This Barbie Is… A Social Commentary?

Greta Gerwig delivers a surprisingly thought-provoking commentary on feminism and the legacy of Barbie.

The Barbie movie is nothing short of masterful… I think.

It’s a comedy. It’s a satire. It’s a story about motherhood. Or more precisely, womanhood. But above all else, it is a story about feminism. Greta Gerwig makes this undeniably clear from the first scene. No room for misinterpretations here.

The story takes place in Barbieland, a matriarchal world run by Barbies. President Barbie. Pulitzer Prize Winner Barbie. And of course our protagonist, Margot Robbie as “Stereotypical Barbie.” When Stereotypical Barbie realizes that she is becoming more human, haunted by thoughts of mortality (and worse, cellulite!), she must venture out into the real world to fix a strained relationship between a tween girl and her mother.

I swear, it makes more sense in the movie.

But that’s the beautiful irony of the whole film. What shouldn’t work actually does. On one hand, the premise of the entire film is commercialism at its finest. I mean, it’s Barbie! The same Barbie that you’ve seen in toy stores. The same Barbie that you’ve seen on informercials. The same Barbie from that one Aqua song from that 90s. Not to mention that the cameos and featured artists on the soundtrack read like a Google…