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Barbie! Oh Noes!

 
 
 
So I was watching the RedLetterMedia review of Oppenheimer and their major complaint about it was the incessant and too loud background music score that was mentally and even aurally distracting to them during complex dialogue scenes. Some people are wired to be more affected by background sounds or music.

If there were a separate user toggle for the score that would be great.

Same way if there were a preachiness level toggle for the Barbie movie's dialogue I could get on board with it.

"These go to eleven"

I also don't understand how Christians can enjoy the heavyhanded dialogue of Pureflix movies.

There are some movies where it works like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", but generally it annoys me.
 
I've never been a fan of Barbie, but I found a rather dark article the other day that makes some good points about how the atomic bomb and the age of Barbie have a lot in common. It reminded me a little of the line in the movie, "The Graduate" where the father of Dustin Hoffman's character says that the future is in plastics. What little did we know!


https://wapo.st/43BoUtz

This week, two very different major motion pictures — Greta Gerwig’s candy-colored fever dream “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s solemn biopic “Oppenheimer” — are opening in theaters, and the memesters have gone nuts, mashing up Mattel’s classic blond plastic toy and the father of the atomic bomb into jokey mid-century-themed merch. On the face of it, Barbie and Oppenheimer don’t have much in common, beside looking good in hats.

But, writes Tyler Austin Harper in an op-ed (with fantastic graphics by Amanda Shendruk), “The two movies actually have a fundamental, and disturbing, common ground.” This mass-consumed doll made out of petroleum products and the deadly atomic weapons used to end World War II are both symptoms of an era in which humans have dramatically reshaped the planet we live on, an era that scientists now call the Anthropocene.
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I have heard that this movie makes it that Mattel and the Barbie division is very male dominated.

But this is not true, women are integral to Barbie and have always been. They will literally lie about the company that the movie is about and the company will go along with it for ideological reasons? Doesn't Mattel want to bask in the credit for having a real 100% ESG score?

Also heard that Ryan Gosling said a lot of passerby guys were real nice to him while filming at Santa Monica and Margot Robbie said all the same guys were intimidated by her and said nothing. They did not slap her ass like in the movie.

Barbie is a cool brand and it is partially the women in charge of it that did what is supposedly a male thing of corporate warfare in torching JEM.

Going back to my point about it being too preachy, seconded by Krystal Ball from 2:21 to 2:27.


The whole thing is way too preachy to be enjoyable or even to be really effective as propaganda
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Writing this never having seen either movie. I'll probably skip the Oppenheimer one because I find war movies to be very depressing.

The other thing about Barbie/Oppenheimer is that Oppenheimer seems to be, in part, about the fear that the bomb would end the world--and in a way, did end the world as we knew it.

Barbie, OTOH, as a product was about embracing and holding very, very tight to the status quo: Women as pretty objects, whose careers were cursory to their existence and really only a marketing ploy to attempt to keep them relevant and to increase demand (newest Barbie is a must have!) and aggressive marketing towards very young girls (different than original/early Barbies who were really all about fashion and asperation.) Newer Barbies were all about reinforcing cultural stereotypes, particularly pink and purple but mostly pink.

Oppenheimer was about perhaps destroying the world. Barbie (the product) is all about preserving things just as they are, only in a prettier, pinker career oriented package.
 
For some reason, the whole Barbie thing reeks of Qanon housewives … to me anyhow. Not much chance I’d ever watch more than five minutes of it.
I would like to see Oppenheimer, but three hours exceeds my attention span by about 2 3/4 hours.
I do not equate the health of the movie industry with the health of our society, as much of the media seems to do. In fact, I suspect an inverse relationship. But that is the opinion of someone who has not been in a movie theater in over a decade, so a pinch of salt might be in order.
 
Elixir said:
For some reason, the whole Barbie thing reeks of Qanon housewives … to me anyhow. Not much chance I’d ever watch more than five minutes of it.
I would like to see Oppenheimer, but three hours exceeds my attention span by about 2 3/4 hours.
I do not equate the health of the movie industry with the health of our society, as much of the media seems to do. In fact, I suspect an inverse relationship. But that is the opinion of someone who has not been in a movie theater in over a decade, so a pinch of salt might be in order.
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Barbie as the doll? Yes, in part. Barbie as a film? It's by Greta Gerwig--the antithesis of Qanon housewives. Gerwig is feminist, and her films are feminist, her characters are transgressive, curious and rebel against the status quo. Greta Gerwig is the only reason I'd see this film, although I do love me some Margo Robbie, Kate McKinnon, Ryan Gosling and in general, the whole cast. This is definitely NOT a Qanon thing.
 
