Piers Morgan said if he made a movie that treats women the way Barbie treats men he would be executed. But Christopher Nolan made that movie. And he was awarded best director.
I knew there must be a reason why I (a tomboy who rarely played with Barbie dolls) never felt the need to see Oppenheimer, but have now watched Barbie at least three times, once in the theater and twice at home.
The role of women in the Manhattan Project was almost entirely devoted to their work as computers. That was their actual job title. The performed most of the millions of calculations needed to make the work of the men possible. A nod in that direction would not have been too much to expect.
Barbie wasn’t so much anti-male as a portrait, reduced to its essence, of how unreflective patriarchal attitudes in men work. To complain the movie is anti-male is a self-own. I’m an older Boomer, and always thought of myself as pretty enlightened on feminism. I’ve begun to see that as a sort of less malign patriarchal half measure. Reply of my life with that in mind has been somewhat upsetting.
Every woman in the country should read Celeste Davis's article. If registered female voters united and voted as a bloc, we could transform our world. Otherwise, we risk allowing odious men like Jo Koy to continue mocking, belittling, and ultimately controlling us.
Just read this article and I’m so glad someone else was flabbergasted by the nudity for no reason. The movie was for “everyone”. I had planned to take my 15 year old great nephew to see it because of the history of the film. I saw it first with my sister and a gentleman was there with his two sons that I would estimate as around 12 and 14. The 12 year old gasped and slid down in his seat and the 14 year-old snorted. The father silent. - After watching the film I searched for articles or reviews that could explain the treatment of women in the film and necessity for the nudity. I saw one article where the director indicated he was trying to portray the passion between Oppenheimer and his lover. IT DID NOT COME ACROSS. I found nothing in either of his relationships to help me understand why any of them put up with each other. And frankly I was disappointed in Florence Pugh for even playing the role as such. But I felt like I was a voice crying in the wilderness when I asked others their opinion. But I also found view people with an interest in the topic of the film, or who were willing to sit through a film that long. Thank you for voicing what I’ve been thinking ever since I saw the film.
I have to say I was also hesitant to see the Barbie film, not because of the film’s goals, but simple because I was from the earlier days of Barbie before all the pink. When the clothes and doll houses were a bit more “realistically” styled, even if Barbie’s body was not. However, I really loved the film. I loved ALL the different characters, and I laughed and cried. I went with my 30 year old daughter and 35 year old niece, and the left feeling super empowered and happy with the film. - I left Oppenheimer feeling gross about the portrayal of women in the film and how they were were treated by the character of Oppenheimer and by the director of the film.
I could not love this more. I refused to see Oppenheimer on principle and still have no desire to watch it. But will watch the Barbie movie anytime, joyfully.
This also feels a bit to me about how we (big we, culture) reward things that are high drama and full of “importance” but dismiss things that are lighter in appearance but still deal with serious issues.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. You put into words my shock as the awards were handed out..to the WRONG movie! And at least one of my girlfriends would not let her young teenage daughter watch Barbie, although she claimed it was for other reasons—most of which were trending in ultra conservative feeds probably started by the same men who sang the praises of Oppenheimer.
Excellent piece. I keep trying to think of questions to pose about ways to make all these critics of Barbie’s tongue-in-cheek role reversal see this reality, but I’m not sure there is.
Every woman in the country should read Celeste Davis's article. If registered female voters united and voted as a bloc, we could transform our world. Otherwise, we risk allowing odious men like Jo Koy to continue mocking, belittling, and ultimately controlling us.
Btw, have you written anything about the TERF movement? I feel like it's one of those things that should be addressed but people are either nodding their heads "Yeah, that sorta makes sense." Or completely disregarding it as nonsense and letting TERF messaging remain unchallenged.
I'd love to see someone talk about it and explain how it is anti-feminist as well as anti-trans. Thanks for all the work you create and share.
Piers Morgan is about as culturally significant as Bill Maher—which is to say, not at all. I'm not saying this to denigrate Celeste the writer of this article for mentioning him. I'm pointing to the fact that he is not only an entitled chauvinist ass, but what he says offers no substantive value, ever. Neither he nor the broadcasting company of his show seems to have figured that out. He just keeps spewing ignorant, sexist, misogynistic crap that clearly demonstrates he's an idiotic social troll. He, too, is clearly a man who does not like women.
I was not very inclined to watch Oppenheimer before reading your article, did not get to it yet, and now I'm definitely not going to.
It may have been from another article of yours where it was pointed out that men are perfectly conditioned to mistreat and malign women, and trans women, and trans men, and it is not only not frowned upon but rewarded, or it is catered to, minimized, ignored. Whereas women almost always experience retribution by men for "stepping out of line."
Men are allowed to behave very badly, and it seems that the more "public good" they are or have done, the more leniency they are given for less than upstanding behavior in their personal lives. I'm thinking of JFK and MLK being serial (and not even discrete) philanderers, Steve Jobs' nonexistent relationships with his children, SpaceX-era Elon Musk (before he became the unhinged psycho-fascist twitter czar) "spreading his seed around", Jay-Z cheating on Beyoncé, Sean Combs physically adjusting his wife...where is all that in the media? It's buried underneath all the glorification of their collective achievements.
I knew there must be a reason why I (a tomboy who rarely played with Barbie dolls) never felt the need to see Oppenheimer, but have now watched Barbie at least three times, once in the theater and twice at home.
What Midi said. Also, I cry every time I watch Barbie because I have teenage daughters.
The role of women in the Manhattan Project was almost entirely devoted to their work as computers. That was their actual job title. The performed most of the millions of calculations needed to make the work of the men possible. A nod in that direction would not have been too much to expect.
