Barbie The Movie, reviewed by a Body Image Coach

I went to see Barbie in the theaters last week.

It wasn’t my plan to go. In fact, when it first came out, I rolled my eyes and waited for the whole thing to pass. I never played with Barbies, and I had no interest in watching a movie that glorifies them.

But the hype didn’t pass, it got bigger. My reel suggestions started flooding with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, and I admittedly love Ryan Gosling, so an algorithm crusade was born.

Up until this point, I thought the movie was just about…well, Barbie. I didn’t know it was directed by Greta Gerwig, so removed was I from the center of its hurricane.

A client of mine messaged me that her friend had seen it, and like me, she didn’t know much about the movie and felt disappointed in the collective frenzy about it.

At that point, I polled my Facebook group for opinions. As a body image coach, I recognized that the conversation might be one I needed to pay more attention to, since Barbie arguably plays a role in the formation of our body image ideals.

The comments came flooding back largely in favor of the movie. It was here that I learned about the political slant of its message, and understood that it wasn’t simply a “Barbie movie.”

And so, interest piqued, I went to see it.

And I liked it.

In fact, I’d see it again.

But there were some misses, and I’d be remiss to simply review it as “great!” without acknowledging the context of its misses, especially as a body image coach.

The hits.

Firstly, the movie was entertaining. From the point of view of me as a human being going to the movies without any political agenda, the movie was fun, colorful, smart, and funny. And I liked Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The acting was good, the storyline moved, and the writing was witty.

Secondly, it was unexpected and interesting. As mentioned, my expectation was that of a glorified Barbie movie. Instead, the movie takes on Barbie in the context of patriarchy — “Barbieland” lies in juxtaposition to the “Real World,” where the former is female-dominated and the latter is male-dominated.

One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Ken meets the Real World “Corporate Man” who explains that you can’t openly discriminate against women, but you can get “better at hiding it.”

Thirdly, we see plus-size Barbies and a Black Barbies with more than a background role (more on this later), and a general sense of no one is better than anyone else. Barbie is friends with all the Barbies; there is no sense of hierarchy or competition among them. Barbie World seems absent of petty gossip and cliques, and celebrates camaraderie among women instead of dividing them into haves and have-nots.

I also thought the movie was, refreshingly, making fun of itself.Barbie seems genuinely shocked that having dolls that promote “girl-power” wasn't enough to actually change anything in the Real World. Mattel is still represented by a boardroom of clueless men (depicted by Will Farrell) and I love that Greta Gerwig got away with this.

(I do wish there had been a slightly less clueless man represented — I think patriarchy is actually led by highly intelligent men who represent ego more than ignorance.)

I guess they know that all press is good press, especially to the tune of $775 million-dollars in sales (and counting).

The movie also takes on the very idea of “Stereotypical Barbie” (portrayed by the “flawless” Margot Robbie) directly. By the end of the movie, we are meant to understand that women don’t need men to have purpose or value (well done, I thought — Barbie has no interest in Ken’s advances throughout the film),

AND that beauty for beauty’s sake is not fulfilling in and of itself, and doesn’t equate to happiness.

At least, that’s what people are saying.

But that leads into the “misses.”

The misses.

Ostensibly, the movie suggests that beauty is not enough to fulfill. However.

Margot Robbie’s character is still highly likable, beautiful, and intelligent enough to carry the storyline through and save the day. With the help of all the other Barbies and “normal people” too, but still — her role is central. She’s not just a dumb blonde — she’s beautiful, but she is also kind, and has depth. And at the end of the movie, she becomes human. An impossibly gorgeous human, who finds inner peace and purpose in becoming human, flocked with friends and a killer wardrobe. Essentially, she still has it all.

I’m not saying beautiful people can’t have it all, but I am saying that this is exactly the stereotype this movie is trying to diversify.

(I am also aware that, as one Facebook group member put it, we have to “take the pill with the ham.”)

I would be remiss not to mention the marketing of this movie in addition to the message. Even if the message hit every note (and like I said, I think it’s a good movie overall despite the misses), the marketing is a separate issue.

I speak to clients in terms of my “two tracks” theory: we have our cognitive track, in which we may intellectually understand that our body is not our worth, that fat is not morally inferior to thin, that we are good enough.

But we also have our emotional track, which is guided by the nervous system, and runs parallel to, but not intersecting with, our cognitive track. This side of our understanding is not governed by logic, but instead by feelings. Feelings are developed through the senses, and visual imagery is a primary influence on that system. Decades of imagery of thin & beautiful (and young, and white) women have convinced us that, despite our cognitive understanding, there is still a feeling that thin/beautiful is better.

Imagery is one of the most powerful ways that we learn. And the imagery surrounding the marketing of this movie is still, undoubtedly, beautiful.

I love Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, but they are overrepresented in the media as it is. Margot has legs for days, no visible cellulite, blond hair and blue eyes, and no fat to speak of. Ryan is adorable, trim, athletic, six-pack abs. The movie’s political agenda is not portrayed in its imagery, and its imagery is at least half of its influence.

I walked away from the movie in equal parts inspired by its message and feeling a little crap about my own legs.

As mentioned earlier, there are a couple of plus-size Barbies in the movie. One of them has more than a single line, more than a token role. But still, a token role? I left feeling unsure. Most of the Barbies are quite thin. (Another angle of this conversation is, as I write this, being covered by @chrissyking on Instagram regarding the “miss” of Black representation — check that out here).

We cannot think about Barbie without thinking about body image. Here was a chance to tackle this issue directly, the door wide open to conversation — and it missed.

There was one line, offered by Ariana Greenblatt as the 15-year old Sasha, where she confronts stereotypical Barbie from her lunch table at school, citing that Barbie was a source of her body image insecurity. But the thread of that discussion is not re-visited again until the acclaimed speech later in the movie by her mother Gloria, played by America Ferrara. And again, it dissolves on site.

Body image is a piece of the conversation that, in my opinion, is minimized in this movie where it had the chance to really shine.

(Edited to add: see Virgie Tovar’s article in Forbes here.)

That’s my opinion.

I really liked this movie.

I think it’s worth seeing, and I think Greta did a fantastic job.

I think it’s a step in the right direction.

And there is still work to do.