The Barbie (2023 film) cleanup thread

This thread is for cleanup on Barbie (2023) and its subpages. It's been created as suggested on ATT.

The commercial success of the film means that the works pages are attracting a lot of edits from tropers.

In addition to the usual edit issues that creep in for any sufficiently popular work, Barbie's also attracting some edits with ROCEJ problems, especially regarding the film's views on patriarchy and feminism.

The thread is spoilers off and assumes that tropers taking part in the cleanup have seen the film.

NightmareFuel.Barbie 2023 was made a couple days ago. It has few examples, but each of them is a stretch. Seriously, this pastel-colored movie isn't scary. The only thing remotely 'scary' would be the scene where Barbie gets sexually harassed, and that scene isn't listed on the page.

Oh, and it's not even indexed. I will also be pasting this to the nightmare fuel cleanup thread.

Edited by sudrictoon on Aug 15th 2023 at 6:54:23 AM

We are the best friends, we stand as one. Whatever life may bring, we are never alone.

To be honest that scene feels more like Realism-Induced Horror than anything.

On a related note, I wanna help out by addressing what I feel is the main problem: people sympathizing too much with the Kens and seeing the Barbies as the true villains. To keep it short ofc, because most of the edits I see are praising the Kens and thinking their Kendom takeover is a utopia while ignoring that they’re letting the Barbies stay brainwashed and threatening the Barbie brand in the real world to remain ruined (note that the CEO remains determined even after learning the Mojo Dojo Casa Houses are making a profit)

I indeed see a lot of sympathizing for the Kens on the YMMV page, especially under Do Not Do This Cool Thing.

We are the best friends, we stand as one. Whatever life may bring, we are never alone.

Good lord, there's a lot of nonsense in there. Should I remove the 'smashing the baby dolls' scene from Nightmare Fuel? It's just ridiculous.

That scene is Black Comedy that isn't scary in the least. Yeah, you can remove it.

Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project

I've seen "Barbies are happier serving the Kens" about three times? even though it's an explicit stepford wives reference.

I cut up one dozen new men and you will die somewhat, again and again.

The Kens are meant to be sympathetic to some extent despite their obvious villainy, given Barbie does decide to apologize to her Ken by the end. So anything claiming the Barbies are depicted as unambiguously perfect is already going against the movie's point.

As for the "this is actually anti-feminist" drivel, the movie is critical of the way Barbie's feminism is discussed in pop culture — it just proposes a different, nuanced kind of feminism. You'd have to twist the message very badly to claim this is an anti-feminist movie.

Edited by mightymewtron on Aug 15th 2023 at 2:45:19 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Although we've now cut that claim at least twice, so some people are taking it that way.

Well, it's a valid Misaimed Fandom entry, then. The movie is way too Anviliciously feminist to be taken as anything.

I guess the anti-feminist Alternate Aesop Interpretation could be valid even if I really disagree with it as representative of real life (it's meant to be a mirror of the patriarchy, especially with the ending blatantly paralleling the Kens and real-life women), but you have to really twist to make the whole Mojo Dojo Casa House thing anything but laughably imbecilic.

Edited by mightymewtron on Aug 16th 2023 at 3:04:36 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Thank Barbie for this thread. This Kens being homeless thing is practically a meme at this point.

Does anyone think Poe's Law in regards to this film would fit?

Hi!

Regarding what? The fact MRAs exist? That was pretty well known before this movie and is probably partly why it exists. If it's about the movie itself, I think most people know this movie has tongue in cheek elements alongside earnest ones.

Edited by mightymewtron on Aug 16th 2023 at 10:49:32 AM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Maybe we should make it clear as to which ones are tongue-in-cheek and which ones are earnest.

Hi!

From YMMV:

---

• Narm Charm: This movie is a seriously in-depth examination of patriarchy and feminism, and manages to hit very hard despite featuring extremely dramatic, emotional keynote scenes punctuated with gigantic tightly-choreographed dance numbers and fourth-wall-breaking jokes, as well as the predominant color being pastel pink. In short, you may very well cry or clap watching the Barbie movie, which sounds ridiculous on paper but works amazingly in practice.

---

Even as a pothole in this context, I'm not sure about Audience-Alienating Premise (or the bold markup). It's defined as:

That's not Barbie. And the fact that people turned up in huge numbers to see it before they knew how far it would go on patriarchy and feminism suggests that the premise worked...?

Cut?

• grabs hair shears* Cut with a vengeance. When the trailers were being released, people fell in love with it because of the hilarious moments in the trailers and many were comparing it to The LEGO Movie.

Hi!

Cut the pothole. The example seems valid, though a lot of the silliness if deliberate, but Narm Charm examples don't seem to all have to be examples of Narm and can apply to anything that would be thought of as too cheesy to take the drama seriously.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Could a case be made for Barbie being And You Thought It Would Fail?

I added the entry a while back, but it was cut with the reasoning that it was expected to be a success, albeit not to that extent.

I don't feel too strongly about it either way. I just want to hear this threads opinion

Image Pickin' Backlog

It was really hyped from the get-go, and I don't even think the massive box office was a surprise given the intense marketing and word-of-mouth, so I don't think it counts.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Plus, it's under the Barbie brand and directed by the critically acclaimed auteur Greta Gerwig. I think even cinephiles were hyped for this.

It doesn't count as AYTIWF.

Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project

Characters.Barbie 2023

• Ambiguous Gender Identity: She's played by a transgender actress. While she clearly uses she/her pronouns like all Barbies, it's never addressed whether the character is a cis or a trans woman.

Is this necessary? In-universe, Barbieland's general heteronormativity makes it seem like we would have heard something about a transition if that was meant to be the intent — Plus I feel like it unnecessarily goes into "can trans actors only play trans characters"?

Yeah this entry is pointless and irrelevant to the film and her character. Remove it.

Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project

Seconded. If it's only ambiguous because the RL actor is trans, it's not ambiguous in the work. Cut.

It's gone, thanks for the input.

I just saw this movie today so I might be able to help.

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