MovieChat Forums > Barbie (2023) Discussion > I could have loved this movie

I could have loved this movie

posted 8 months ago by avortac4 (3751)
3 replies | jump to latest

I am the first one to admit I do _NOT_ conform to any stereotype. It is my right, it is my freedom as a human being to be just a human being.

I point people to watch the ORIGINAL Care Bears intro that they QUICKLY changed. Its lyrics were something like, 'I don't want to be a cook or a fireman, I just want to be a Carebear'.

You notice how it rejects the forced stereotyps men usually blindly obey in this world? What? I have a choice of just being myself, insted of having to do what the world tells me I should do or pursue? I don't HAVE to have a career to be valuable? I don't have to BUY the right to exist?

My perspective to the Universe is, we all have the right to choose. We have the right to be human beings instead of having to always conform to gender or any other stereotypes. If you feel like you are a manly macho man and organically and genuinely WANT to do 'macho man things' (unless they're unethical, of course), go for it, you have my support, I have no problem with that.

If you are naturally, organically feminine and absolutely just adore feminine things and want to be feminine, regardless of which kind of temporary physical body you happen to reside in, go for it, you have my support in that case, too.

The problem comes when the world has a problem with men that like 'feminine' things, while still not having problem with women liking 'manly' things for some reason. At least be equal and congruent about this inhuman humanity-hating attitude. Men can't love bright colors, but women can. What, why?

Men can't love beautiful dresses and sparkly fabrics, but women can. Women can also love black and grey clothes, and no one cares.

The problem is, women can wear pants, but men can't wear dresses. Would anyone take a president or CEO seriously, that comes to work wearing a pink, flowy dress? I don't think so.

Then why are we taking women seriously, when they wear dark, gloomy clothes or manly business suits and pants? It makes no sense.

In the end, it should not matter WHAT kind of clothing anyone drapes their temporary, gendered physical body. WHY would it matter? Unless it's an official situation, where uniform can help, like peace officer (policy enforcer nowadays) or a fireman, or any other capacity where it's actually important, I don't see why anyone should care.

I have been free to love or hate anything I just happen to love or hate as a kid. There was a small period of feeling 'weird' about liking certain stuff, like cute cartoons as a preteen-teenage, but I bruteforced myself through it, and now I am free again.

As a free human being, anyone should be able to watch some cartoon and love/like it if it's good in some way, right? Anyone should be able to like or love any colors, bright or dark, because we have human eyes that can appreciate colors, RIGHT? Pink and blue should not be some kind of hardwired codes for female and male genders, especially since they USED to be the opposite once in history!

That's right, masculinity was RED, femininity was BLUE, I guess, because red was a 'strong' color, and blue not as much (if you look at the vibration frequency of colors, this should be obvious, red has bigger 'waves', because it's longer wavelength, lower frequency).

People used to casually wear pink shirts in TV shows, it did NOT seem to be a gender-thing at all in the 1980s - from ALF's Tanner to Miami Vice's Crockett, people of macho and not-so-macho wore pink shirts as a normal, everyday thing.

Finally getting to the point..

I have watched Barbie movies, played with Barbie dolls, played Barbie video games and other similar 'girly' entertainment. Some of its trash, others are good, others do not speak to me, while yet others do. I make no distinction between some good Jem and the Holograms-episode, and a good Inspector Gadget-episode. I can watch MacGyver and enjoy it, while also immersing myself with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and praise a good episode in my mind (I also like the artwork, it's ingenious how with simple lines they can make something look so good and 'real' in its own way).

I absolutely loved The Powerpuff Girls (it has an anti-feministic, or at least common-sensical episode, if you can believe that! Finally SOMETHING that makes sense..), could binge-watch He-Man - I am sure you get the idea.

So if this movie had been good, if it had been made 'for all audiences', or even if it had been a silly kids' movie, but made with heart and humor (just watch AntZ, Shrek or Cars 2, which I still don't get why people hate it, it's good!), and the well-crafted 'adults see things kids don't get'-stuff, I could very easily have loved it.

