Barbie From A Trans, Disabled Perspective

I liked the movie but it's not nearly groundbreaking enough to justify the absolute tantrum the right threw over it.

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[Oakwyrm]

Thanks to Moonflower01 on discord and their friend Icy for planting this seed in my brain ^^

[jacobcox]

I heard the words "Trans Barbie" in the video and the first image that came to my head was just a Ken doll with top scars.

[altejoh]

So, if the how a child treats their dolls/toys is supposed to be a reflection of their own self-image, then the concept of a "Weird Barby" is even more terrifying, honestly.

[WallebyDamned]

There was one Barbie with a prosthetic arm and I only noticed because the arm was a shiny gold to match her belt.
Also the reaction to flat feet would have made more sense if it was the more common Barbie problem of feet chewed off by a child.

[kinasakuraba]

Wait NOT ruining your Barbie is the minority??? It literally never occurred to me to cut her hair or color on her! When someone told me they had she said it's cuz she actually hated it so that made sense.

[zenebean]

Barbie's moment asking about becoming human felt so good to me as a trans person, I wish I could feel it was intentional. It just reminded me so poignantly of when I was first realizing I was trans. The combo of the montage made me cry so hard

[missgms]

I personally believe the whole thing is more of a metaphor of accepting the possibility of becoming disabled or old or ugly, more than a metaphor to disability itself. Barbie and the plastic world she lives in is a picture of our own sugar coating and delusional society, and how we fool ourselves into thinking that all the realities of life like death, violence, age, illness, disability and etc are too far away to reach us until they knock on our doors. Barbie truly embraced life and the joy of living it by accepting these things that seem terrible but are just a part of the human experience, and I believe we would all know how to handle these situations better if we were accepting of their existence and welcoming to let the grief and frustrations of an imperfect life flow out while we move forward. In a way, this movie is about learning to find joy in life despite whatever is on our path, and about acceptance and healthy coping of various types of grief.

[CrowSongProductions]

I never saw Weird Barbie as needing to grow to accept herself, it seemed to me she was already doing that from the word go - she lives in her weird house, she has her weird dog, heck, she even introduces herself as Weird Barbie. She seems like she already IS owning it.

[Oonagh]

They have a ton of disabled Barbies now. I just bought my son a Black deaf Ken. The thing about representing disability is that so many are unseen. A Barbie that uses sign language looks like..what? A Barbie with a neurological disorder is represented…how? A Tshirt that says “I have a headache!” Would be pretty shite. My point is I think part of Barbie’s representation isn’t just the accoutrements that come with a disability, but the fact that a child can take one of those toys and give that doll whatever backstory they choose.
Now that I think about it: a Barbie with possible fingers would be very rad.

[WhiteCresentKnight]

I’m not used to people being so nice to the Barbie movie when it comes to talking about how it effects minorities. They usually start with a “your valid for liking it if your a girl” and then them tearing apart a film that’s ultimately pretty basic theme wise and condemning it for not sound everything perfectly in its run time

[Rainears]

So I and my mom watched the Barbie movie for the first time last night, and during the dance scene when the disabled Barbie was onscreen, I found myself asking if the actress playing the disabled Barbie was actually disabled. I also was like "Ah, baby's first criticism of Barbie and Feminism 101". Not to say I didn't like the movie (loved it), but yeah, I wasn't expecting it to be that deep, and it was clear that a lot of heart went into this movie.

[cryptic_sunflower]

I still think it’s a bit about disability in the human world part. Barbie in general feels neurodivergent. Like she’s socially awkward. She doesn’t understand people, she walks kinda funny, doesn’t get scarcasm. From an autistic or social anxiety standpoint this all fits. There is also an argument for ocd, in that the barbie world works in a pattern that repeats every day, and barbie relies on similar patterns to feel safe

[רוניבןעזרא-וש]

This is a very mature take on the Barbie movie, I love this video.

[Turai]

Glad to have you back! Haven't watched the movie but it wouldn't surprise me if the film makers knew of the diversity criticism they included but Matell themselves were in the dark.

[EmmaDilemma]

Even though I transitioned, I still don't feel confident in myself or feel good about my body, so the idea of wanting to be stereotypically pretty is appealing. It breaks my heart every time I watch the part where barbie is crying and looks up and says she won't be pretty anymore. It felt so fucking raw and genuine. I've been there before, crying because I felt like I would never be pretty.
And I don't think it's wrong to want to be pretty. It's just easy to get sucked into tying that to self-worth.

[TheProxy]

I really liked the video. I've been avoiding all Barbie Movie related content because I was worried about the movie being spoiled. I haven't watched the movie yet because I was worried about how it would affect me because I've seen a lot of people being emotionally devastated by the movie when it came out.

Also, I hope you're recovering well! Take care of yourself. (P.S. I've never been this early before, so that's cool.)

[itsemmallright]

I think a trans Barbie could work. As a kid at one point I didn't have any Kens so I would just declare usually the ugliest Barbie is a man and carry on playing. I don't know how a kid would end up with the opposite problem though of having only Kens. Maybe they have a mean sibling that hoards all the Barbies.

[shimaspawn]

I am so glad you’re recovering . I was worried about you. The Rona is the worst. Thank you for going over this movie.

[roryaphunter]

I didn't quite know what to expect when I clicked on this video, but I really enjoyed your insights. As someone with autism who absolutely adored this film, this actually made me look at it in a different light. I'm glad you liked the film too whilst still acknowledging its limitations.

[ebonyblack]

I have a friend who loves the Barbie Movie deeply, when we watched it together she was nodding happily during the becoming human part, now I wonder if it spoke to her as a trans girl in a way I had missed even as an NB, because she just beams about the choosing to be real aspect when she talks about it.