My producers dragged me to see ‘Barbie’ and it was one of the most woke movies have ever seen. My ful review of this flaming garbage heap of a film will be out on my YouTube channel tomorrow at 10am ET.
I normally post news on here but this picture is legit hilarious. Mods feel free to delete if not appropriate 😹
I feel like this fits nicely here :
“Woke is when I hate something, and the more I hate it, the more woke it is”
Hahahaha, that sums up this new conservative wave perfectly.
I recommend the episodes of the Behind The Bastards podcast where they read through Ben Shapiro’s novel, they are hilarious.
They do his novel, his short stories, and excerpts from his books about sex. The episodes are fantastic. The writing is appalling.
It was one of the most woke movies I have ever seen
translation: as a straight white dude this is Ben’s first experience not being the target audience for something
Hahahhahaa this idiot
The best thing about Ben Shapiro is that each day I share on this planet with him is one less day I need to coexist with Ben Shapiro.
Each day he shares on this planet with you. You gotta outlive assholes like Ben Shapiro.
Has this dude ever had a real job?
Wow I didn’t know Barbie movie was that good.
Must mean it’s great, can’t wait to see it, which is not something I expected to say.
I saw it this afternoon, I had a great time! It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, although I can’t say I know exactly what I was expecting going into it… It was a lot more political than I expected, and a lot more thoughtful.
It certainly lacks subtlety, and beats you around the head with its themes (feminism, toxic masculinity, the patriarchy, empowerment, finding and accepting yourself). To be clear, I don’t think it lacking subtlety is a bad thing at all; it makes it very clear what points it’s addressing, and doesn’t leave anything down to personal experiences, or interpretations of nuanced lines. And it has a lot of fun with it!
Apparently right-wing people are upset with it, though. Because of course they are. It’s about Barbie being a strong, independent woman. It’s got a lot of diversity, and it’s not shy about the fact that its diversity is because Barbie dolls themselves have a lot of diversity, so yes, it’s very deliberately forced diversity. It has a trans actress in - I didn’t even realise she was trans until a few minutes ago when I was looking up why right-wing people are upset, but apparently it’s a terrible thing. It doesn’t peddle any propaganda about traditional family values either, if you can believe such a thing (which is particularly upsetting to Matt Gaetz’ wife for some reason).
It’s fun. It’s funny. It’s thoughtful. And Ryan Gosling is fantastic in it. (Margot Robbie is very good, too, but her character is a little less colourful). It won’t be something that will change your entire outlook on life, or that you’ll be thinking about every day for the next six months, but it’s a solid ~8/10, and unless you froth at the mouth at the idea of women having shudder aGeNcY, you’ll probably have a good time with it!
It’s about Barbie being a strong, independent woman.
What interesting is it’s actually everyone else who is being strong and independent! You’ll notice Barbie is not actually doing anything. All of her problems are either purely internal (existential crisis that she is navigating by observing others) OR completely external but she can’t solve them herself. The mom/daughter and Ken are the ones experiencing autonomy and self-actualization, they are the ones taking direct action and driving the plot forward. Barbie is a catalyst.
Barbie is - wait for it - an accessory to help them with their personal growths! And by participating in this, Barbie is not only helping everyone else, but becoming a “real” multi-dimensional character in her own right.
I really enjoyed this movie, sorry to dig this weeks old post up lol
Don’t apologise for digging it up, it’s a really good comment! Barbie being an accessory to other people’s growth is a brilliant way of framing it that I hadn’t considered - I love that!
I also like framing it that, at the beginning of the film, everyone’s identity is somewhat defined by Barbie (as a concept - not the character):
- Barbie is obvious - she is just living the “dream” Barbie life and doesn’t know anything outside of that. She struggles when she starts to gain humanity because she feels inferior to the other, more accomplished Barbies (doctor Barbie, president Barbie, astronaut Barbie, etc);
- Ken - his entire life revolves around being “and Ken”; He exists to be Barbie’s mild love interest, and is basically irrelevant when Barbie’s not around;
- The mother is basically clinging onto childhood optimism and better times by playing with Barbie. She’s using Barbie as an escape, but she’s also warping the concept of Barbie with her depression;
- The daughter is wholly and actively rejecting Barbie (and her and her friends are also references to Bratz - the “anti-Barbie”), to the point where she’s overly cynical, tough, bitter, and not empathetic enough.
By the end of the film, I think everyone ends up empowering and being empowered by the ideals of Barbie (the concept) while also rejecting the relationship they had with the concept at the start of the film:
- Barbie learns to be human. She gains empathy. She sees the value in women having roles like doctor, president, astronaut, etc, but realises it shouldn’t be an expectation for every woman and that she’s not inferior for not having one of those jobs;
- Ken starts his journey of discovering his own identity, rather than just being an extension of/accessory to Barbie;
- The mother and daughter repair their relationship and the mother (we can assume) stops her “depressed Barbie” creations as her life improves.
- The daughter realises some parts of Barbie’s message are positives - that it’s meant for empowerment rather than to set unrealistic expectations. So in some ways, she embraces the concept of Barbie, which is a rejection of her previous relationship with the concept.
