The far right is constantly warning that if you go woke, you’ll go broke. But when it comes to the new Barbie movie, they couldn’t be more wrong.
Barbie, which follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) as they leave Barbie Land to explore the real world, earned a whopping $162 million in its opening weekend, Variety reported Monday. This is the biggest opening weekend of the year, and the biggest opening weekend for a female director ever.
The film had already made $22.3 million at the domestic box office from Thursday previews, the biggest preview haul of the summer. It blew the previous record of $17.5 million (made by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May) out of the water.
Now let me start by saying that i recomend barbie very much, that being said, im gonna get ravaged by you people cuz i didnt think barbie was a woke film. Already saw it and while yes its message is feminist, its not shoehorned, doesnt try to pander to audiences with forced diversity where it doesnt make sense, its very self aware, has good writing in that it has well writen characters and they and the plot dont feel like the writers wish fullfilment power fantasy, and the message at end isnt even that left leaning imho since it doesnt dive that much on a certaing thing i thought they were hinting at and seems to be aware of it but at the end it doesnt really take it to light, thought i may be wrong on the end part since thats more on a personal level to me and i wont discus it here due to spoilers.
I agree. Totally went into it blind and I found it inoffensive and absolutely fuckin hilarious.
I think you are using a very right-wing definition of “woke” to make your point here.
It feels like you are saying that something can’t be “woke” without that having a negative connotation, which isn’t really the meaning of Woke outside of those conservative circles.
I would counter that if you use the more traditional definition (as I think was the spirit of the OP) then it takes on a much broader meaning that isn’t definitively negative or positive (though it is typically seen as positive in progressive circles)
In that case I think it’s more than fair to call this movie “woke” as it is specifically dealing with a long-standing traditional product (stereotypical gender norms/etc in Barbie dolls) and coming at it with a more modern progressive angle.
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No it doesn’t. It means the same thing to most people that it has always meant.
https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/americans-divided-whether-woke-compliment-or-insult
The right just has so much insane propaganda about it that you’ve been convinced most people fell for it, which they haven’t.
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That’s cool, you should specify from the onset that your experience comes from a place outside of the actual country where the “woke” culture war originated and is mainly happening, and you should still link stats to demonstrate that the majority of people there have a misunderstanding of what the word means like you claimed. Claims made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence, and most people in the country driving the “woke” culture war still know what the word means.
Yup. Thats what people have being arguing about the most to me.
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Based and remember that america isnt the only one country in the world pilled.
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If you whana go original woke, then its meaning its outside the scope of this since it refers to african americans: Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination” and it was turned to a catch it all term for… well… woke things ie alertness to prejudice. And its true, my definition is more of a negative conotation, since its the more used whe making a critisism on media since thats where i know it from and thats how i thend to see it being used on. And i think that analizing the word itself itself is kinda pointless since i was refering more to the forced elements (mostly political) media inserts into itself for apeal to broader demograpics and subsides from investors. And now im not saying media isnt political, just that they thend to be forced into a topic that they wherent even concidering on the begining. And if you whana use the term “Woke” with your definition then more power to ya, but be aware that its meaning is diferent outside your content sphere. I dont consider myself right nor left at least not in the american sence and thats where im gonna Ieave it that, i think i heard the therm in that negative connotation in other places that where very anti stablishment or in other words very left leaning and leftist outside the USA that is and away from american political discourse and not in some alex jhones or other nuts cookie crazy podcast.
Does woke mean shoehorned or pandering? I feel like “woke” media is labeled as such because of its fundamental socially progressive ideals, and those negative connotations are added by opponents to try and tear down media that’s been designated “woke”
Compared to all the other movies, games and other media that is given the “woke” moniker, Barbie was very firmly “woke”
It spoke directly about how the US and world is a male-dominated patriarchy, and spent the last act going explicitly over in great detail the negatives for women in their gender roles, especially when dealing with men and male partners.
If any other show had even one of the major plot points or lines from this movie, it would be labeled “woke.”
“Does woke mean shoehorned or pandering?”
A little bit of both actually. And yeah, its true what some of you say, its mostly used to describe things we dont like but at the same time giving a reason as to why is that. And the reason being that the piece of media sacrifices a part of its original meaning, character development, setting, dialogue and overall quality, just for the sake of being, or most acuratelly said, apearing diverse while the piece of media itself is about an entirelly diferent mater all togheter. This is mostly done to appeal to the masses, but not those that like to see diversity, its those characters thtat they represent that they think its gonna appeal to that particular demografic be it race, sex or identity. What i mean is that they think they are gonna appeal to lgbt+ people if they insert a character that its what the writers/producers think an lgbt+ person looks and behaves like (i.e. a stereotype or anti-stereotype if they have some awareness)
Barbie is not woke since from the begining it presented itself as to be tackling on sexism, and it was consistent about it from begining to end and did not shoehorn any other things to apeal to other demografics but women in general, and it also helps a lot if you know that the Barbie brand its obviusly for girls, so of course the movie its gonna be for and about women.
