Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Weird Barbie
People who have seen Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie are universally taken with Kate McKinnon's portrayal of "Weird Barbie"-- the one who was, um, altered by her owner with a haircut, facepaint and contorted limbs. Apparently, Mattel is even marketing a version of her as a toy.
The juxtaposition between the obviously damaged and the perfect (Margot Robbie's "Stereotypical Barbie") has to be intentional. Everyone, including Stereotypical Barbie, understands that Weird Barbie is more interesting, insightful, and wise than the rest of them (even President Barbie).
There are a lot of movies where a traumatized character emerges over time to be those things-- but in "Barbie," that character starts out as interesting, insightful, and wise. She had those things on her own, and did not have to negotiate them through the others.
I kind of like that.
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The broken people always are more interesting because each of us, in ways either big or small, have our own broken places. I found Elphaba much more intriguing than Glinda (Wicked), was sympathetic to Cal much more than Aron (East of Eden), felt an affinity to Jeanette in The Glass Castle and Elizabeth (and Calvin) in Lessons in Chemistry, am a fan of Letterman over Leno, the Addams Family over the Cleavers, Alexander Hamilton over the other Founding Fathers (who was, in the lingo of his day, illegitimate, a liability for that time), the entire casts of Mom and Big Bang Theory...more if I spend time to think about it. I haven't seen Barbie yet but I expect I'll see pieces of me in Weird Barbie too.
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