Is the Barbie movie Chinese communist propaganda? Believe it or not, this is a real argument that Senator Ted Cruz posed. The Barbie movie was a very popular movie that attracted many due to bringing life to and modernizing one of America’s most popular as well as problematic toys. Because of the movie’s popularity and messages, it also raised a lot of controversy. Part of where this controversy came from was the attempt by different groups and individuals to push their political agenda onto the movie and force meaning into the movie that wasn’t there before. This phenomenon essentially goes hand in hand with Susan Sontag’s claims in her essay Against Interpretation. Here she argues with different reasons that the criticism of art should transition out of the soul-sucking over-interpretation tactic we use now into pure criticism of the form of the art. Susan Sontag’s argument that over-interpretation takes away from the magic of the art and the experience is completely valid. Piggybacking off of one of her points, the over-interpretation of texts or art is a way of flexing intellect and forcing meaning taking away from initial reactions and sensations. Though the Barbie movie was crafted by Greta Gerwig to send a message about womanhood and the “rebranding” of how society should raise young women there was a lot of forced meaning by the audience and critics. Some of this forced meaning was what Sontag touched upon which was the intellectual aspect, and because of that atmosphere, there was also room for people to force politics onto the movie. This only hurt communities and took away from the beauty of the film.
In Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation, she makes the argument that the inclination towards intellectual discourse in our society often trumps the inclination to simply experience and enjoy things, it trumps the utilization of our senses essentially. Sontag describes this phenomenon as as the crime of theft essentially, writing, “It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world—in order to set up a shadow world of ‘meanings.’” (Sontag 4) Here she is referring to the idea of society’s inclination towards intellectual thinking around art and the world over sensation. She’s saying that this imbalance of capabilities takes away from the rawness and richness of experiencing art and the world. To examine the validity found in this argument the focus should be shifted towards the discourse that came about around the Barbie movie. Though the Barbie had meaning and had the intention to be analyzed for messages about girlhood and womanhood, the examination of the movie was taken way too far and it was due to the deeply engraved desire in people for intellectual discourse. At the height of the popularity of the movie many people had many things to say, they somehow created meaning for the movie that didn’t ask for it. Bill Maher an American comedian and writer tweeted, “OK, ‘Barbie’: I was hoping it wouldn’t be preachy, man-hating, and a #ZombieLie – alas, it was all three. What is a Zombie Lie? Something that never was true, but certain people refuse to stop saying it (tax cuts for the rich increase revenues, e.g.); OR something that USED to be true but no longer is, but certain people pretend it’s still true. “Barbie” is this kind of #ZombieLie.” (Maher) Here he’s referring to a couple of ideas many people tended to fixate on one of which was that Mattel had a board of 12 men and that Barbie standing up to this board was supposed to be standing up to the patriarchy but what they argue is that the Mattel board in real life has female representation. So, this leads Bill Maher to the label of a Zombie Lie. Here he is also sticking a label in red bold letters on the movie reading “man-hating”. In this Tweet, Bill Maher is actively portraying the very worries Susan Sontag presents, depleting the world or in this case the movie of its richness and ability to create an experience for its viewers by shaving it down to these three labels. Labels and definitions are often tactics used in intellectual discourse, and so, his intent is revealed; he can’t be blamed either, this inclination is taught to and engraved in all of us. Ted Cruz also took a crack at examining this movie and opening “intellectual” discourse around it. In an interview with The Daily Signal, Ted Cruz said “There’s a scene in ‘Barbie,’ where there is this map of the world, and it’s drawn like with crayon. I mean, it’s really a very simple cartoon. And so they have this blockish thing that is called ‘Asia.’ And then they’ve drawn what are called the nine-dashes…This is Chinese communist propaganda in which the Chinese are asserting sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea. And they don’t have any right to it under international law, but they are trying to take it away from their neighbors there,” (Cruz) Ted Cruz dumbs the Barbie movie down with the label of Chinese Communist Propaganda. Ted Cruz took over-analyzation to a different level making a meaningless map shown briefly in Barbie’s trailer home about the 9-dash line. Like Bill Maher, Ted Cruz uses labels and definitions and also international relations to create intellectual discourse around the movie, leading to political discourse and the idea of forced intellectual discourse creating an atmosphere for political agendas.