I don't care that it's Barbie, give it to me, I will enjoy it if it's good! I don't care if it's 'girly', I love 'girly' stuff just as much as 'macho' stuff - in fact, I just look at all stuff as 'human' stuff, not through any gender lens - so bring it on!

Alas, I can't love a preachy, bad manhate-movie.

[–] avortac4 (3751) 8 months ago

Just a clarification.. I would not love a womanhate-movie, either.

I don't think it's wise to hate people based on physical qualities. Hate them based on their stupidity!

I kid, but seriously - if this same Barbie movie had been made in reverse, where men were hating on women and whining how hard it is to be a man (EVEN THOUGH it would be WAY, way way way way WAY more true!), I still couldn't stomach it and I still wouldn't want to watch it, and I still couldn't love it.

Just make a good movie that does NOT disparage or insult any group of people based on their physical qualities, and I'll watch it, and if it's done as well as the gems I mentioned earlier, I would probably love them.

I could have loved this movie, I seriously would have watched it gladly and happily and loved it. I already love some of its visuals and fashions and things like that. I have no problem with 'Barbie'-style visuals, pink stuff, beautiful dresses, hairstyles and the 'glitzy valley girl bimbo glitter world', it's fun to visit that stuff from time to time. It reminds me of every time I have seen a 'girl's room', so to say. As a teenager or even a child, when you enter some young teenage girl's room, it's SUCH a different experience from any 'boy's room' you have ever experienced, whether that girl is your sister, step-sister or your own-age romantic potential partner or whatever.

It's always interesting how they have a very different vibe - there's a lot more useless, superficial, gilded junk, there is some weird fragnance lingering in the air, there are more bright, pink, fluffy things, plushies, and other decorative items, plus many bottles of weird, mystical potions and magical liquids you never quite understand the purpose of - it's almost like entering some secret sorcerer's lair that apprentice is not supposed to experience.. and seeing all this mystical stuff.

[–] avortac4 (3751) 8 months ago

There are always hideous posters of some idiot celebrities, often 'teen boys' or 'teen boy band' members on the walls, and it's almost like entering some secret world of partially repulsive, partially mystiquing, intriguing and fascinating stuff. You feel like Mr. Spock when his emotions were opened up to him and he felt.. 'happy' for the first time on that weird planet.

A myriad of wonders surround you, and only the enemy wizards of Leonus the Capricornicus or Braddius Pittus the Third stare you down from all of the walls, while some junk pop is filling the ear canals with some kind of battle hymns clearly designed to disrupt any mental processes that might be able to resist the odd, eerie charm of the previously unseen lair.

So if Barbie the movie had been a very 'girly' movie with all the glitter and pink that go with it, but it would have been a GOOD movie, it's possible that many men's experience would have mirrored what I just described about the typical girls' room. There would have been strange, stomach-churning odors and surprises, but at the same time, the slow pull of the glittery charm might have destroyed the audience's resistance for long enough that the goodness of the movie's story and dialogue would've kicked in, or something.

But alas, it's just 'visually slightly interesting fema-fascist claptrap', where actual men's liberation is still far in the horizon.

Isn't it strange that there was all this talk about liberation, emancipation, equality and birth control - but after decades of that, MEN were still not liberated?

Men still have NO reproductive rights, women can steal men's sperm from condoms and inject it in their cavernous body and get pregnant and the man, who DID WEAR A CONDOM still has to pay for everything, and has NO SAY about whether to become a father or not. (This is almost like a trend nowadays, and women are PROUDLY posting videos of committing this fraud)

Men still can't wear dresses, while women can wear whatevertheywant..

[–] cv1cv (515) 8 months ago

BEWARE! Avortac4 is a troll trying to waste everyone's time with such idiotic comments. Look at his posts. He doesn't think anything in any film makes sense. His post may seem like it makes sense in the first sentence or two. But he always quickly wanders off into a completely idiotic idea, and then writes a wall of text that makes no sense. And his sole purpose is to waste your time, thinking he's cute for doing so. Don't feed the troll. If you write a comment, you're giving this troll EXACTLY what he wants. Don't comment after my comment.