When the “Barbie” movie first came out in 2023, many women claimed online that the movie was life-changing due to its impact on the development of feminism. In anticipation of watching “Barbie,” these were the expectations I had for the movie due to the reviews. The movie was a fantastical and moving experience with its hit songs, set designs, acting, and messaging. However, when I came out of the movie, I felt disappointed as the movie did not meet my expectations. Although the cast was diverse in racial identities, the movie was conspicuously told through the lens of a White woman and how she faced misogyny. There is an implication that this represents all women due to the lack of acknowledgment of intersectionality. Intersectionality is a major part of the current feminist movement, which some call the fifth wave of feminism. This new wave strives to acknowledge and deconstruct ways in which previous feminist movements upheld White supremacy and other types of systemic oppression (Elder and Delao). The recently released “Barbie” movie is not a radical feminist piece because it lacks the incorporation of contemporary feminism. The movie highlights a White-centric feminist narrative with surface-level critiques of feminism. One main aspect of modern discourse that the movie fails to address is the complexity of intersectional experiences for women of color.
The Barbie movie discusses feminism only through a White lens of the sexualization of women. They display w when Barbie goes into the real world, men catcall her and sexually harass her. This is a major issue that women face today but the movie does not discuss nuances in the topic such as how race introduces ideas like fetishization or hypersexualization (Barbie (2023) – Barbie And Ken In The Real World Scene | Top Clips). Chinese women not only face catcalling and sexual harassment but are also seen as exotic and foreign due to the American past systematically preventing East Asian women from immigrating to the US by portraying them as prostitutes. Asian Americans are often not seen as American despite their legal status, subjecting them further to exoticization which plays into fetishization (Forbes et al.). On an individual level, this historical background causes Chinese American women to be greater targets of violence. This can be seen when East Asian-owned massage parlors became targets of shootings during the COVID pandemic when Asian hate skyrocketed (Chen). Barbie does not need to survive life in America through the heightened awareness of being a woman of a particular race. The “Barbie” movie portrays experiences of misogyny from men on an individual basis through a vacuum. On the systemic level, the oppression of Chinese women in current-day America includes policing. Historically and currently, the police weaponize stereotypes to inflict violence such as through life-threatening raids targeting East Asian massage parlors under the suspicion of illegal activities such as prostitution. They also make claims that minimize the severity of the hate-based murders through manipulating narratives. The police chief from Atlanta Georgia publicly stated in 2021 that “the suspect in Tuesday’s Atlanta spa shootings claimed a ‘sex addiction’ and that he wasn’t racially motivated,” despite how only Asian spas were targeted and the majority killed were Asian women (Hagen). These actions are based on the fetishization of East Asians to imply that the Asian spas provide sex services and the shooter was a victim of temptation. The Barbie movie was not a radical feminist piece as although it provides truth about sexism, it is a well-known part of the discussion in terms of sexism and does not provide any nuances that apply to sexism outside of White women such as in terms of racial intersectionality of hypersexualization and violence.
Another instance where intersectionality could have been discussed in the “Barbie” movie is in the topic of beauty standards. Although beauty standards continue to negatively impact women today, “Barbie” is about a White woman going through American beauty standards that upholds white supremacy ideology. Living with the American Eurocentric beauty standard is a more nuanced feeling for women of color than what “Barbie” portrayed. At the start of the movie, Barbie feels beautiful until she experiences signs of aging where her feet become flat and she develops cellulite. It is only when she is aging that she feels unbeautiful. Many White women have the privilege of being conventionally attractive like Barbie, who was first a doll in the movie, created with “perfect” characteristics. Many White women may also have their own insecurities from a young age but they are still generally accepted in American society due to their White features (Barbie The Movie | Flat Feet). For women of color, being an outcast of beauty standards is a familiar experience starting from childhood. Reminders of being unbeautiful for inherent physical traits also persist throughout a lifetime from blatant and subliminal messages from communities, popular media, social media, makeup products, etc. These insecurities are inherent traits that cannot be changed such as skin color, hair type, and eye shape. The experience of being seen as unattractive in society is not as alarming for women of color as Barbie; there is no sudden feeling of being outcasted. To gather more data, a multi-part study by Jordana Schiralli in 2023 looked at the perception of women of different social identity categories. The study included 757 participants who rated different photos according to scales created by Schiralli. One of the results showed that White women were also perceived as more feminine and attractive than Asian women (Schiralli). “Barbie” does not address the findings of many personal experiences and studies such as in Schiralli’s paper on how people view beauty through a Eurocentric lens. The impacts of this type of pressure on Asian women’s perceptions of themselves were explored in a two-part study by Frederick et al in 2016. The first study included 182 participants and the second had 488. Results from both parts of the study were that Asian American women were more likely than White women to report low appearance evaluations. In addition, Asian American participants were “sometimes-always dissatisfied with the appearance of their eyes and face overall,” (Frederick et al.). In the attempts from the “Barbie” movie to critique patriarchal beauty standards, whiteness is centered when a large part of the discussion in modern feminism today is about dismantling all types of systemic oppression. “Barbie” misses the opportunity to include different experiences intersectionality brings when living with beauty standards, making the movie not a radical feminist piece.
