AUGUST 24 • 2023 | 9

to her daughter and plastic 
comrades. “You are so 
beautiful and so smart, 
and it kills me that you 
don’t think you’re good 
enough. Like, we have to 
always be extraordinary, 
but somehow, we’re always 
doing it wrong. You have to 
be thin, but not too thin.”
I wanted to laugh when 
a woman sitting next to me 
in the theater muttered: 
“She’s right.”
Are we seriously going 
to find words of wisdom 
in a film that clearly has 
a conflict of interest in 
making a movie about 
its own product? This 
pop-psychology mumbo-
jumbo was Mattel’s way of 
covering its tuchus while 
showing off its product in a 
stunning pink tableau.
Actually, those who 
should be most offended 
by the film are men. The 
film implies that if men 
had their way, all they’d 
want are mini-fridges 
stocked with beers served 
by hot “Barbies” in mini-
skirts. And that women 
could easily control them 
by stirring their drunken, 
chauvinist jealousy. (We 
can then debate if there is 
truth to that, as well.)
To appeal to the masses, 
the film needed to hover 
somewhere in the middle: 
It’s woke and not woke, 
it’s true and false, it’s 
politically correct and 
politically incorrect, it’s 
feminist and unfeminist, 
it’s deep and silly, it’s fun 
and serious, it’s liberal and 
conservative (or, shall we 
say, “Kenservative”). We 
can take solace in that. 
Mattel, perhaps thanks 

to its Israeli-American 
CEO, did not surrender to 
corporate woke-ism; in the 
end, the market “regulated” 
a foray into any extreme 
ideology.
That is the genius of 
writer/director Gerwig, 
raised Catholic, and of 
her writing partner and 
Jewish husband, Noah 
Baumbach. The movie can 
be whatever you want it to 
be. As long as there is no 
clear (political) message, 
girls and their parents of all 
persuasions will continue to 
buy the doll. The film saved 
“Barbieland” from being 
obsolete, old-fashioned 
and politically incorrect. 
And now, there’s a stand 
dedicated to Barbie dolls 
and accessories in the 
German supermarket near 
where I live in Berlin.
There is a deep story 
behind Barbie — the 
success story of the 
daughter of Jewish 
immigrants to America 
who had a good idea, 
inspired by a German 
product, that indeed 
wielded great influence 
on the place of women in 
society. But that’s the stuff 
of books. 
Handler’s spirit in the 
film comes through not 
only in the portrayal of the 
mentor/mother relationship 
with her plastic daughter 
but by its business savvy, 
led by a fellow Jew. Her 
idol will now be immortal 
— thanks, in part — to 
a brilliantly smart and 
brilliantly stupid movie. 

Orit Arfa is a Berlin-based author 

and journalist. See more at oritarfa.

net. A version of this article originally 

appeared in German in Achgut.com.

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