Meg Howard

As a woman who grew up in the 60s and 70s, and who had to fight hard to be allowed to wear comfortable clothing instead of dresses to school, who had to fight to join sports teams, to go to college, and to have legal rights to own property, as well as to make advances in the workplace, I know what it is to be discriminated against. Women had to be feminist in order to get any rights. Never mind equal rights. The feminism of Barbie’s world is pseudo feminism. Barbie as a film produces such a vapid and toxic view of the strengths of women. Barbie promotes the old trope that women are a joke as professionals and are really best off as “sex objects.” Barbies in this film do nothing but “strive” to be sex objects - and yet they despise men! Speaking of males, the Barbie movie is nothing but an insult to males. Being married to a man of integrity who has been working hard in the field of education to better the lives of children, and having raised two sons, who are making an impact for good in this world, I am appalled at the portrayal of masculinity in Barbie as well. The movie makes war on male and female alike. It undermines the bedrock of society which is the family. And this seems to be fine with the majority of viewers. From the very opening scene, the Barbie movie declares that children are garbage, babies should be smashed against the rocks, and little girls should grow up to be plastic “dolls” with no true heart. Barbie is blatantly and clearly anti-family. It’s a world without children and against children. The teen girls are the only realistic element in this film. Of course, they are bitter, they are being offered plastic Barbie, as I was in the 60s, as an unachievable and unsatisfying role model. And the conclusion of the film? What does her entrance into an obstetrician and gynecologist’s office imply? Certainly not that she wants to have a family with a committed partner. She’s going to be sexually active now! She can live promiscuously thanks to her OB/GYN‘s birth control prescription and later obtain an abortion if she ever gets pregnant. Smash those babies girls! This film makes me bitter, sadly. I hate to think what it’s twisted message is teaching the young women and men who are eagerly absorbing its lies. If we want a world filled with Greta Gerwigs, who live with their partners, and do not have children, while producing toxic waste like this, Barbie is the film to promote! Actually, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach would’ve done the world a big favor if they had stuck with their initial reaction to the project and concluded that in fact it was, and is, terrible. Viewers, please wake up and recognize what toxic propaganda this is for our world. Barbie is not merely feel-good entertainment.

SO CRUDE. Wake up. This is not funny, it's disgusting- and so degrading for women.