Under A Paper Moon

The Barbie movie really said. Yes you will grow up and childhood wonder will vanish. Yes you will grow up and learn to hate yourself, your body, your awkwardness. Yes you will grow up and lose your confidence and certainty and sense of purpose. Yes you will grow up and the world will seem a bleaker, lonelier place every day, and society will seem bleaker and lonelier every day, and you won’t understand what went wrong in the span of just a few years, what took you from a happy and secure young girl to a sad, uncertain, scared grown woman.

And yet. You will learn to find beauty again. You will find joy in not having a purpose, in building a purpose for yourself. You will find beauty in connection, with the people and the world around you. You will learn to love signs of ageing as proof of a life well lived, of experience and happiness. You will take that little girl by the hand and tell her “I know, this isn’t what you thought it would be, but it’s real. Let me show you how beautiful it can be.”

BARBIE (2023) dir. greta gerwig

#Barbenheimer, movie of the summer

the part of barbie that resonates with me the most is how it depicts leaning into humanity as a part of maturing. naturally, witnessing a life/society that isn’t a one-dimensional, happy fantasy broke her. through experience, she learns that her past self no longer fits in the complex world she’s come to know. she discovers anxiety, sadness, shame, disrespect. she discovers mortality. she questions her worth for the first time. not only does she deal with internal dilemmas, but she also experiences institutionalized issues that extend beyond her direct control.

she knew she couldn’t retreat back to her previous ideal world anymore; if she did, she’d be living a lie. life stays complex…but she learns to navigate it. institutionalized issues still exist but she’s contributing in finding small ways to ease the burden. she still has to figure out who she is but now she’s shed the expectation placed on her to be a beautiful prodigy.

the scene where she calls the old lady at the bench beautiful is the start of barbie seeing that perhaps accepting a full life—with the good, bad, mundane and the will to contribute positively to humanity despite how absurdly insignificant the effort may seem—is better than holding onto the illusion of a perfect life. by the end of the movie, she’s embraced the possibility of suffering as part of a truly human life, knowing she’ll find joy and wonder despite.

Barbie (2023) ✦ Dir. Greta Gerwig

thinking about the scene in barbie where she asks for permission to be herself and she's told she doesn't need permission, and no one can give her permission for that, because it's just something you start doing

thinking about the scene in barbie where they say you don't need to be exceptional to have worth and deserve love, because just getting through the day is often hard enough

also thinking about the scene in barbie where barbie tells a bunch of construction workers she doesn't have a vagina and the construction workers who have no context beyond her being a pretty girl are like "oh okay that's cool"

anyone who said ryan gosling couldn’t pull off ken apologize NOW

this was the only thing i thought about during his conversation with barbie

Also, props to Allan???

He's a doll most people have never heard of. He got discontinued forever ago cause he was perceived as gay by consumers and they didn't like that.

But I love that he had an actual role in Barbie. He was very queer coded, yeah, but he didn't like when all the Kens turned to Patriarchy. He was so uncomfortable that he wanted to abandon Barbieland all together. He knew it was wrong.

And then he helped the Barbies get themselves back. He had a pink jumpsuit and sunglasses and went out all stealthy to get the Barbies in the van. He even voted at the end to keep the constitution the way it was.

Big Allan fan over here.

I also sobbed when I saw barbie appreciating an old woman, sitting beside her on the bench, because that's what a woman is and that's what being human is, and that's what life is and she saw imperfection and age and realized it was beautiful.

She was so scared of being imperfect and having cellulite and aging and dying, and then she saw how beautiful all of those things could be, and she cried, and I cried.

And I understood. And I felt understood.

We're not appreciating the Weird Barbie enough. It's said in the movie that she helps everyone who need help while they always see her as someone who's not as good as them. She was friends with all dismissed Barbies and Kens, was there to offer support and safe shelter for everyone who needed it in Kendom, without her nothing in the movie would've been alright. When Stereotypical Barbie calls her "ugly and unwanted" she still helps her.

She was representing a woman in women's world who was pushed aside by other women because she didn't fit in but still had more wiseness and kindness than everyone who thought they're better than her.

sorry ur boyfriend got brainwashed by the patriarchy. yeah he thought that it meant horses run everything. sorry.

“It’s literally impossible to be a woman.

You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow, we're always doing it wrong?

You have to be thin, but not too thin, and you can never say you wanna be thin. You have to say you wanna be healthy, but also, you have to BE THIN.

You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass.

You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean.

You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas.

You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time.

You have to be a career woman, but also, always be looking out for other people.

You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is INSANE, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining!

You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood, but ALWAYS STAND OUT and ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL. But never forget that the system is rigged, so find a way to acknowledge that but ALSO, always be grateful!

You have to never get old. Never be rude. Never show off. Never be selfish. Never fall down. Never fail. Never show fear. Never get OUT OF LINE. It's too hard! It's too contradictory, and nobody gives you a medal or says 'thank you!' And it turns out, in fact, that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything is your fault.

I'm just so tired of watching myself, and every single other woman tie herself into knots, so that people will like us.

And if all of that, is also true for a doll just representing a woman, then I don't even know." -Gloria the barbie movie

this is it. this is exactly it oh my god.

Like music to my ears