With the Oscars season upon us, defend"Barbie".The war of words has started again.
I don't know if the academy did it intentionally, for this 2023 global box office No. 1.
1. A film with a feminist theme, generously gave 8 nominations including Best Supporting ActorBut only the best director and best actress are missing。Gosling immediately released a long article, "Without Barbie, there would be no Ken", supporting the two heroines. 
Commander Gao strongly supported the small composition of the two heroines, and it is no wonder that fans don't associate it-The credit of the women is taken by the men, isn't this a repetition of the rules of the patriarchal society in the movie? On the other hand, Chinese director Xie Fei gave "Barbie" three stars on Douban and said it ruined American films. As soon as he hit the muzzle of the gun, Xie Fei is precisely the typical image of the patriarchal society that "Barbie" attacks the most - an old man with status (refer to the executives of Mattel), and it is natural to hate "Barbie". 
Director Xie Fei's comments on the text of "Barbie".Reality and cinema are once again perfectly intertextual, people who like "Barbie" naturally rose up and criticized it. So the question is, as a female viewer, is it okay not to like "Barbie"? When I say I don't like Barbie, is that I'm on the side of the patriarchal team it attacks? I don't like Barbie"Barbie" is a successful movie, but it is not a sentence like this that always pops up in my head when I want to discuss "Barbie". Like, it's not a good movie. But how to define "good" is likely to cause endless debate. So I'm going to try to narrow it down a little bit moreIt's not a work that satisfies me in a film about feminism
When "Barbie" was released in the summer of 2023, I walked into the cinema with high expectations, but the two-hour dense point of view output combined with the high-saturation color picture finally defeated my eyes and ears - I was drowsy in the movie theater, and when I woke up, Ken's kingdom was about to fall, and the women led by Barbie regained the world, and the audience let out a hearty laugh. Maybe I "didn't open it the right way" – I should have walked into the cinema in a state of extreme spirits, ready for a resonant baptism. So I stopped saying "I don't like Barbie". When I was seriously re-streaming "Barbie" and trying to defend it firmly on the side of feminism, once again, my eyes and ears were defeated and I fell into a deep exhaustion. 
Admittedly,"Barbie" outputs a basic feminist remark in a very creative way。For most viewers in the world, it may be "basic" enough to be output in such a violent way. For example, the longest monologue in the movie, an impassioned speech, speaks to the common dilemma faced by women. And it seems to have been designed with the attributes of being disseminated by the new generation of "screenshot parties" with pink text. What woman doesn't applaud such a fierce attack? 
But that's what I got tired of Barbie. There are thousands of ways to tell feminism, but it choosesThe simplest, the roughest, and the least cinematicPerhaps the definition of "film" needs to be redefined. "Barbie" is more like a three-paragraph **, listing opinions, spoken by the protagonist, waiting for everyone to applaud, thank you, goodbye. Its ingenuity lies in the fact that a correct remark wraps up an audiovisual language that has little to do with it- A little color, a little song and dance, a little joke, people unconsciously spent two hours in visual spectacle and spicy speech, and even without thinking, fully embraced this joyful paradise. Just like a tired office worker walks into a dazzling supermarket after work, all kinds of goods, beautiful packaging, **friendly, their advertising slogans also unanimously type the words that directly express your heart - "Yes, we are such people!" It's worth the world! "How can you not be pleased? 
But is that enough? For female audiences who suffer from the inability of feminism to spread, it is enough, after all, it is attacking the things that everyone wants to criticize in the largest scope. "Barbie" has become an effective and powerful window, and it even very decently (with the help of capital) has given vent to the emotions that women could not collectively vent before. Women can wear pink clothes and party during the film's release, take photos, check photos, and buy all kinds of merchandise in pink colors. The lines in the film were widely disseminated, making a manifesto for the majority of women. "Barbie" has managed to become a kind of symbol, even if everyone knows that it is a symbol that is made, willingly. It's not a movieBut for another part of the movie-loving audience, "Barbie" is more like a grand showAdvertising and marketing, not a movie. Movies are just a way for it to face the consumer market as a product, a medium that connects the emotions of female consumers. But if you want to talk about "Barbie" from the perspective of film (art), remove those redundant cultural symbols, it seems very suspended and shriveled, more like a large-scale preaching scene of pink PPT. Ironic patriarchy can build a female camp as quickly as possible. But the irony of "Barbie" is a dragonfly that persuades Mattel, the investor behind it, to take the initiative to blacken itself and ride that small bicycle for people to step on and enjoy it. Ken and Allen are also not really powerful male characters, and the kingdom that was built was so suspended that it was brought down with just a few words of incitement-Can real-world male alliances be so vulnerable? Is the overthrow of the false patriarchal Barbie Land a victory for feminism? 
