When I walked into the cinema to see Barbie, I was more than a bit sceptical But two hours later, I left the cinema ready to tell all the mothers in my life to go and watch Barbie. Immediately 🖋️ najourno
In fact, it only took a few minutes for the film to transform into everything I thought it would fail to be. The all-pink world I had been promised in memes seemed miles away as the film opened onto a bleak and barren landscape with an omnipotent narrator sardonically quipping about motherhood being made up of a whole lot of mundane domesticity , while we are shown scenes of dead-eyed little girls solemnly ironing and washing up and rocking baby dolls.
Then a glorious, glamorous, ethereal Barbie doll descends upon the barren earth that they are inexplicably mothering on and the girls are so overcome with wonder that they smash their porcelain babies to pieces. I watched this absurdly poignant scene and first I laughed out loud and teared up a bit, in a way that made the preteens next to me edge away slightly, and then I wondered if I’d ever seen anything on a screen that so perfectly sums up motherhood. The loneliness symbolised in the desolate land, the absolute relentlessness of all it takes to look after a tiny human, but also the mad, fierce love that could just as likely have you bundle up your baby in your arms as smash something to pieces.
When girls play with babies we only allow their imagination to extend as far as the limits of domesticity – of cooking the dinner and sweeping the floor and washing the clothes. We imagine motherhood to be nothing but this – the clearing up after everyone else’s lives. And what’s more, we send the message to girls that this is something to aspire to, to idolise and emulate. That motherhood is something that eclipses all other parts of you.
But the film’s subversive message about motherhood goes further. From the jokes about Pregnant Midge to the subplot of Ruth having created Barbie dolls in honour of her own daughter, Barbara, the film is a celebration of the messy, joyous, contradictory experience of being a mother. But mostly it’s a cautionary tale about what happens when we fail to humanise our mothers.
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