As with any art, you could extrapolate no meaning from the piece or contemplate the work to infer your own symbolism and meaning. As for myself, I saw the Barbie film as simple, lighthearted, and fun, as well as beautifully deep and meaningful.
When I went to the film, I had no idea what to expect in terms of plot or meaning - Which is rare in a well-marketed movie, as trailers often give away the entire storyline trying to sell it. So good work, marketing team, for leaving some surprises!
I laughed quite a bit and enjoyed seeing the beautiful cast members in their meticulous, colorful outfits. However, I wondered when the plot would develop into its 1st, 2nd, and 3rd scenes or even just hit the storyline's climax. The impatient side of me wanted to know what the overarching mission of Barbie was to be. But none of that came at the expected time (at least for me). Instead, one scene flowed into the next. And as I later reflected, I realized that this is how life actually works. Occasionally, we have significant milestones we accomplish or chapters that come to a clean or distinct closing. Still, more often than not, we flow right through one stage of our lives into the next, growing and changing as we move thru life's challenges and unexpected twists without noticing when one scene ends and another begins.
And I enjoyed that when Barbie became more human, she became more emotional, tuning into her human side. In a world where people attempt to look perfect, we can forget what it's like to come back to our human physical, fleshy selves, and this is a journey Barbie so bravely took. My favorite scene in the movie was when Barbie was sitting at the bus stop, shedding a few tears as she looked at the world and the people around her—seeing pain, beauty, sadness, and hope. Real life. And I, too, find myself shedding a tear here and there as I look around the world. Maybe it's a tear of joy or inspiration; other times, it's a tear of sadness. Or sometimes, it's a tear coming from within, feeling overwhelmed. And I believe this is a shared experience for all humans. Because no matter who you are, life can sometimes be overwhelming or hard to understand when we see joy and sadness co-existing in every moment.
But the most beautiful surprise from the Barbie movie was its message of feeling. Not only do we have the choice to feel things, but we also have the privilege to feel things deeply. To find the beauty in heartache and the meaning in pain is what it means to embrace all aspects of our human life. Amazingly, we can reflect on our childhoods, past experiences, joys, and wounds and hold these emotions and feelings within our physical bodies. It may seem overwhelming to grasp it all. Still, there's magic, not only in learning to make space within yourself to hold these emotions, to make peace with them, and to allow them to exist but also to extrapolate meaning from them and then share your own experiences with the world, so we can all heal, and find joy and meaning in our lives. I believe this is the greatest art of all.
And lastly, I appreciated how the movie touched on topics of gender inequality and masculinity, but only lightly, because, to be honest, no simple film can fix these issues. It can, however, give gentle nudges to encourage us as a society to do better. And I believe people will continue to struggle until we all learn to embrace the beautiful duality of our masculine and feminine energies within ourselves. But expecting a movie to solve these issues is almost as humorous as listening to Ken sing Push by Maxbox Twenty.
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