Barbie is so much more than a moment.
She has history…
Image courtesy of Us Weekly
Whether you hate Barbie, love Barbie or just prefer Bratz to her (cough, cough I identify with that last group) you can’t deny the cultural impact she’s had on people for literally generations.
When I first heard about the Barbie movie set to release on July 21 of this year— I rolled my eyes and scrunched up my nose. That was my most honest and genuine first reaction.
The teaser trailer came out and I dismissed it, went about my life as usual— until the first full trailer came out. And y’all, when that first trailer released, I was smiling and thinking to myself, “oh whaaat, okay I have to go see this”. Also— I squealed a bit in delight to see how many from the cast of Sex Education will be in the movie!
“It’s giving Life-Size…”
Culturally, Barbie used to get a lot of smack— and rightly so. For about ten years, Barbies were only white and had only stereotypical woman or household-ish occupations and activities to do in their play sets.
The first Black “Barbie” (because she was technically just Barbie’s friend), only came out in 1968 and her name was Talking Christie. She wore a beautiful red dress and curly fro atop her head. The first official African American Barbie was released in 1980 (and I just discovered that you can buy it, too), along with a Latina Barbie. Later that same year, more than 40 different international Barbies released.
Barbie made her debut in 1959, wearing that infamous black and white bikini shown in the teaser trailer. Her first ground-breaking job (at the time) was an astronaut in 1965. And in another, much later, cultural advancement, the first STEM Barbie was released in 2018.
I’m getting the sense that this is going to be more than just a silly movie about an ignorant adult experiencing “the real world” for the first time. Which I’m thankful for because we’ve seen so many of those. It’s giving Life-Size, the AMAZING movie starring Tyra Banks and Lindsey Lohan from 2001. If you need a refresher, I’ve included the trailer just below this sentence.
As I’m writing this, I’m now finding out that Life-Size 2 came out in 2018 and I’m equally curious and scared to watch that because the original was soooo good. Ugh, okay— something I’ll have to grapple with on my own time.
Back to this year’s Barbie movie, whether you’re a Barbie stan or hater, I think this new movie will be of interest to scope out and look for that deeper message they’re trying to weave into it. And if this is the first time you’re hearing of this new movie I am shocked (and honored) because so many brands have come out with official collaborations to promote and support the movie. Some of them are super cute! Some of them are random, but still cute. If you’d like to check some of those out, I have a handy little shoppable Benable list linked right here for you.
Image courtesy of People Magazine
So, will you be heading to this theater later this month? And will it be with or without a full-blown Barbie ‘fit?
Curious about making your own shoppable lists? Check out Benable, and use my link to sign up and get a bonus offer after completing your first list. Get started here.
Sources:
CNET
Us Weekly
History
Mashable
People Magazine
Insider
YouTube
Warner Brothers
