08/16/2023
My thoughts on the Barbie movie. I think it’s so important, especially for teenagers, and here’s why.
The point of the movie is that society sends confusing messages that are gender-based. Part of the essential developmental process of a human being is to look and listen beyond the family to cultural messages so that we can learn how to be a part of our own culture. Teenagers must go through this, and they become especially vulnerable to those messages during the teen years, even if they haven’t ever heard messages like that at home. We humans must define ourselves and explore identity to become fully human, and we do this in the context of our culture. These are natural, essential, human developmental processes. As adults, we can be stuck, not having completed these processes, or we may have grown through them in a healthy way, but either way, these processes are required for us to grow up.
Young people are growing up in a soup of contradictory messages and expectations so beautifully laid out in the Barbie movie. All of us have to navigate that soup throughout our lives. Some of us are better prepared than others to navigate the soup and not drown.
Clearly articulating the messages matters. It helps people navigating the soup to understand what’s happening to them and to move towards a place where they can be at choice, not just responding on autopilot out of self-defense and overwhelm.
The metaphor of the monologue waking up and empowering the Barbies to see their situation is exactly what happens when internalized messages are articulated - it can kick off a powerful psychological healing process and empower people to choose to behave and engage differently. Teenagers of all genders need this. This movie tells girls - and boys - what messages they are receiving from the culture so that they can choose to act differently than those messages tell them to.
It is about stepping into your own power and being able to live from your own values rather than unconsciously either following or rebelling against unarticulated subtle or not-so-subtle societal messages.
This movie is a masterpiece that enthusiastically questions the messages and is a must-see for teenagers and adults of all genders.
What are your thoughts?