“Girlhood” is a word that has recently become well-known to many women and the social media
world. The new live-action Barbie movie has brought the rise of girlhood and what it is like to be a
woman to a new level. Women have had to deal with outrageous beauty standards and “womanly duties”
for the longest time and are criticized based on how we process our emotions. This is all because of
gender norms placed on us when we were children and what society feels is “our place.” When I first
saw the Barbie movie, I had no idea what to expect other than the original cartoon movies I grew up
watching, and I was pleasantly surprised with the message it sends to all women, including young girls.
The concept of Barbie has to do with the toys that girls play with when they are younger
because, before Barbie, girls were playing with baby dolls as if they were only supposed to be mothers.
Still, Barbie creates this world where women can be anything they want: presidents, doctors, lawyers,
and CEOs. The downside to this is that when you think of Barbie’s image, you think of her as a skinny,
blonde, blue-eyed ball of perfection, but the reality is that women are not perfect, and we all have our
imperfections. Girls go from playing with dolls to immediately being thrown into a world with
expectations and societal views placed on them. Barbie Land can represent a world where girls are
allowed to have a better role in the workplace than what women generally do not have. When the Kens
take over Barbie Land, that represents how it is in the real world, which men predominantly run.
Barbie encapsulated the modern woman and what is perceived as perfect and extraordinary.
When she realizes that she has flaws and is not perfect, it causes her to break down to the point where
she feels worthless. The owner of the stereotypical Barbie, Gloria, has to tell her about how society’s
structure is rigged and contradicting, and no matter what we do, it will never be enough. She says, “We
tie ourselves into knots just so that people will like us” and “We can be pretty but not too much that we
are tempting to men.” Her speech is an excellent representation of how there is no bargaining when it
comes to the pressures placed on us, and we can only keep trying to change it. At some point, women
need to understand that if the expectations never change, then we will never be good enough for what is
“expected” of us. Once Barbie hears this, she understands she does not have to be perfect because of
what everyone else thinks or expects of her, she just has to be enough for herself.
The song “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish is played at the movie’s end when Barbie
decides she no longer wants to be a doll or an idea but wants to be a part of the imagining process. In the
music video for the song, Billie is building a Barbie doll clothing rack, and in the middle, she gets
frustrated that the pieces aren’t fitting together. It begins to rain, which portrays a woman’s tears due to
the many struggles and stigmas we have to overcome. Some of the lyrics include, “When did it end? All
the enjoyment, I’m sad again, don’t tell my boyfriend, It’s not what he’s made for What Was I Made
For?” These lyrics prove that women are more in touch with their feelings, yet a man can not be
bothered to try to understand what we go through or our emotions. The only people who can honestly
know what we go through are other women, our mothers, grandmothers, and friends. Ruth, the creator of
Barbie, states, “We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back and see how far they’ve come”
(Barbie Movie). The women before us have overcome so much that their daughters can have better
opportunities than ever. We have to comprehend that as much as there have been changes placed in our
society, there is still much change that needs to be done so that we can have equal opportunities as men
have.
One way to initiate change is by speaking to your daughters, not conforming to feminine toys
like dolls that place girls into motherly roles and instead letting young girls pick whatever toys they
want. Not conforming to pinks and blues after birth is another way to avoid stereotypical views. Taking
these steps will start a shift in our society and will make it easier for young girls to know they have just
as equal opportunities.