didn’t think they did - the “happy ending” for the massively depressed America Ferrara is that Mattel will make her Mediocre Dolls because it will make them shitloads of money. Hurray? I don’t get what that says about women, about feminism, about society. It’s just not very intelligent writing, and I don’t think not liking this film is proving any kind of point about the patriarchy. There’s LOADS of current films by men that I think are shit - I’m not just going to give this a pass because I love the director and she’s a woman.

The marketing team have done an amazing job on this, mainly because the branding is so visual and shareable on social media, but I don’t think we’ll look back in a year and still be talking about the film in the way we do for the Cool Girl speech in Gone Girl that PPs mentioned. The fact that the film prioritises the teen daughter’s view of women (“women hate women”), rather than noting that in the real world most women find most friendships and support from other women, really shows up the emotional immaturity of the film’s feminism.

Glad that the ideas might open up some discussion for teen girls and boys, but also would have loved someone in the real world to say, “Actually, it’s not just in Barbieland where women support each other.” It didn’t have to be a perfect film, but it felt like large sections were written by high-schoolers.

I thought it was bloody brilliant tbh.

And I was pretty gobsmacked that Mattel and the other backers allowed that little soliloquy by America Ferrara to pass the edit. As a PP said if you've read a bit of Germaine Greer it won't come as a surprise but to a new generation it was surprisingly radical.

I went to see it with my 12 year old DD and 13 year old god-daughter (and her mum) and I was really pleased someone was making films that both have big popular box office appeal but still smuggle in some relatively radical feminism. No one was doing anything like that when I was their age (in the 80s), it was all women fussing being bit parts to the Sly Stallones and Michael J Fox's and Harrison Fords of the day.

It didn't get everything right but it was highly watchable, funny, well directed, good cast and high production values and also feminist. What's not to like?

Yes, this

Laura Dern did it so much better in Marriage Story.

I thought the film and the speech were excellent. It was a simple explanation as to why society continuously sets women up to fail.

I often wonder if men had periods, have birth and went through menopause what sort of world we would live in.

Love this response 🔥

He lost me at 'literally'.

@GolgafrinchamB nailed it.

FFS America is playing an ordinary woman in a PG comedy. Ordinary people say "literally", and she's not addressing the UN.

In terms of what she said, i.e. criticism of it as lacklustre, it all had to be able to broken down to be repeated to the various Barbies, to get them back. Part of the plotting.

No. Would you rather films led by women were not subject to the same level of critique as other films? Do you not believe women to be as capable, fallible or resilient?

At the showing I was at, the five year olds in pink tutus were oblivious and bored, the grown women were mostly non-plussed because they already know this shit but had the occasional chuckle at some stereotypical male behaviours (if any woman here hasn't been sung at I'd be surprised). I'm glad that some other posters felt their teens got something out of it.

I still don't really understand what the teen girl character was so grumpy about!

I often wonder if men had periods, have birth and went through menopause what sort of world we would live in

Well they wouldn't be men, would they?

Thoughtful take on the criticisms:

“But America’s monologue, a cultural moment she told Vanity Fair she shot over two days with 30 to 50 takes in total, wasn’t loved by everyone who saw it. Some audience members said the feminism was “basic”, others argued it had been “said before”. It “lacked nuance”. Was “eye-roll worthy”, and “could’ve been cut”.

Ironic, really: A speech about the contradictions women face as they try to do “everything right” being picked apart for everything it did wrong. Because, Gloria isn’t talking to a room full of gender theorists when she delivers this speech. She’s talking to a group of Barbies, naive like many of the pre-teens who’ll head to cinemas to see the film, who’re just beginning to understand the injustices which could make their world really very complicated.”

I tuned out a bit during the speech so it’s interesting to see it written down. I think it’s good if that really does come as a revelation to the younger women watching it. As a middle aged woman with 2 teenage DDs who I have told for years not to tolerate this shit if it comes up at school (like girls being used to police boys behaviour and at least understanding the underlying context of societal expectation when they say they make their own choices regarding their appearance), I said to them “see how mad she is so don’t play the game”.

Not sure about the “have to lead” part, maybe Greta Gerwig feels that but not sure it’s universal.

I had a couple of baby/child type dolls and I never once played at being their mother which is what the start of the film suggested. There had to be a “caring for” element to the play before they weren’t “grown up” dolls but I used to pretend I was the big sister and we were hiding from the Nazis or we had no parents and I had to work in various jobs to support her.

Sorry wrong link attached

https://thetab.com/uk/2023/07/24/why-america-ferreras-barbie-monologue-was-much-more-than-basic-feminism-318698

Haven't seen it but that sounds a bit cringe! Still wil go watch it though

I mean if it was a alternative existence. Would there have been better advancements in contraception for example or would men feel obliged to swallow down tablets that give them headaches, sore boobs, make them moody, depressed, anxious or increase risk of cancer? Would menopause be taken seriously as a condition that can be debilitating and would this be reflected in being able to take time off work without impacting on your career/financial status/job security. Would labour be seen as a medical condition and level of pain experienced acknowledged and recovery be better supported. Would sanitary product be free? If boys had periods would toilets still be locked in schools during lesson time? Would society view men as sexual beings constantly and accept them being objectified abused and assaulted.