Toni said:
This is definitely NOT a Qanon thing.
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I knew that! And presumed that it ran contrary to, and was basically a mockery of what I dislike about it. Just can’t get over it, and have no desire to suffer lime green after-images.
I also don’t need to watch FOX Nooz clips, when they’re aired by MSNBC to emphasize Republican corruption.
 
Elixir said:
Toni said:
This is definitely NOT a Qanon thing.
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I knew that! And presumed that it ran contrary to, and was basically a mockery of what I dislike about it. Just can’t get over it, and have no desire to suffer lime green after-images.
I also don’t need to watch FOX Nooz clips, when they’re aired by MSNBC to emphasize Republican corruption.
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Sorry to misunderstand and also totally understand your desire to avoid all things Barbie. I think it’s different for women, even those like me who never had a Barbie. (My sister did; I got a knock off version, more flat chested and decidedly less fashionable Tammy doll. Second best, even at 6 years old). Even if we didn’t have Barbies, they were ubiquitous, even more than HI Joes were for boys. They set and reinforced…certain expectations. Me? I never liked pink.
 
When I taught 5th grade, three of my female students showed up one Monday morning proudly announcing they'd had a Barbie sleepover party -- only it was a sleepover to get rid of their Barbies. They variously scissored, twisted, or burned their Barbies, to symbolize the end of their Barbie years. The party's host told me that she decapitated her Barbie, filled the head with Cheese Whiz, taped over the decapitation line, poked holes in Barbie's nostrils, then squeezed the head. That's ambitious.
 
Toni said:
even more than HI Joes were for boys. They set and reinforced…certain expectations
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Boy have things changed.

I remember back when my family lived in Gary, Ind. Which means I was younger than 8.
I was outside playing with a GI Joe knock off. My dad threw a fit.
"HE'S PLAYING WITH DOLLS!"
Tom
 
TomC said:
Toni said:
even more than HI Joes were for boys. They set and reinforced…certain expectations
Click to expand...

Boy have things changed.

I remember back when my family lived in Gary, Ind. Which means I was younger than 8.
I was outside playing with a GI Joe knock off. My dad threw a fit.
"HE'S PLAYING WITH DOLLS!"
Tom
Click to expand...
TomC said:
Toni said:
even more than HI Joes were for boys. They set and reinforced…certain expectations
Click to expand...

Boy have things changed.

I remember back when my family lived in Gary, Ind. Which means I was younger than 8.
I was outside playing with a GI Joe knock off. My dad threw a fit.
"HE'S PLAYING WITH DOLLS!"
Tom
Click to expand...
Things HAVE changed. I had more a problem with our sons playing with GI Joes than my husband did and that wasn't because they were 'dolls' but because I'm anti-war. I remember our oldest very patiently playing Barbie with his sister, only he mostly used GI Joes....
 
I saw the movie. Barbie Land is initially faux woke. It's a fake world in a fake movie. The barbies live in a virtual matriarchy premised on barbie inspiring women's accomplishments in the real world. For ppl who think there is a message, they are deranged. It is clear the Barbies are clueless. Next, Barbie and Ken go to the real world and Ken sees patriarchical features and successes of men. He runs back to Barbie land to start a MRA revolution. It's fucking silly and humorous. It's a fucking movie. Then, Barbie goes back to Barbie land and undoes Ken's revolution, but she comes back "enlightened" to the contradictions of female identity and successes in the real world. So they are a matriarchy again, sort of, but Ken is also heard and men are being nominated to federal circuit judge positions just not Supreme Court yet. It's an obvious parody to real world history but in reverse. There's way more to the movie than political structure absurdity that conservatives scream about. I've just focused on that part in the post. Also, did I mention it's a silly movie that only morons or propagandists would take seriously?
 
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