Ken has always been the Yin to Barbie’s Yang, standing beside her at every press conference, rocket launch, and presidential address. However, this status quo was recently flipped in 2023’s “Barbie” movie, in which we saw a much more complex and less two-dimensional side of Ken. In the movie, we are shown “Barbieland,” a (very) pink “Barbie-topia” in which women rule the world and Kens exist to support them and their aspirations. Stereotypical Barbie, A.K.A the Original doll who started it all, is our main character, and we follow her as she has yet another perfect day in Barbieland. However, the day is not perfect for everyone. Swooning from the sidelines is Ken, who wants nothing more than to be with Barbie, but receives nothing but rejection. Despite trying his hardest over and over again, his advances go unheard, and he’s unable to pursue the girl of his dreams.
Barbie wakes up the next morning, ready for another perfect day, but gets anything but. The shower is cold, her hair is messy, and her milk has soured– all things that, while normal in our world, are completely out of the ordinary for a place as perfect for Barbieland. These issues persist, and with no idea what to do, Barbie asks for advice from “Weird Barbie” who tells her she must venture outside of Barbieland to the real world to put an end to the sadness plaguing the child playing with her, as when a girl is sad, so is her doll. Ken, meanwhile, never loses hope nor faith that Barbie will eventually see him and cement the love he’s been hoping for this whole time, and tags along with her on her adventure to the real world.
This is where the story takes a turn. Rather than reality being the perfect, amazing, and just world she thinks it is, the world is instead the one we know and love– unjust, unfair, and unimpressive. While she laments on the woes of what little her “Barbie movement” did, Ken finds something he never could before: himself. He, now not ruled by the fully feminine society of Barbieland, is free to have his own adventures, own ideas, and own thoughts. While Barbie makes off quickly to find her child, Ken finds himself amid masculinity: discovering cowboys, cars, and his rights as a man, perhaps getting a little fixated on the latter. After making these amazing finds, Ken quickly heads back home to spread the word, leaving Barbie to her own devices.
Fast forward a bit and Barbie finds out that it isn’t the child who’s making the milk in Barbieland so sour, but her now grown adult, Gloria, who’s constantly sad on account of not having a real connection with her distant teenage daughter. Barbie and her reason that the only real way to solve this issue is to bring Gloria and her daughter back to Barbieland, where they can better bond and both become happier as a result.
When the trio arrives at Barbieland, however, they are shocked by the state of the place. The “Kendom” has completely taken over, with Ken having spread his newly found misogynistic ideals all over. Not only have all the Kens been converted to the way of toxic masculinity, but even the Barbies have fallen prey, unable to defend against the “flawless logic” of the Kens’ sexism. Fast forwarding a bit, the trio, along with Weird Barbie and a few others, go on a rescue mission to un-stupify all the Barbies and retake Barbieland. This mission finally culminates in Ken having a confrontation with his true self, and blessing the audience with the heart-wrenching ballad of “I’m just Ken” in which Ken is forced to look inward and see all the distraught he’s been forced to bear at the hands of Barbie:
“I’m just Ken. Where I see love she sees a friend. Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blonde fragility?”
Ken must face the facts and realize he’s not being treated as he should, and Barbie needs to realize where she’s failed too. Rather than giving even the slightest acknowledgment to him, even the slightest validation, she brushed him off like he was nothing. Without anyone (even Ken) realizing it, this caused hate to grow in Ken’s heart, as it would any man. Eventually, however, Ken realizes he is “Kenough” and is capable of being his own man, not just another accessory to Barbie. Barbie also apologizes, now realizing the pain she has caused through her nonchalance. The movie ends with Barbie choosing to live in reality with Gloria and her daughter, with Barbieland becoming more equally divided between the Kens and Barbies, with the Kens now realizing they have passions they’d like to pursue too.
Going into this movie, I thought it was gonna be a sweet and simple “Women rule the world” film. It was marketed as such, with Barbie constantly serving as a figurehead for feminism and female empowerment. While the movie did semi-deliver on this idea, the real meat of it was much less common and, in my opinion, much more impactful– we can’t have sexism. While this seems like exactly what I said the movie “semi-delivered” on, it’s more than that. In the modern day and age, when one thinks of sexism, it’s men oppressing women which immediately comes to men. Bad males do bad things to good females. This is clearly shown when Ken takes over Barbieland and forces a misogynistic lifestyle on all the Barbies. However, the Barbie movie also portrays the less talked about side of the coin– when women oppress men. This isn’t talked about as much in our society and is portrayed even less in film, leaving us with a false idea that sexism can only go one way. In the movie, Barbie gives Ken no appreciation or even recognition, leading him down a dark road that anyone, male or female, would go on upon having their advances rejected. Even the world of Barbieland, in all its pink glory, is functioning on a fundamentally sexist idea, in that females entirely rule the world. The idea that “Women rule the world” whether in this movie or on T-Shirts is fundamentally sexist. However, in the end, Ken is treated as human, and Barbieland is beginning to be brought into a sort of status quo. This is a happy ending and treated as such, not because women “carpe’d the diem” but because everyone did. Everyone was able to end up much better off than they were in the beginning because they treated each other equally– as an individual person, instead of just a member of a gender.
The Barbie movie is definitely worth the watch, even if you’re not looking to get super preachy with your watchlist. It has some solid (dirty) jokes, and an amazing cast, with a solid and compelling storyline. Although the message dissected here may just be a stretch I and only I am making, regardless, the movie is a hit, and with over 1 Billion dollars in the box office (Yes! 1 Billion!), we just might be able to expect a sequel soon enough.
