Monday July 24, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC
Commentary by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
This past weekend saw a blockbuster hit at the movie theatres with the release of Barbie!
Some of we older folks remember a time when Barbie was associated with stereotypical expectations of women, beauty, body shape and hair colour. Feminism came in a crashed all that.
The Barbie movie of 2023 is an exploration of fantasy crashing headlong into reality: girls and women in today’s society, an examination thereof.
But for this little editorial I pulled out some Barbie dolls from the storage closet, that even my daughters in the 1990s and early 2000s played with. There is something meditative about fitting the dresses onto a female shape small enough to fit into your grasp. Perhaps not unlike little toy trains or other miniature collectibles that girls or boys (of any age) have played with.
Great to see hot pink back in fashion, if only for this summer celebration of Barbie. For women of a certain age (older) it is a reminder of simpler times, even if those were more stereotypical times for women. For young women raising their own children today it’s an opportunity to re-explore the simplicity of Barbie while perhaps also explaining what the Barbie movie fuss is all about. And for young girls still wanting their first (or additional) Barbie doll, it will still be a timeless moment of their childhood.
Hats off to Mattel for creating a most unexpected commercial success, and for the creative film artists of our time for exploring the existential nature of how we play and how both women and men are crafting new realities.
And hats off to the superb acting in the Barbie movie! In the face of the current writers and actors on strike and the rapid advent of AI into many things creative — if there was ever a time to be reminded of how human artistic creation is to be cherished, this is it.
The sort of movie that is Barbie is perhaps part of the new normal in show business where societal examination revives stellar commercial success. Wait for the sequel movies, and already see the cars and clothing brands pop out in pink. Betting right now that Barbie will be all the rage at cosplay conventions for several years to come. And soon, the video games.
So many things are difficult in today’s world, this is an opportunity to have fun and not feel guilty about it because we are at the same time reshaping our understanding of ourselves.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends delivers socioeconomic news insights about life on the west shore of south Vancouver Island. Published by Brookeline Publishing House Inc, Island Social Trends follows in the footsteps of its genesis publications MapleLine Magazine 2008-2010, Sooke Voice News 2011-2013, and West Shore Voice News 2014-2020.
All news is posted at IslandSocialTrends.ca .
Editor Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Cert PR has steered this publication series for 15 years. In that time period she has covered SD62 news up close (board and committee level) since 2014 and as well as broader west shore news.
In Fall 2022 Ms Brooke was a candidate in the Belmont Zone of SD62, connecting with the community through extensive door-knocking and in the process heard a much different view of public education expectations than what is evident at the board table.
Mary P Brooke now reports with the BC Legislative Press Gallery, having covered the COVID pandemic daily in 2020 and 2021 and broader BC news since 2017.
Ms Brooke has been nominated in 2023 for the Jack Webster Foundation’s Shelley Fralic Award for contributing to the community through journalism.
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