Barbie wasn’t so much anti-male as a portrait, reduced to its essence, of how unreflective patriarchal attitudes in men work. To complain the movie is anti-male is a self-own. I’m an older Boomer, and always thought of myself as pretty enlightened on feminism. I’ve begun to see that as a sort of less malign patriarchal half measure. Reply of my life with that in mind has been somewhat upsetting.
This is the best article I’ve read in a long time. I’m saving this one in my back pocket to re-read and share! 👏🏼 We need more voices like this!
Women, let’s make Kamala our President and work for true equality for all people starting with ourselves! Woman Up ladies!!!!
As a data scientist and aspiring data journalist, I love seeing these numbers 🔥
Every woman in the country should read Celeste Davis's article. If registered female voters united and voted as a bloc, we could transform our world. Otherwise, we risk allowing odious men like Jo Koy to continue mocking, belittling, and ultimately controlling us.
Just read this article and I’m so glad someone else was flabbergasted by the nudity for no reason. The movie was for “everyone”. I had planned to take my 15 year old great nephew to see it because of the history of the film. I saw it first with my sister and a gentleman was there with his two sons that I would estimate as around 12 and 14. The 12 year old gasped and slid down in his seat and the 14 year-old snorted. The father silent. - After watching the film I searched for articles or reviews that could explain the treatment of women in the film and necessity for the nudity. I saw one article where the director indicated he was trying to portray the passion between Oppenheimer and his lover. IT DID NOT COME ACROSS. I found nothing in either of his relationships to help me understand why any of them put up with each other. And frankly I was disappointed in Florence Pugh for even playing the role as such. But I felt like I was a voice crying in the wilderness when I asked others their opinion. But I also found view people with an interest in the topic of the film, or who were willing to sit through a film that long. Thank you for voicing what I’ve been thinking ever since I saw the film.
I have to say I was also hesitant to see the Barbie film, not because of the film’s goals, but simple because I was from the earlier days of Barbie before all the pink. When the clothes and doll houses were a bit more “realistically” styled, even if Barbie’s body was not. However, I really loved the film. I loved ALL the different characters, and I laughed and cried. I went with my 30 year old daughter and 35 year old niece, and the left feeling super empowered and happy with the film. - I left Oppenheimer feeling gross about the portrayal of women in the film and how they were were treated by the character of Oppenheimer and by the director of the film.
I could not love this more. I refused to see Oppenheimer on principle and still have no desire to watch it. But will watch the Barbie movie anytime, joyfully.
This also feels a bit to me about how we (big we, culture) reward things that are high drama and full of “importance” but dismiss things that are lighter in appearance but still deal with serious issues.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. You put into words my shock as the awards were handed out..to the WRONG movie! And at least one of my girlfriends would not let her young teenage daughter watch Barbie, although she claimed it was for other reasons—most of which were trending in ultra conservative feeds probably started by the same men who sang the praises of Oppenheimer.
Well I’m not for execution but perhaps a cattle prod would be acceptable for misogynistic behavior….
Excellent piece. I keep trying to think of questions to pose about ways to make all these critics of Barbie’s tongue-in-cheek role reversal see this reality, but I’m not sure there is.
Every woman in the country should read Celeste Davis's article. If registered female voters united and voted as a bloc, we could transform our world. Otherwise, we risk allowing odious men like Jo Koy to continue mocking, belittling, and ultimately controlling us.
Btw, have you written anything about the TERF movement? I feel like it's one of those things that should be addressed but people are either nodding their heads "Yeah, that sorta makes sense." Or completely disregarding it as nonsense and letting TERF messaging remain unchallenged.
I'd love to see someone talk about it and explain how it is anti-feminist as well as anti-trans. Thanks for all the work you create and share.
Piers Morgan is about as culturally significant as Bill Maher—which is to say, not at all. I'm not saying this to denigrate Celeste the writer of this article for mentioning him. I'm pointing to the fact that he is not only an entitled chauvinist ass, but what he says offers no substantive value, ever. Neither he nor the broadcasting company of his show seems to have figured that out. He just keeps spewing ignorant, sexist, misogynistic crap that clearly demonstrates he's an idiotic social troll. He, too, is clearly a man who does not like women.
I was not very inclined to watch Oppenheimer before reading your article, did not get to it yet, and now I'm definitely not going to.
It may have been from another article of yours where it was pointed out that men are perfectly conditioned to mistreat and malign women, and trans women, and trans men, and it is not only not frowned upon but rewarded, or it is catered to, minimized, ignored. Whereas women almost always experience retribution by men for "stepping out of line."
Men are allowed to behave very badly, and it seems that the more "public good" they are or have done, the more leniency they are given for less than upstanding behavior in their personal lives. I'm thinking of JFK and MLK being serial (and not even discrete) philanderers, Steve Jobs' nonexistent relationships with his children, SpaceX-era Elon Musk (before he became the unhinged psycho-fascist twitter czar) "spreading his seed around", Jay-Z cheating on Beyoncé, Sean Combs physically adjusting his wife...where is all that in the media? It's buried underneath all the glorification of their collective achievements.
Oppenheimer? No thank you.
Thanks for this article!
Shout-out to Mensan and actress Geena Davis, who founded her institute for gender studies because of all this.
Gender studies in media, I should have said.
Holy crap. I just subscribed based on your sub-heading alone. The rest of the article is just the (amazing) icing on top.
I just subscribed too after reading your note, Rose :) and the post is amazing!
Spot on!
Great article!