I didn’t see Barbie in the heat of the hype, but I finally took some time to watch it today after having heard all kinds of opinions on it. I am… unimpressed. And kinda outraged? The outrage I feel is something that rises within me as soon as I dare ask myself: “What was the point?” There are a dozen of coherent answers to this question, but none are great. Who are you trying to teach about patriarchy? Is it people or yourself? If you’re trying to teach it to people then I have bad news for you: the superficiality of this movie isn’t helping one bit — and to be fair, it makes it almost insulting. If you’re trying to teach it to yourself, then it’s just pathetic. But I can only hope that the latter is what you were really going for, because all the meta jokes just feel like a middle finger otherwise. I don’t see how pointing out your blatant capitalist hypocrisy somehow excuses you from addressing your own criticism, nor does it grant you the privilege of producing a 2-hour ad to tell women what it’s like to be a woman.