If there is anything Americans are most comfortable or compelled to discuss, it’s politics. It’s why Thanksgiving dinners get heated, why some first dates end abruptly, and why dating apps even have the option to include your political party in your profile. Susan Sontag poses the idea that people often desire to interpret things not only because they are socialized to do so but also because it creates comfort for them. Susan Sontag writes, “In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, comfortable” (Sontag 5) Humans don’t like to be confused, it’s uncomfortable for them, Sontag argues they need to mold it into something that they can ingest and swallow easier. Because politics have been made black and white in America and there’s a comfort in talking about politics because you either have one stance or another, political discourse has naturally become part of the interpretation process of art. It starts with the desire to form intellectual conversations around media which then breeds an environment comfortable enough for political conversation. The Barbie movie brought out a lot of political conversation as well as a space for hatred of groups of society. Charlie Kirk a radio talk show host and Founder of Turning Point USA was angry that Hari Nef a transgender actress who played Dr. Barbie was cast in the Barbie movie. On the Charlie Kirk Show, he said, “trans propaganda that is in this hyper-feminine, ultra pink propaganda thing, but it’s really been taken over by the trans mafia.” (Kirk) Here Kirk is analyzing the casting choices and making his analysis fit into the conservative view about trans representation in media and its effect on children. With the words “trans propaganda” and “trans mafia” he’s insinuating that the Barbie movie was tainted and had the very mission to expose people and, commonly concerned about by conservatives, children to the “choice” of the transgender “lifestyle”. This interpretation of the directors’ choices is incredibly insulting and also harmful to the trans community whose efforts to make young people who identify as trans feel safe living in America through representation are already often wrongly labeled propaganda. Kirk took the easy route and rather than experience the movie and take it for what it was, he focused on a small artist’s choice and publicly analyzed it to make it fit the conservative political agenda. Because made political, this narrative was easy for many people to adopt as their own and believe instead of considering the intentionally embedded messages. On the same topic of Trans representation in the Barbie movie Dave Rubin, an American commentator, also made transphobic claims in his interpretation of the movie. In his podcast, he asked, “Why do they go out of their way to have a biological boy play a girl who’s supposed to be completely a girl in the Barbie movie unless they’re trying to confuse kids?” (Rubin) Just like Kirk, Rubin is picking one part of the movie and crafting the idea that the movie was made to confuse kids or to push ideals and identities onto kids which is not at all what the movie was made to do. As Sontag said, people turn to oversimplification and alternate understandings when art makes them nervous. Kirk, Rubin, and many other viewers of the Barbie movie were found doing just that, making it digestible by way of making it fit their political agenda and in the meantime hurting communities and muting the very voice of the craft.