An example of a woke movie that tackles similar isues and its actually woke its Black Christmas, and while its main theme from begining to end is sexism and toxic masculinity, its not very well made since the firsr 4/5ts of the movie where kinda like a college sesion on institutionalized sexism and the last bit was like the actual movie that you where expecting. And while at first after you view it you are kinda like yeah this was cool and worked, after some time you realize that no it doesnt, the little there is of horror throught the cathedric part try to justify the twist at the end, and while im not gonna spoil it, it kindda takes away from the original message it was going for, it doesnt contradict it, it just takes credibility away from it.
So no barbie is not woke imho but you can disagree. In the end i could be wrong.
I am now even more interested in seeing this movie. That’s the exact impression I got from the trailer, that they managed to really dive into the world of Barbie and make an unforced narrative that makes sense for that world in a very aware way.
Is it really a feminist message though?
Ken is friendzoned at the beginning and doesn’t really want to be just an accessory. He reacts toxically, but it’s shown in reaction to being shut out. “Where do all the Ken’s live?” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Oh well! Back to the dream house!
By the end, the Kenergy is shown as being just as negative as the Barbie Dreamworld, but nothing is really done to correct either one.
I had kind of hoped that the dysfunctional Matteliverse, which was just as fantastical as the Barbie and Ken worlds had become that way because the CEO was an escaped Ken from years back, but they didn’t go that way.
I mean… it is in a superficial way. Since i already wrote about it im just gona link it to yah. Spoiler alert thought.
The movie was definitely woke in the traditional meaning of the word before conservatives tried (and failed) to change it. Not only was it a very feminist movie, they also took specific aim at Citizens United and capitalism broadly, which makes it a squarely, unambiguously left-leaning movie.
Thats the mistery thing i was refering to at the end, capitalism, its fully aware of it being the main cause of the state of the world, while at the end it contradicts it and presents itself fighting against patriarchy. In my opinion this was not a mistake but deliberate since they are not gonna bite the hand that feeds them, just knaw on it a little bit since thats what the brand sells, empowerment, not revolution, and that what they do at the end. A little of a spoiler warning, just a little bit, but at the end
the protagonists fight to maintain the stablishment after the ken rebelion by tricking them into fighting eachother and preventing them from voting while the kens where second class citicens, and those where the heroes, the ones presented as having the moral high ground. And when its done, the kens whant a place on the council but are denied and are just given an insignificant position on some place just that they dont complain anymore.And while the kens revolution didnt had a good ideology nor does the barbies,its a good example of what happens when a goverment neglets a part of its population. So no, suporting the status quo isnt leftist at all.I’m not sure how to do spoilers so spoiler warning for anyone reading.
That isn’t how the Ken revolution ends. It ends by saying that they will eventually get as much rights as women have in the real world, again emphasizing the fact that women do not have equal rights or opportunities to men and that society should fix that (which is the literal definition of woke). It ends by saying “progress is being made, will continue to be made, and ought to continue to be made” not by maintaining the status quo. It seems like you missed just a few extremely crucial lines in the movie and that led you to this wrong conclusion that the movie is somehow not woke or not leftist, which it undeniably is.
Well it isnt really clear on that front to me, and the protagonists still did all else that i wrote about, maybe i did miss it but it didnt really seemed to end on that note to me, not as i remember it atleast. And it is suposed to mirror womens strugle in the real world just with the sexes reversed. And if the paralles are right, yes a lot was made for womans rights, but a lot more was made to apear we are doing a lot for womans rights and the film is aware of it, it straight up says it in the scene where ken is trying to get a job on some company and it implies it on the mattel company wher everyone of the leaders are male and when conftonted about it say they had some women in the past. So i think tje same may be aplicable to the kens and barbies, just making them believe they are empowered. What im saying is that the movie isnt woke in the international sense of it, so maybe woke-washed would be a more apliccable term to what im refering to. So if i missed it or not i think it leaves enough ambiguity on that front to be interpreted like that.
I don’t know anything about the barbie movie, all i have seen is like a few screenshots and a friend of mine said that Will Ferrell is in it.
But who on earth would think that Barbie wouldn’t have a feminist message?
I mean, Barbie started out as anything but feminist, so maybe that’s why. Didn’t the Simpsons do a whole episode on how sexist the whole Barbie concept was back in the 90s? I honestly have no clue, I don’t know fucking anything about Barbie.
Barbie has had her controversies, but she had always had feminist messaging, even if it was less mainstream feminism at times. She has always sat at the crux of a feminist debate: does she impress upon girls that they must look a certain way? Or does she impress upon girls that they can be capable and successful regardless of their traditional femininity. When Barbie was developed and released, the masculine, unattractive woman making it in a man’s world was a relatively common trope. The artifices of famininity were seen as signs of weakness and incompetence, while denying your femininity and emulating men meant a chance at more respectable, mainstream success. Barbie was a response to that idea, to the idea that a woman has to become like a man to succeed like one. Barbie can do everything, and she can do it in a dress and heels. Barbie can be an airline pilot and homeowner, and her plane and house can be as entirely feminine as her wardrobe. When times changed and the toxic femininity tropes shifted to slutty women using their bodies for success, Barbie was sometimes accused of playing into that trope. But that perspective misses the original context of Barbie’s disruptive femininity.