Subhead for Eliana Dockterman’s 6.27 Time cover story about Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (Warner Bros., 7.21): “The year’s most surprising movie finds humanity in the iconic doll.”
“Surprising,” in this context, means that rather than celebrating and reveling in flush-pink, girly-girl materialistic splendor, which is what 97% of the film’s audience will be gleefully anticipating and paying to see, Barbie will unfurl feminist-inclusive-gay-trans colors.
It will not only push a satiric attitude of the pinker-than-pink aesthetic but perhaps (if the new Time cover story is any indication) even endorse a soulful renunciation of same. Those retro-fest values are strictly in the packaging and will not be fulfilled. Surprise! Barbie is Maoist wokey-wokey.
But of course, as anyone who routinely visits TikTok can and will tell you, Barbie’s bottom-line message is going to be ignored nationwide and worldwide. Because the most ardent Barbie fans are going to enjoy it, as I’ve recently stated, for “the wrong reasons.”
