Guess What Team ‘Barbie’ Is Hiding? (Hint: It’s Woke)
Second trailer puts focus on fun, frivolity, downplays reported feminist lectures
We just got our second official look at the most intriguing movie of the summer.
“Barbie,” based on the Mattel doll franchise, stars Margot Robbie as the beloved figurine sprung to life. Ryan Gosling co-stars as Ken, but the bustling cast features multiple versions of both Barbie and Ken.
The Kens include:
- Simu Liu
- Kingsley Ben-Adir
- John Cena
The Barbie lineup features:
- Emma Mackey
- Nicola Coughlan
- Kate McKinnon
- Hari Nef (a transwoman)
The film’s first teaser trailer was just that – a peek at the candy-color world imagined by director/co-writer Greta Gerwig.
The just-released second trailer doesn’t give much away in terms of plot, but we get a fuller look at the film, its characters and the wink-wink comic tone.
What’s missing so far? Any sense that the film packs a serious Culture War punch. Except early test screenings say that’s exactly what this “Barbie” is all about.
World of Reel shared two anonymous reactions to that screening. Both indicate the trailers are hiding plenty:
Despite the overall spiky and over the top comedy (there’s even a chase scene!), it remains surprisingly emotional and playfully and blissfully political without being heavy-handed … America Ferrara’s monologue about double standards women face earned applause.
That kind of moment is the epitome of woke storytelling – a lecture jammed into a scene to send a message.
Fiercely feminist and volcanically hysterical. So flashy and bright. Will win Oscars for Costume and Design, they’re delicious. It deconstructs the feminist iconography of Barbie and recontextualizes her for a new generation … since this is Gerwig, there’s a big heart at the center. Margot plays Barbie with a Valley accent, interest and agency, as she questions her position in Barbieland and clashes with Ken about patriarchy.
Some of the cast members aren’t coy about the film’s intentions. Co-star Will Ferrell told the Wall Street Journal that Gerwig’s film is more than a famous toy tie-in.
“It’s a loving homage to the brand and, at the same time, couldn’t be more satirical — just an amazing comment on male patriarchy and women in society and why Barbie’s criticized and yet why every little girl still wants to play with Barbie. Boy, when I read it, I was like, ‘This is fantastic.’”
This snippet from W Magazine highlights how the film will be packed with “empowerment” along with Gosling’s infamous abs.
In addition to Robbie as The Barbie herself, Dua Lipa, who’s making music for the soundtrack, is Mermaid Barbie with bright blue hair. Issa Rae is President Barbie, Ritu Arya is Barbie with a Pulitzer, and Emma Mackey is Nobel Prize Barbie. Hari Nef is Doctor Barbie and Sharon Rooney is Lawyer Barbie, while Ana Cruz Kayne and Nicola Coughlan are Supreme Court Justice Barbie and Diplomat Barbie, respectively. Alexandra Shipp is Celebrated Author Barbie…
Meanwhile, the various Kens are just … Kens.
Plus, Gerwig’s feminist bona fides are clear given her recent directorial efforts like 2019’s “Little Women” and various press interviews.
“Right now there’s a lot of desire to hire female directors because of the attention that’s been placed on the lack of women directors by organizations like Time’s Up,” she says. “Until it’s 50/50, I think putting pressure on studios to hire women and producers to get behind female directed and written films is really important.”
So why haven’t we seen anything about these themes in the marketing campaign to date?
It’s simple.
Marketers know that woke doesn’t sell. While Hollywood suits may pretend the phrase, “get woke, go broke” never entered their minds their marketing gurus know better.
Hollywood is starting to see just how toxic woke can be to their bottom line.
Warner Bros. Discovery canceled the reportedly woke “Batgirl” film before it could even reach HBO Max subscribers. The woke “Willow” reboot lasted just one season on Disney+. The woke “Lord of the Rings” series from Amazon Prime saw its viewership plummet once audiences got a taste of its virtue signaling.
There’s a new “Harry Potter” TV series in the works, despite the woke mob’s rage against J.K. Rowling, the creator of the Potter universe.
Netflix scrapped two woke projects late last year, including one from Meghan Markle.
Even the Oscars ditched much of its woke messaging last month and watched its ratings inch up.
Gerwig and Warner Bros. want to bring the film’s alleged lectures to the masses, but they know being up front about it at this stage of the marketing cycle could be devastating.