It’s preachy, but only because Barbie is preachy. It fits the source material perfectly. All the characters are literally Barbies you have been able to buy for 50 years, so I don’t know how people could be upset. Mattel is run by all dudes, and Ken is a himbo. All of these things are quintessential Barbie for decades.
It’s like a comedy version of the matrix, if that makes sense. In one scene Barbie has to choose whether to stay in Barbieland or go to the real world. Instead of a red or blue pill, she has to choose between a high heel or a Birkenstock sandal.
It’s actually a pretty inoffensive mirror to society without many plot holes. Not like Lord of the Rings. Why don’t the eagles just drop the ring in the volcano?!?
honestly lmao at Ben being dragged in, beaten and preached at for nearly two hours with all of this. just perfect, I approve already.
Purely as a thought experiment, I wonder what would happen if we did a Clockwork Orange treatment on him with this movie?
It’s like a comedy version of the matrix, if that makes sense.
well, Matrix: Russurections was clearly satire, and I laughed through the entire thing, so, yeah, that makes sense to me.
Terrific write-up, you expressed my thoughts on it much better and more succinctly than I could have.
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Wtf is that beard? Looks like he drew it on with magic marker
Oh shit, I didn’t know Alan made it to the real world too
Is he ever happy with anything? Like, I’m not even here to debate his views. He just seems so miserable all the time, as if he can’t find any joy in life.
He’s happy with his sister’s cup size.
It’s hos job to be upset. He is happy with the money that he makes from the attention.
Yeah happiness is a free time endeavour. Every time you see any picture of Ben Shapiro, he’s working.
“attention ho” sums him up pretty well
You are describing every modern conservative ever
I’m describing Ben Shapiro, the man in the picture.
…as well as every other modern conservative.
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Y’all went off the rails right about here when this got personal. You can try again, or better yet just disengage since this seems like a fairly low stakes disagreement.
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It takes no effort to steer a conversation about a prominent right-wing social media figure who harps on prominent right-wing culture war issues towards conservatives.
Those things are literally the same topic.
You see this on both sides lol
Nowhere did I say it was exclusively modern cons, but they sure are the majority
Worked with him recently on a project ( I was an extra, I do not support their trash) and he was a tool. All the higher ups at DW were smarmy or openly rude and bitchy to the cast and crew. Especially Candace Owens. They were all so far up their own asses it was ridiculous.
This is great news for the Barbie Movie
Movie was kinda mid tbh, Oppenheimer was better.
They were both pretty good. I just did a Barbenheimer, it is very much worth it to watch both.
I did the same thing, I can understand Ben’s frustration since Barbie felt weirdly political in certain parts but overall Oppenheimer was just the better movie, especially if you got to see it in IMAX.
My theater doesn’t have an IMAX and I am butthurt about that fact.
I actually kind of liked barbie better, ngl. Oppenheimer was good, but it was everything I feared it would be as an engineer whose professors repeated stories about the Manhattan project ad nauseum to me.
I’m a first year Aero Engineering student, can’t wait for teachers to play this in class lol.
Looks like downstairs at the Green Hills theater by Green Hills Mall.
Well Barbie is an accomplished woman with a bajillion jobs so it’s not surprising the movie is “woke”. Barbie was “woke” for her time.
I bet they make a fuck ton of money off this movie, once again disproving “go woke go broke”
Woke is here to stay, it’s called human rights
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I wonder how they would choose to make such a movie less woke? I’m going to have to ask about that some time.
“Woke” is the new “politically correct”. If you want know what they really mean, just replace the word “woke” with “treating people with respect” or “respectful”.
As in, “I hate treating people with respect” or “Hollywood is too respectful nowadays”. “When did the world become so respectful?!?”
If you want know what they really mean, just replace the word “woke” with “treating people with respect” or “respectful”.
Anyone upset at that is not worth listening to.
Unfortunately, assholes like Shapiro have a huge audience of exactly the kind of assholes who gobble this shit up.
.
Oh, and they vote consistantly… do you?
One thing I’ve heard is when conservatives use the word “woke”, just replace it with “uppity”, because once you cut out all the bullshit that’s what they mean. To a conservative, everybody has a place in society in that there are people born onto a natural hierarchy. Black people are inferior to white people, poor people are inferior to rich people, etc., and in true Calvinist fashion it doesn’t matter what choices people make, there’s no action one can take to change their position. Wherever a person happens to be as an accident of birth defines their value. And in that line of thinking, the worst imaginable crime isn’t murder or rape or genocide, it’s upsetting the little caste system they’ve imposed upon the world. Woke ultimately means upsetting the caste system. That includes allowing women to have human rights, letting black people attend college, but even also applying the oh so bronze age concept of rule of law to those who commit crimes against someone “lesser than”.
Conservatism is literally incompatible with civilized society in the most fundamental sense. Democracy isn’t just at stake, it’s the entire concept of rule of law. If conservatives had their way, every day would be like The Purge.
in true Calvinist fashion it doesn’t matter what choices people make, there’s no action one can take to change their position.
Exactly. Like how all the “self-made men who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps” slag off on AOC for having had to work a real job once.
Even more stupid when you realize that female bartenders make the most tips from sleazy old men who think they can get flirting and phone numbers before they go home to their wives and children lmao
Fuck him with a steel dildo.
