The Big Picture
Barbie explores complex themes of patriarchy, mortality, and womanhood. The most powerful scene is when Barbie tells an old woman she is beautiful. The scene celebrates the beauty and privilege of aging, a message often overlooked in society.
Now that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is finally available for streaming on Max, there’s no better time to rewatch this year’s pink, plastic, and fantastic smash hit. Barbie might be at its most fun when it’s bombarding us with bright pink nostalgia and energetic dance numbers, but the movie really shines when it leans into its complex explorations of patriarchy, mortality, and what it means to be a woman just trying to exist in society. While there were many scenes including America Ferrera’s poignant monologue that artfully explore all of these ideas, Barbie’s most powerful scene is actually one with barely any words at all: when Barbie (Margot Robbie) sits on a bench next to an old woman (Ann Roth) and tells her that she’s beautiful.
Barbie
Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.
Release Date July 21, 2023
Rating PG-13
Runtime 114 minutes
What Is Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ About?
In Barbie, the titular toy lives in the wonderful world of Barbieland, a matriarchal society where the women are in charge of the government, and the men are content to beach each other off and vie for scraps of the Barbies’ glowing attention. Our protagonist, referred to as Stereotypical Barbie, is just that: a radiant blonde bombshell who has no specific career path but is generous, kind, and happy to spend her days hosting friends at the Dreamhouse. However, when Barbie’s feet suddenly turn flat (gasp!) and she starts to have frightening thoughts about impending death, she pays a visit to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who informs Barbie that she has to travel to the real world in order to find the girl playing with her and help her rediscover her joy.
After a long journey across space, sea, and snowscapes, Barbie and her Ken (Ryan Gosling) finally arrive in Venice Beach, where Barbie feels an unfamiliar sense of unease and insecurity, while Ken feels a power he’s never experienced. To Barbie’s horror and Ken’s astonished delight, they soon learn that the real world isn’t a matriarchy at all, but rather a patriarchy run predominantly by white guys who hold most positions of power, plaster their faces on the currency, and ogle women in the streets (I know, I know… #notallkens.) The longer that Barbie stays in the real world, the more disillusioned she becomes with its treatment of women but the more enchanted she becomes by just how real it is, offering tears and trees and a range of intense feelings that Barbieland has never provided her.
Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ Tackles Self-Love in a Patriarchal Society
As she takes a seat on a park bench and reflects on the enormity of her discoveries, Barbie looks over and sees an old woman sitting next to her. It’s important to remember that in Barbieland, there are no old women, as Barbies are supposed to reflect a brand of ageless, untouched beauty. This is Barbie’s first time seeing a woman with gray hair and wrinkled skin, and we can imagine how shocking that would be for her. Earlier in the movie during her malfunctioning, we saw Barbie experience a spot of cellulite, and it almost sent her over the deep end, so we can see how this moment of seeing her first senior citizen could have easily been played for a cheap laugh. Rather than make a joke at the woman’s expense, however, Barbie looks at her mystified, taking a beat before simply saying “You’re beautiful.” The woman quietly agrees with Barbie’s observation, and the two just sit there and smile at each other until Gosling’s Ken saunters over with exciting revelations about the existence of male domination and also horses.
Related Let’s Hear It For Barbie’s Non-Ken Kens They may not be named Ken, but they all have a certain Kenergy.
Now, any woman knows that when somebody tells her she’s beautiful, she’s either expected to be astonished that somebody thinks she’s attractive, or she has to reject the compliment flat-out so that she doesn’t seem conceited. This scene in Barbie pays no mind to any of that nonsense, and the woman is allowed to acknowledge that she’s stunning, and she knows it. Furthermore, the idea of female beauty in a patriarchal society is made so much more complicated by the process of aging. At a time when young girls can age themselves by fifty years using TikTok filters and then be horrified by the results, we’re taught every day that the older we get, the less attractive we become. Men become silver foxes while women become obsolete.
This Scene in ‘Barbie’ Embraces the Beauty and Privilege of Aging
Barbie takes the opposite approach, using this scene to appreciate the beauty of aging. Writer and director Greta Gerwig discussed the short but vital scene in an interview with The New York Times, discussing how she cast her good friend, 91-year-old costume designer Ann Roth in the role and considers the scene integral to the movie’s central message. Gerwig perfectly describes the moment as a “transaction of grace” between the two women, and we can see how it encapsulates Barbie’s examinations of mortality and beauty. In an age when advertisements for Baby Botox and retinoids are constantly being shoved down women’s throats, it is nice to just have a moment in which the privilege of a long life is celebrated rather than bemoaned. It also helps Barbie realize at the end of the movie that although real life doesn’t last forever, that’s what makes it so special, and she would prefer it over her current plastic reality.
As we flock to our couches to rewatch Barbie and get another fix of Gerwig’s pink paradise, we can enjoy this short moment and feel infinitely grateful that it wasn’t left on the cutting room floor. This powerful scene in Barbie is so important because it reminds women that we should be so lucky to meet these older, beautiful versions of ourselves, weathered by all the trials of life and surviving through it anyway. While we may, at times, envy days spent within the delicate walls of a Dreamhouse, Barbie shows us that although real life isn’t always perfect, it far outweighs an artificial existence.
Barbie is now available to stream on Max.
Watch on Max