The movie uses "death" to cause Barbie's existential crisis, but the actual storytelling avoids this serious issue. Looking at the whole movie, how Barbie grows up seems to be an understatement, but Gosling's willingness to go to the real world and find that the rules of a patriarchal society build a kingdom from scratch are even more impressive. Even though Ken is a comedic character, he has managed to divert peopleA real existential crisis for womenattention. Is being gazed at as an object like Barbie the biggest problem? Is body and beauty anxiety the biggest problem? Is not being able to confront your own sexual organs the biggest problem? In my opinion, neither. "Barbie" cleverly avoids the discussion of fertility, and naturally avoids the discussion of the most important survival dilemma faced by women. 
"Motherhood is the most skillful way to make women slaves. ”Beauvoir said so in The Second Sex. The society educates women with childbirth, family, and children naturally**, and women are naturally trained, with childbirth as the basic "function" to exist in the world, and pay lifelong unpaid labor for the family, and therefore always be at the bottom of the patriarchal society, unable to obtain truly equal wealth and political rights. When the movie "Barbie" limits her age to her twenties, there is always a wonderful love bubble, and she does not need to face this really complicated life. What if she gets married? How does she raise children? How did she get back into the workforce? Does she still have a good job to choose from? Is she going to continue to pay for the next generation until she dies? How does she do it herself? Where is the time, money, solid social alliances and guarantees? Is wearing a nice suit a working woman? Which of the female lawyers, doctors, and artists who are given the perfect Barbie should not face these specific problems? 
Just like a traditional fairy tale, the prince and princess are happily together ever since, and the same is true of "Barbie", where she and Ken distinguish between you and me, "I do me, you do you", announcing the perfect ending of this fairy tale. However, the real crisis of women only emerged after that- Barbie puts on a suit, and then what? Will she be able to break through the stronger, more irresistible barriers? The thorns and boulders that have been formed over thousands of years have just begun to appear. It's nothing to compete with the young and vigorous Ken, but it's just a small bite of mustard before a big meal. However, for viewers who defend "Barbie", this mustard has caused a mass effect is enough. After all, people see the absurdity of the patriarchal system. - And then? Then we move on with our lives, and we remember Ken's funny; Pink, lots of pink. If there is anyone who is the real winner, I believe that the victory does not belong to Barbie, but still to Mattel, the investor behind it. After all, Barbie's stale brand image has finally been upgraded. 
When we don't like a successful feminist film, it doesn't mean that we are on the opposite side of feminism. **1991's "Flowers of the End", I was even more sure of that. The real crisis of women in the film is shown throughout the road trip – without the need for the protagonist to speak out a lot of grievances bluntly and intensivelyUndignified housewives, women who have always survived in low-wage industries, cold and ruthless husbands, sexual violence by strange men……All of these can be glimpsed in the vast "landscape" of the women's crisis with just the language of the film, the language of film.
The stills from "Crazy Flowers of the End" Those men are all "Ken", but they are originally weak and powerless, and they all emit stronger energy than Ken. Just family status, **, sexual harassment, fraud and theft, etc., are enough to make two women constantly passively fall into crisis. The female victims have never been able to tell the truth about their murder to the male-dominated society, so they can only flee all the way until they find that death is the best way back.
Stills from "Crazy Flowers at the End" When the two women in the movie detonated the truck driver's fuel tank with one shot - that scene**, it representstheirsWrath. When the two women in the movie shuttle through the barren and dangerous desert road late at night - that journey representsThe life they faced。When the two women in the movie are surrounded by countless police cars, the dust raised by absolute male superiority is symbolizedThe whole patriarchal cage。When the two women in the movie give each other affirmative glances - the silence that is truly free and sees through everything behind them is themA full stop to growth
The real feminism of the stills of "Crazy Flowers of the End" cannot complete the ideal ending of "you be yourself, I be myself" in a family carnival, but there must be such a struggle where either you die or I die - usually, the death of women ends in it. "Flowers of the End" confronts the existential crisis of women and tells the truth. And let's not forget that Carly Kerry, who wrote the screenplay, won the 1992 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, which was also a victory for feminism.
Perhaps, the "Barbie" I was expecting was such a discussion. The is not something I loathe, and I gladly embrace it. But after the carnival, whether we can leave anything from the movie and what to reminisce is what I expect more from "Barbie". Just like "Instant Universe", which won the Oscars last year, as a feminist film, it did not gain the enjoyment of many Chinese audiences. But Michelle Yeoh's win was a big win — and perhaps even more so for "Barbie" viewers.