The buzz got out early that the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot had woke plastered all over it, and the film never recovered from that early bad buzz.
The marketing gurus behind “Barbie” learned that lesson, and the focus for the time being will be on the brand, the beautiful stars and the film’s comic tone. Just know if Team “Barbie” goes public with its woke messaging the media will rally to its side in near lockstep.
“Barbie” hits theaters nationwide July 21.
Considering how hard retailers and tv producers have been after backing the raunbiw dog and po y shiw one would hioe wb would get a clue…. clearly they are hiding it better to bolster boxoffice opening receipts but in the end it will bite them in the ass.
Has anyone noticed how women only make movies about one underlying story?… How men are bad and women are victims but also better, smarter, more powerful than them? I cannot name one movie made by women that tells any other story?
Has anyone noticed the increased division between genders the past few years?
Has anyone noticed how both men and women look less happy since 4th wave feminism started?
Has anyone else started sending a scam?
So basically, any movie that tackles the subject of feminism in any single way automatically makes it “woke” to you? YOU HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN THIS MOVIE YET. You have absolutely no idea how it’s gonna be executed or written, so why are you already bashing it? And why do you have to emphasize that Hari Nef is a transwoman? SO WHAT? Why don’t you just see her as a person? Look at her, she looks like a Barbie doll, so why shouldn’t she play one of the Barbies?
P.S. The word “woke” has been thrown around so many times that it doesn’t even mean anything anymore.
It sure does. Ask Amazon. Ask Nike. Ask Disney. Ask Budweiser!
What is not being addressed is the REAL theme of the picture:
– Actual girls will be encouraged to identify with a vain ‘celebration’ of consumerism, frivolity, and sterility (because there has NEVER been a pregnant Barbie).
– Babies are not just to be abandoned, but DESTROYED. Think about that – the little girls don’t just drop their child-dolls, they SMASH them, in a simulation of post-birth abortion.
Actually Midge was released as a pregnant barbie, but hit back lash over concern of encouraging teen pregnancy. So it was pulled right away.
Barbie is Woke. We will all know before the movie opens. This happened with Disney’s Strange World, which opened with no publicity. People found out eventually when it was a horrible movie. That’s the problem with Woke. The movies are really really bad.
They had better cut that double standards monologue “America Ferrara’s monologue about double standards women face earned applause.”
Exactly who are they fooling. Double standards benefit women in this case because they can look pretty, wear fabulous outfits, and pursue careers with Ken tagging along. What hypocrisy.
We are the anti-Woke. We Woke up to Woke propaganda and will not purchase ideological driven propaganda. Keep losing money Hollywood!!!
@PP
You’re comparing apples to oranges. Strange World was an original movie with zero publicity, So, that was DOA.
By contrast, Barbie has gotten lots of publicity and is based on one of the most popular toy lines of all time. Those factors give the film a big advantage over the competition.
Bait and Switch won’t work either. Remember, the Woke was hidden and the publicity doesn’t reflect the actual content. Okay, I’ll compare it to Lightyear.
@PP
Due to media coverage, the public was aware of Lightyear having gay characters.
@Fred2: Obviously, more media reports about Barbie Woke will appear. This is just the first.
This movie opens on the same day as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Let that sink in.
We have always suspected that Barbie has fake boobs but now we are about to find out that she also has a fake penis to go with them.
Parents, bring your preteen daughters.
John Cena as a Ken Doll. Talk about perfect casting. No genitalia to speak of, particularly when it comes to China.
@Christian Toto
Two things.
First, you’re misusing the slang term “woke.” See Maj Toure’s video on the definition of woke:
https://youtu.be/bffPbd2PXYQ
Second, how do you know that the Batgirl film would be Far Left in its themes when you did not see it?
Toure’s definition of “woke” is terrible; a fanciful lie spun into propaganda that no one with any wisdom or discretion would accept as the common understanding of the term. Try this instead:
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/of-course-you-know-what-woke-means
You’re spot on. Toure is a hack so it’s not a surprise his definition would be hackneyed propaganda. The one you linked is 100% spot on.