One of Sontag’s arguments was that the over-interpretation of art is due to the dumbing down of people’s senses and in turn the more people lean on analysis and longing for meaning, the more their senses weaken. When the craft of film and art is unable to be experienced as is (by one’s senses), the beauty that it holds vanishes. This is exactly what happened when the Barbie movie was watched and “enjoyed” by many. When people left the theatres after watching Barbie, many thoughts and conversations held were about what the “deeper” meaning was, how it applied to the real world, feminism, patriarchy, womanhood, and self-image. There was little discussion about the colors, the wardrobe, the lighting, and the juxtaposition of these aspects between the real world and Barbieland. So much of what Greta Gerwig carefully crafted and what was supposed to make the movie so exciting to experience. Sontag discusses how The Silence, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, was oddly interpreted by the masses, specifically the scene with the tank going down the street at night being seen as a phallic symbol (6) She writes, “Taken as a brute object, as an immediate sensory equivalent for the mysterious abrupt armored happenings going on inside the hotel, that sequence with the tank is the most striking moment in the film. Those who reach for a Freudian interpretation of the tank are only expressing their lack of response to what is there on the screen.” In the beginning of this quote, Sontag is stopping and doing what many can’t today which is appreciating the craft and understanding what they are seeing and hearing, understanding and acknowledging what can be “striking” about the craft. She then ends by saying that those who did focus on the phallic symbol of that scene robbed themselves of the exposure and pure observation of the scene and that the focus of such analysis was due to the weakness of their senses. In the final scene of the Barbie movie, Barbie is holding hands with Ruth Handler who is the creator of Barbie, Ruth links her to the chain of mothers and daughters and allows Barbie to become a human and experience womanhood. Ruth tells Barbie “now feel”, after which real-life footage of people’s childhoods and lives fills up the screen, and in the background What Was I Made For? By Billie Eilish plays. The footage entails young women smiling and laughing and simply living their lives. This scene was paralyzing and shocking in the way that it went from overwhelmingly pink backdrops and houses and perfectly pastel-shaded clothing to imperfections, bad camera quality, laughter, smiles, and real life. When Ruth Handler told Barbie to feel it almost seems as if she was also telling the audience to just feel and experience this transition and the lives before their eyes. There were so many beautifully orchestrated scenes like this throughout the movie, and though blanketed to say all, many people were unable to just experience the craft. Thus, the beauty and the discussion thereof of the film were stripped and all that was left were labels and empty meanings.
People may argue that if a movie like Barbie has messaging about feminism or patriarchy or any other debated topic about society, there can and should be discourse around it and the implications of the messaging to the real world. While it is true that these conversations can be important, it is also true that the different views or sides of these discussions can’t be the only lens used to intake such media. There should be a balance, which means consuming the craft of a movie and experiencing it as art, and separately creating discussion around it without making it fit issues that it wasn’t intended to.
The Barbie movie was an exciting and beautiful watch, however, whether they agreed with or disagreed with the messages of the movie, many missed out on the experience of Barbie land. As argued by Sontag, over-interpretation is easier and thus has been engrained in all, also argued by Sontag, society’s obsession with intellectual exercise and discussion has limited the way art is consumed. The theatres showing Barbie were bombarded with people ready to label it “man-hating” “trans propaganda”, “Chinese Communist Propaganda”, and so much more. This phenomenon was no surprise according to Sontag’s arguments. There is so much at risk if art and media continue to be criticized and interpreted this way. When media is taken and infused with meaning (not crafted to be there) that supports hatred and political values it can become harmful to the groups this hate-mongering targets, like the Trans community under the different interpretations of the Barbie movie. As well at risk is the art itself. If the imbalance of interpretation continues, people’s senses will continue to numb, and the form of art will no matter hold significance. Art and media without form would create a world void of beauty and creativity.
Works Cited
“Bill Maher Calls Out ‘Barbie’ for Pushing a ‘Preachy, Man-Hating Zombie Lie’ About ‘The Patriarchy.’” Breitbart, 8 August 2023, https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/08/08/bill-maher-calls-out-barbie-for-pushing-a-preachy-man-hating-zombie-lie-about-the-patriarchy/. Accessed 6 November 2023.
Gerwig, Greta, director. Barbie. Mattel, 2023.
Peltz, Madeline. “The right-wing Barbie meltdown shows how reactionary forces are losing the culture wars.” Media Matters for America, 18 July 2023, https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/right-wing-barbie-meltdown-shows-how-reactionary-forces-are-losing-culture-wars. Accessed 6 November 2023.
Sontag, Susan. “Against Interpretation.” Against Interpretation, Picador, 1966, pp. 1-
10.
“Ted Cruz Says “Barbie” Movie Is “Chinese Communist Propaganda.”” Business Insider, 17 July 2023, https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-barbie-movie-chinese-communist-propaganda-2023-7. Accessed 6 November 2023.
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