Much has been said about Greta Gerwig’s fantasy comedy film, “Barbie,” with most conservatives agreeing it’s an annoying, nonsensical feminist screed and most liberals claiming it’s a glittering pink cinematic masterpiece.
Either way, one of the most hotly debated topics of the day is the ending.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
The basic premise of “Barbie” is that the lead character, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) becomes skeptical of the perfect Barbie Land she’s been living in and starts thinking about the inevitability of death. After experiencing physical symptoms of her existential crisis including her normally arched feet falling flat, she ventures out into the real world and experiences negative emotions for the first time. Just like that, Barbie realizes that not everyone sees her as perfect.
In the end, Barbie must decide whether to return to her fake, albeit perfect existence or join the real world with its ups and downs. She chooses the latter and ends up visiting a gynecologist, ostensibly because in becoming “real,” she now has real female body parts to maintain.
“I’m here to see my gynecologist,” Barbie says at the end with a big smile before the movie cuts to black.
Gerwig discussed how she came up with the idea for the ending.
“With this film, it was important for me that everything operated on at least two levels,” the director told USA Today about coming up with the final line. “I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional. When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn’t even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden.”
“And then to see Margot as Barbie, with this big old smile on her face, saying what she says at the end with such happiness and joy,” Gerwig continued. “I was like, if I can give girls that feeling of, ‘Barbie does it, too’ – that’s both funny and emotional. There are so many things like that throughout the movie. It was always about looking for the levity and the heart.”
Gerwig also talked about being “at a loss for words” after seeing how quickly the film took off in popularity. “It’s been amazing to walk around and see people in pink,” she said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine something like this.”
The movie earned $337 million worldwide on opening weekend, shattering box office expectations.
Ben Shapiro, Editor Emeritus of The Daily Wire, didn’t hide his feelings about the movie. He called it a flaming piece of dog s*** piled atop an entire dumpster on fire piled atop a landfill filled with dog s***” and “one of the worst movies” on “every possible level.”
Shapiro hated every aspect of “Barbie” except for the costume and set design. But one particular moment he called out was the “transphobic” ending, which based all of Stereotypical Barbie’s status as a woman on her genitals.
Interestingly, there’s also been pushback from members of the LGBTQ community that the film wasn’t overtly “queer” enough. Barbies and Kens were asexual, with jokes about it the whole way. One of the Kens (Ryan Gosling) and Barbie plan a sleepover but wonder what they should do there. The Kens joke about “beaching each other off,” but no one seems to understand the implications.
A lot of fuss was made about the casting of Hari Nef, a transgender-identifying star who plays one of the Barbies. But besides that inclusion, no references to changing gender or celebrating being trans are made throughout the film.
“For a movie that spends so much time dissecting gender norms and highlighting the importance of diversity, I really wish ‘Barbie’ had openly acknowledged queer people,” associate entertainment editor at Parade magazine Matthew Huff told NBC News.
“Barbie is like a drag performance of heterosexuality; it’s so exaggerated that it exemplifies the ways that heterosexuality itself is constructed and performed,” digital creator Alex Avila told the outlet. “I think queer people latch on to that heterosexual image because we can poke fun at it. We can reclaim it and use it in ways that show that heterosexuality is constructed and put into place by forces beyond us — and not universal.”
Even though “Barbie” isn’t “queer” enough for some, many viewers saw the messaging as overtly political and preachy.
The movie “has a heavily political message,” Shapiro said. “It is explicitly designed to divide men from women. It has these negative messages directed at kids. It’s supposed to be a kid’s movie, it’s rated PG-13. It is not marketed to PG-13. It is marketed to PG. It is marketed to moms who are going to skip the PG-13 rating and bring their daughters there anyway. It’s a culturally relevant moment, a very culturally relevant moment.”
He mentioned how the movie was targeted toward children as evidenced by previews at the screening he attended.
“I find it upsetting when material is based on children’s IP and marketed to little girls actually ends up being angry feminist claptrap that alienates men from women, undermines basic human values, and promotes falsehood all at the same time,” he continued. “I think a lot of people are gonna have a right to be mad.”
Gerwig responded to critics coming down hard on her movie, sidestepping directly mentioning the feminist messaging.
“Certainly, there’s a lot of passion,” she said in response to the criticism. “My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men. I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.”
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