*spoilers ahead, please do not read if you have not watch the Barbie movie and have plans to watch it.*
The place I am currently living does not permit the operation of cinemas which is rather absurd as the other states within the same country allows it. Personally I don’t fancy going to the cinema as I often think the seats are unhygienic, the sound system is too loud and sometimes there might be some horrid smell of pungent feet. However despite the downside of watching movies in public, going to the cinema for a good movie often makes up for whatever deficit the cinema has. Watching the trailer for Barbie, I think it would be a lighthearted, funny and girlie movie to watch with some girl friends. I initially planned for all of us to wear pink but due to the heavy traffic and time constrain we had to head to the cinema right after the congress in our professionally looking attires. We were almost late but as we entered the cinema the movie have just begun with a cheerful music introducing us to Barbie world with all it’s perfection.
I find the movie to be quite short but entertaining and contains many important messages for the viewers. Overall, I would rate it 7 out of 10. I liked the theme of women empowerment shown in the movie, and the speech by Gloria moved me deeply. She accurately summarise the struggles of being a woman and it is often confusing and conflicting. The world we live in is still heavily dominated by males and it would be nice if we could slowly move towards a world where it is being run by both genders. However given a choice if the world must have a dominant energy, I think the female energy is much better. I am not saying this because I’m a female but because we have seen through history what patriarchy have turn the world into. It is full of testosterone driven wars and unruly energies and often times they want women to serve them and wait on them. We can clearly see how smart women are being reduced to bimbos in Barbie world after men took over the lead. It is such a huge contrast when compared to Barbies ruling the world, as all the Kens were living in freedom and never made to serve any of the Barbies. They were all having a lot of fun together and the only discomfort Ken felt was because his feelings were unrequited and that is not Barbie’s fault.
I admire Barbie for standing firm in what she believes in and no she is not playing hard to get, she just values her own principles above other things. She is clear of what her dreams are and she is also willing to fix things even when she have no idea on how to solve the problem. It reminds me of the law of attraction where you do not need to know how, you just need to trust the process. I was also very surprised that Barbie was willing to leave her world to live in the human world where feelings are much complex. I mean I would choose to live in Barbie world compared to the human world because in their world everyday is a good day. (I forgot the exact words but it was something like “yesterday, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next Wednesday and every other day is a perfect day!”) Just repeating these words mentally does make me feel a lot of positive vibes. I think I could use this as part of my affirmation chant. I deduce that Barbie having not felt other feelings other than happiness was rather thrilled to discover a range of emotions that she was able to feel when she visited the human world. Besides, what is happiness without sadness? If one never gets sad, how could one understand the intensity of their happiness?
Another thing that I agree with Barbie is that we need to be ourselves and we should not let material things or people define who we are. Ken say he isn’t Ken without Barbie but Barbie disagrees. I think in life we often associate ourselves with something else in order to feel valuable but it is not suppose to be like that. We are precious and priceless just by being ourselves and if we don’t start to see ourselves in that light, no one else will. I’m glad to see that Ken was able to comprehend what Barbie was trying to make him see despite him being such a fruitcake in the movie. Ken’s character also taught me to be more empathetic towards other people’s feelings because in this individualistic world, a lot of people just needed their feelings to be validated. Had Barbie paid a little attention to Ken’s feelings, perhaps he wouldn’t have felt so unimportant. Then again being a woman is hard because a little empathy and friendliness could be misunderstood by the opposite gender and leads to more unwanted problems sometimes. It is just so hard to be kind and unsuspecting and trusting sometimes but that is my default mode.
I’m glad I initiated the movie outing despite feeling quite exhausted from all the travelling and conference marathon. The next WFSA is just next door and I am contemplating to go but then again it would cost a bomb due to the exchange rate. If I don’t go this time the next will be in Morocco and then in Canada. Maybe I should flip a coin to decide or just ask the universe to send me a sign.
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