Under the Barbie: Using Otherness to Examine Womanhood in Society
Often it is science fiction that challenges audiences on the idea of humanity to reveal the truth about our world, but a highly anticipated summer film about an iconic doll is adding a new perspective outside the genre.
In the age of leaks, Barbie has impressively managed to keep its plot under wraps since the project was announced. All audiences have to go off what to expect for the movie of the summer are short trailers giving them a sliver of the story and viral character posters that sparked many creative memes. Greta Gerwig has brought to life the ultimate Barbie land littered with actual dream houses and authentically artificial painted backdrops. Barbie’s perfect, plastic life abruptly stops when her iconic arched foot goes flat.
At the center of the story is Margot Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie. Every morning begins the same with greeting all her fellow Barbies, taking a shower with no actual water, having a delicious breakfast, and then floating down to head to the beach. In this universe, women run everything from the supreme court to the construction sites. In Barbie’s minds, they have solved feminism in the real world due to the variety of Barbies offered for young girls to play with. Barbie is known as the doll who can do it all while being well-dressed. While Barbie is celebrated for her ever-growing resume, over the years she has garnered backlash for setting backward gender roles. Thoughts of death and cellulite cloud Barbie’s mind setting her out to the real world where she is greeted by suit-wearing men and anti-Barbie pre-teens as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
Reflecting on this plot I noticed a similarity to a film I never would have expected to have anything in common with Barbie. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie shares a similar theme and premise to Johnathan Glazer’s Under the Skin in which both use an otherwordly entity with a female gaze to examine the beauty and cruelty of humanity and womanhood. Under the Skin and Barbie examine the expectations and uncertainties of gender roles that can eventually become destructive.
Under the Skin ponders the question of what is femininity by using an alien named Laura played by Scarlett Johansson. Glazer’s opening shout shows the assembly of Laura as her gaze is set and her human voice is programmed. Laura is an attractive woman who travels around Scotland in a white van looking for men to seduce and kill. Laura operates as an outsider in this town learning sexuality through the male perspective and the strangeness of humans.
Barbie and Laura are both constructed entities fit to embody femininity that is a reflection of the worlds they operate in. While Laura utilizes a fur coat as an extra layer of protection, Barbie has a plethora of clothing to adapt to a variety of environments she finds herself placed into. Barbie and Laura both fall into the idea of the male fantasy with striking exteriors and a general curiosity written across their faces at all times. Barbie and Laura are trained in womanhood through commercialism of what sells by performing their gender through attraction and persuasion. Neither has an idea of the depth of womanhood beyond the fur coat and pink gingham dress they wear.
While Barbie comes from a world of women leading men, Under the Skin operates in a patriarchal structure forcing its audience to observe it from alien eyes. Barbie becomes an outsider entering the male-dominated Los Angeles observing a world where women are demeaned and treated like objects. This ideology then spreads to her world further casting her out with Weird Barbie and the rest of the discontinued residents of Barbie Land. Neither film is set to solve gender violence but looks at the root causes of these systemic issues.
In their new respective locations in the real world, Barbie in the sunny Venice beach and Laura in the golden streets of Glasgow they both unknowingly take on a state of vulnerability. This is a world that sees women as vulnerable creatures who are susceptible to violence by the cold world around them. Barbie’s first few interactions in her spandex skate ensemble feature her being groped and objectified by men. At first, Margot Robbie as Barbie is unable to comprehend this type of behavior toward women until she becomes conscious of how she feels walking along the streets of Los Angeles. Laura’s striking appearance gains the attention of a group of young boys who attack her van.
The more time they spend in the real world they begin to develop empathy for their human counterparts. Laura confronts her humanity by staring at herself in the mirror and she suddenly loses the ability to perform what she was sent to earth to do. Examining the female body exemplifies the anxieties humans possess towards their bodies. Especially women living in a world where the Barbie doll set the beauty standard. She is left to uncover what is her purpose, especially in regards to her womanness which was simply a disguise for her and not an identity. At the beginning of their journeys, each woman possesses a void gaze free of feeling or thought. As they become more human their glowing surreal backgrounds of Scotland and Barbie Land melt into realism caging them into society’s expectations, contradictions, and anxieties that ultimately destroy them.
Discovering empathy allows Barbie and Laura to discover themselves. Laura and Barbie do not see themselves as human beings until their self-image is birthed leading to a journey of consciousness. Leaving their unfeeling self behind they are welcomed into a world of pain either physical like Laura shivers in the damp of Barbie being betrayed by Ken and losing everything that made her Barbie. They must learn with the help of their human guides how to navigate this unknown territory. Laura catches her glance in the mirror becoming spooked by her recognition of herself. She watches her arms and legs move to come to terms with her new normal. Taking on the embodiment of a human grants her the confidence she needs to continue on her journey of self. She lowers her guard to gain human experiences like eating chocolate or finding female pleasure. There is a hyperfocus on Laura’s eyes as she comes closer to humanity documenting her journey of learning human behavior and compassion.
Barbie taking on her newfound feelings of insecurity questions her purpose surrounded by all the fulfilled Barbies. She begins to recognize her value as less than in her pink utopia. She has always been known simply for her looks but what is she beyond that? Barbie is a doll whose purpose changes with each generation she interacts with. As little girls become older they discard the doll making her obsolete until the next child picks her up. Barbie is very much an idea rather than a human being, making her the keeper of endless ideas and stories that separates her from being a human. She exemplifies an idea in society regarding women and aging, once they reach a certain age they are discarded from society in favor of something new. Under the Skin approaches this same idea but through a man discovering Laura is not human suddenly deciding he doesn’t want her anymore. He was drawn to her human features but her otherness is quickly rejected. Their journeys show the transactional nature of humanity as they give up themselves to adapt.
Crossing over into humanity, Barbie and Laura gain agency to who they are eventually setting out on their quests to take back control of their fate out of the hands of their male manufacturers. Through using their otherness perspective, Barbie and Under the Skin function as warning tales that mirror the struggles of women living under the patriarchy to understand the learned behavior of humanity.