She is a Barbie girl living in a Barbie World – or is she?
Have you ever dreamed about what living the life of Barbie may be like? Well soon we will all see her reality through her eyes as she tries to live in the real world searching for the happiness she has in Barbieland.
The highly anticipated Barbie trailer has been released with fans eager to see the teaser, and what the movie will bring to the film industry. We can expect a great depiction of who Barbie is through the eyes of Greta Gerwig, who is best known for directing Little Women and Ladybird. The film is set in Barbieland where we meet all of Barbie’s friends from the two Kens to Midge, “the inappropriate childs doll”. We will be able to see all the different varieties of Barbies and who each of the characters really is. Some of our favorites may not have the lives we all believed they did, with Ken’s life being described as not all sunshine and rainbows.
Ryan Gosling described his character and explained how he may not be the perfect man we all believed he was. Being an amazing boyfriend to Barbie may not be all he is. Or is it?
“Ken’s got no money, he’s got no job, he’s got no car, he’s got no house. He’s going through some stuff,” says Gosling.
Barbie had a huge impact on almost all little girls’ lives. She influenced our styles and expanded our creative minds creating scenarios with her friends and even her boyfriend. We will further get to explore their relationship and how Barbie will keep up her iconic lifestyle when she is cast out of Barbieland. Although this does leave a big question, what will happen to Barbie in a world that is not filled with such perfection and happiness?
Barbie has been known as the perfect image of a woman, being polite, beautiful, and kind, basically the blueprint of all the “standards” for women. In the trailer, we are able to see how well Gerwig captures how Barbie is seen not only to us, but the other Barbies and Kens as well. We see her iconic arched foot and all the pink around the town. Would it really be Barbieland if everything was not pink? Gerwig also greatly captures how highly Barbie is seen around town as a powerful figure and an inspiration to those around her. She is seen as having a perfect life. She is always well put together, has all the clothes and accessories she will ever need, has a boyfriend, the perfect car and popularity around town. She is perfect, what will happen when she’s put into our world where not everything is so pink and happy?
With the iconic lifestyle Barbie has we are finally able to see who she is, but does this apply to all women? Although Barbie is a great influence on all little girls, how are little girls who do not look like Barbie supposed to feel empowered to be a successful woman like her? Thankfully Mattel understood the underrepresentation and introduced so many Barbies that everyone could find one to look up to in the 1980s. The new Barbie movie captures this representation in the new diverse Barbie-verse. We are going to see different renditions of both Ken and Barbie. These diverse Barbies and Kens will be portrayed by some of our favorite actors Simu Liu, Alexandra Shipp, and Kingsley Ben-Adir. These actors and their portrayals of different Barbies and Kens will have a great impact on many who love Barbie, including myself.
Barbie holds such a big part in many peoples’ lives, inspiring and motivating them to do so much with their lives. With all the incredible diversity, super cute aesthetics, and some of Hollywood’s favorites. You can definitely count on me being all dressed in pink on July 21st.