Another way the“Barbie” movie could have further discussed nuances of feminism is in terms of benevolent sexism. The movie has a scene called “Deprogramming the Barbies” to show benevolent sexism. This scene includes not only the main character Barbie, but also other racially diverse Barbies characters. PhD student Jordana Schiralli introduces in her thesis ambivalent sexism theory which explains that sexism has hostile and benevolent components. The hostile sexism punishes women for challenging the patriarchy and benevolent awards women to adhere to the patriarchy (Schiralli). Benevolent sexism is exhibited in the scene when the Kens help the Barbies by explaining easy concepts, teaching them how to play sports, and even discovering their beauty (Barbie The Movie | Deprogramming Barbies). Benevolent sexism thus, does not serve to empower women but instead reinforces sexist ideas that women need the help of men to survive. However, these displays of benevolent sexism do not represent the subtle sexism women of color face day to day face. The multi-part study by Jordana Schiralli in 2023 showed that White and Asian women are more likely to experience benevolent sexism. White and Asian women were also seen as more feminine and were marginally greater targets of benevolent sexism than Black women (Schiralli). There are two issues at play here, one being the existence of benevolent sexism and two being that it is disproportionate due to views of femininity due to race. While not all women want to be perceived as feminine or masculine, the study shows that society imposes the ideas of masculinity and femininity with the intent to marginalize based on race rather than empower women. For Chinese women, another study showed that “Asian women with a Mandarin accent were seen as more friendly, trustworthy and sincere” than their counterparts. This was found through evaluating perceptions of Asian women in student volunteer and a paid marketing coordinator position. However, this benevolent sexism and racism of “amplified warmth evaluations” was only “observed in industries traditionally considered feminine” like careers in fashion and cosmetics rather than masculine industries like cars and gas. Benevolent sexism for Chinese women enforces occupational gender segregation where Chinese women are especially pushed towards “lower-paying and lower-prestige industries.” Under-representation is formed in other industries (Hideg et al.). This barrier is an impactful part of women’s lives due to the sexist messaging these actions have. “Barbie” could have included a nuanced approach highlighting how race could contribute to the higher or lower susceptibility and the impacts benevolent sexism has on identities outside of White women.
However, it is also important to acknowledge that although “Barbie” does not encompass all the ideas of modern feminism, the movie holds a lot of significance today in terms of rebranding the conservativeness of the Mattel corporation. It is still important to acknowledge that the existence of the doll, Barbie “is tied to a time before the second wave of feminism,” (Máthé). The movie was an ode to the history of Barbie and, therefore, is more aligned with the earlier stages of feminism. “Barbie” shows that part of feminism is reframing womanhood as the many joyous moments of life as a woman and not just focusing on the negative sides. This is also a part of the reason why the movie was touching to the audience of women as a whole. The end of the movie was to signify the start of the second wave for Barbie the company and their vision statement as Barbie is stepping into the “real world” and exploring womanhood, which part of it is accepting the beauty in aging. It makes sense that she first notices her experience of blatant sexism as a White woman which is representative of many women’s experiences stepping out of a sheltered environment into the “real world.” The issue was that many women also do not have this experience. “Barbie” holds significance today in many different ways which does not include the modern and nuanced views that people described it to be.
Another impact of the movie was that although it did not bring up new ideas, it still evoked meaningful conversation as many conservative men were vocally against this movie due to their blatant sexism and misogyny. This bold level of hate still happens today with the rise of toxic male internet influencers. However, the purpose of the movie is not to teach these men these ideas through evoking conversation. Forms of sexism shown in the movie are already well known even to conservative men so the movie was not going to change the fixed perspectives. This is why it was trending for women to break up with their male partners after the movie as not even they were influenced by the movie (Wong). The target audience of the movie was instead women and girls. The movie served mainly to evoke nostalgia and unite people who grew up with the Barbie doll in relating to a few common shared experiences rather than to teach the nuances of sexism. The backlash of the movie further united women who watched the “Barbie” movie together in another shared experience of misogyny. This further supports that the movie is indeed significant but not in radical ideas.
The “Barbie” movie serves as a fun movie that touches some of the grounding truths of what womanhood includes such as the experience of sexism. The extent of the movie is that it does not provide new ideas about the patriarchal society nor the known newer ideas that come with modern feminism like intersectionality. The movie starring a White woman does not intend on being a radical feminist piece either but instead is a movie approved by Mattel where the purpose is rebranding. The “Barbie” movie reframes the intent of Mattel which is to start moving towards feminism through the character, Barbie. Ultimately, the movie displays that the Mattel and the dolls still have a long way to go in inclusive representation.
Works Cited:
Barbie (2023) – Barbie And Ken In The Real World Scene | Top Clips. Directed by Top Clips,
2023. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dzTZIQziEs.
Barbie The Movie | Deprogramming Barbies. Directed by Barbie The Movie, 2023. YouTube,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucglA9Vv_Ys.