@Shawn
America would be better off if it had more “hacks” like Maj Toure who:
* Turned African Americans into the newest gun buying demo by a huge margin when the NRA said it was impossible:
https://youtu.be/dYdk9gSp2Kw
* Go into urban areas and train residents in self-defense:
https://youtu.be/xW_kau8iJLk
https://youtu.be/gxorgShG8Yo
* Consistently stood against COVID mandates and lockdowns while the GOP overall folded:
https://youtu.be/ZIp_lY8dCa0
* Also consistently stand against Red Flag Laws, which too many in the GOP support:
https://youtu.be/KovRl24rE-s
* Defend free speech for all Americans including controversial ones like Alex Jones:
https://youtu.be/1Swms05-thw
Just admit you hate America, you big crybaby.
@Shawn
America would be better off if it had more “hacks” like Maj Toure who:
* Turned African Americans into the newest gun buying demo by a huge margin:
https://youtu.be/dYdk9gSp2Kw
* Went into urban areas to train residents in self-defense:
https://youtu.be/xW_kau8iJLk
* Consistently stood against Red Flag Laws, which too many in the GOP have supported:
https://youtu.be/KovRl24rE-s
Just admit you hate America, you big crybaby.
Original aren’t you? Bet you write Brandon’s speeches. Are you auditing t replace Lemon or Joy Bear?
@AJ
Toure is using woke properly. That slang term was used among African Americans decades before Toto became a critic.
The problem is that conservatives can’t admit that Toto and other right wing influencers use the slang improperly. The same is true of progressives.
No, we use it correctly. Language evolves, we own the word now.
@Brian
No. You’re simply proving that conservatives who misuse woke are no better than the Left calling Bruce Jenner a woman.
@Fred2
No. Your just moving the goalpost, because you can’t except that the Barbie movie might be a disaster.
LOL Woke had its meaning before black culture appropriated it. So it’s okay for blacks to change words but any further changes are wrong and racist? LOL
Wokeness in full effect. LOL
One of the worst definitions I’ve ever seen when it comes to the term “woke”. He used it correctly in this article.
@Chad
Sorry, but Christian used woke improperly.
You and Maj Toure are swimming against the tide. His argument seems to be that the term “woke” originally meant you had awakened from a dream state where you weren’t fully aware of things and woke to a world where a miasma of lies, slanted tall tales and half truths was illuminated and dispelled so you could at last clearly see distinct shapes and true colors, objective reality in short. He’s not wrong. But like climate, cats, and other forces of nature, language is very very hard to control; almost literally a creation of the mob; individuals will use it and change it to suit their needs, if they can get away with it, if the mob allows them to do so. Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty and Orwell’s Ministry of Truth are literary examples. And because language itself is pretty uncontrollable, lately we see lots of attempts to control or censor the dissemination or publication of language. The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and those in power know it, but they would use their swords to take way your pen.
Helping “woke” escape definitional confines were the mis-, mal- and un- informed folks who had been dreaming and who dreamed on, and dreamed that they had awakened — had become “woke” — and in this counterfeit, non- MajToure “woke” state (which is instead a very deep dream state) they convinced themselves that they could see a non-existent reality and have gone on to try to convince others to see it too, like the Emperor’s New Clothes. In this Reality 2.0, reality is as malleable as language, everything was a “social construct,” everything was as it was because human perceptions, words, and choices made it so. There was no male and female, not even any good and bad, “except that thinking makes it so.” Those are words Shakespeare wrote 400 years ago for Hamlet, words that other characters heard as evidence of an unbalanced mind, a mind embittered by injustice, tempted by suicide and driven by revenge. The play concludes with a stage littered with dead people; let’s hope we come to a better end.
Second:
” Discovery canceled the reportedly woke “Batgirl” film before it could even reach HBO Max subscribers”
Christian didn’t say he thought so, he said it was reported as such when cancelled
—sg
Naaah, it’s very close to being accurate. Here’s a more thorough deconstruction of “woke”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ6w9kpp29E
Also, woke was being used more broadly and leftists were sneaking the term in different stuff. They are just salty coz the broader mainstream saw through it early enough.
And nice attempt at gaslighting there, either you are simply not in touch with current events or are running cover for woke bs, one of the actresses confirmed that it was going to be woke.
https://archive.ph/fvL3f
Two things: First definition for words change all the time. For example queer means strange, peculiar or odd. It isn’t an umbrella term for all things gay. People already have words to describe themselves. Second an actress from Batgirl came out and said it was woke.
Woke means all annoying things that we have to hear too much about. Misusing it is fun.