Barbie The Movie | Flat Feet. Directed by Barbie The Movie, 2023. YouTube,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCZ3_R4IEkc.
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Spa Shootings.” The Guardian, 16 Mar. 2022. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/16/anti-asian-racism-atlanta-spa-shootings-anniversary.
Elder, Jo-Anne, and Margie Delao. The Five Waves of Feminism.
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Examining Associations with Surveillance, Construal of Self, Perfectionism, and Sociocultural Pressures.” Body Image, vol. 16, Mar. 2016, pp. 113–25. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.12.002.
Hagen, Lisa. “‘Sex Addiction’ Cited As Spurring Spa Shooting, But Most Killed Were Of Asian
Descent.” NPR, 17 Mar. 2021. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978288270/shooter-claimed-sex-addiction-as-his-reason-but-most-victims-were-of-asian-desce.
Hideg, Ivona, et al. “Women With Mandarin Accent in the Canadian English-Speaking Hiring
Context: Can Evaluations of Warmth Undermine Gender Equity?” Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, Sept. 2023, pp. 402–26. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/03616843231165475.
Máthé, Nóra. “‘I’m Not Pretty Anymore:’ Femininity and Beauty in the Barbie Movie.” Gender
Studies (1583-980X), vol. 23, no. 1, Dec. 2024, pp. 81–92. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.2478/genst-2024-0006.
Nóra Máthé is an assistant professor at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania. She wrote an opinion piece about the barbie movie. She summarizes the Barbie movie and analyzes lines and scenes from the movie with a general feminist lens. Máthé discusses how Barbie dolls, although align with the first wave of feminism through the addition of various stereotypical male careers, still aligns with stereotypes of being a woman. The movie addresses this harmful impact to a certain degree. She discusses how the movie adapts the idea of Barbie to the second wave of feminism. Her conclusion in this paper was that the movie shows that real beauty of women was not the plastic stereotypically perfect dolls, but instead in the process of aging and along with that, the changing body of a woman.
This source is helpful as it provides context of the history of feminism and the invention of the barbie dolls to the ideas of the barbie movie. It also provides a summary of the Barbie Movie. It questions the existence of the dolls and their actual purpose. Although counter arguments were provided, the paper ultimately supports that the Barbie movie positively contributed to modern feminism. This is helpful in the discussion from both sides of the impact of the Barbie movie and allows discussion from the views of a general feminist.
Schiralli, Jordana Erika. The Role of Race, Age, and Body Size in Perceptions of Femininity,
Attractiveness, and Expressions of Benevolent Sexism. 2023. University of Toronto
(Canada), Ph.D. ProQuest,
https://www.proquest.com/docview/2889549942/abstract/CF4A59F650A04621PQ/1.
Jordana Schiralli is a Social Psychologist with a PhD from University of Toronto and is working at Citizen Relations. Her paper introduces previous research of sexism and the shortcomings being that they have a lack of diversity. She then goes on to introduce the intersectionality between many marginalized identities in relation to the issue of sexism and explains her research within this study which includes the variables of race, age, and body size. Data was collected through 200 participants and their rates of photos of women in terms of their attractiveness and femininity. One notable result of her research includes that thin women were more likely to face benevolent sexism while fat and/or Black women faced issues of masculinization.
This paper is helpful in providing context of our understanding of sexism through the background in foundational research and theories of sexism and the beginning of the critiques of this research, providing a plethora of sources. This goes hand in hand with the Barbie movie showing where the message of the movie is based as well as its shortcomings. She also provides new research, presenting how nuanced sexism still is today and the lack of diversity in the discussion is still an important issue.
Forbes, Nicola, et al. “Intersectional Discrimination and Its Impact on Asian American Women’s
Mental Health: A Mixed-Methods Scoping Review.” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 11, Feb. 2023. Frontiers, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.993396.
In this research paper, Nicola Forbes et al. explores intersectional discrimination in terms of Asian American women and the impacts of this on mental health. They use current literature to explore the characteristics of the studies and the reported experiences within the studies. They had a database of 1,476 peer reviewed studies that explicitly and implicitly included intersectional discrimination. Results included that most studies mentioned intersectional discrimination in terms of the themes as exoticization or fetishization, foreign, the idea that Asian women are servile and passive, tokenization and scrutiny in the workplace, as well as enforced white beauty standards on Asian American women.
This paper was helpful in terms of providing more specific information on intersectionality in terms of my own identity. It provides evidence that my environment was not an exception but instead a shared experience from Asian Americans across America. This paper is especially effective as it combines existing research, meaning that it considers a large number of Asian American participants and participants are from different places throughout America. Not only was the general discrimination of Asian Americans discussed, but the recent event of the Covid-19 pandemic was also included, showing how hatred towards Asian Americans continues to rise and these issues still persist today.
Wong, Brittany. ‘Barbie’ Breakups: Women Say Movie Is Helping Them Recognize Bad Relationships | HuffPost Life. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/barbie-movie-breakup_l_64c3052ce4b044bf98f44379?utm_. Accessed 19 Apr. 2025.