Barbie Editorial

Greta Gerwig's take on Barbie seemed campy and cringe when the first few trailers came out. People dunked on it and memed it, and while many social media users had strong inklings that it would be good, the common conception was that this was going to be another 'childhood treasure turned awful corporate monstrosity' film.

Within sixteen days, Barbie had earned over one billion dollars.

This was huge. A movie that was solely directed by a woman had never reached this amount of money, not even considering the amount of time it took for it to get that far! For context, Avatar, considered to be the highest grossing film of all time, took nineteen days to reach one billion dollars. It was primarily directed by and primarily and acted in by men, and while a three day difference doesn't seem like a big deal, Barbie beating Avatar is groundbreaking.

Barbie set the scene for a complete revolution of how the film industry sees women. Here's why it matters.

When Ryan Gosling was cast to play Ken, there was genuine public outrage. "He's too old", some said. "Gosling isn't fit enough to play Ken," said others. This might seem trivial, but it's important to note that this kind of behavior regarding casting is something that many, if not all, female actresses experience on a daily basis.

If a woman is cast for a part, there is always going to be the vocal minority of people who body-shame her for not looking the way they want her to look. Women have been subjected to this harassment, just for existing and playing a part, since cinema began.

Ryan Gosling's experience put him in the shoes of all the actresses that came before him, and it unintentionally drew attention to the double standards viewers have towards actors and the roles they play.

The gender roles were flipped this time, and now, people are aware of the problem. Hopefully the film community will work towards easing the harmful treatment that actors and actresses receive.

Barbie also was primarily run by women- the lead costume designer was female, the set designer was female, the casting directors were both female, the list goes on and on. For movies that gross this amount of money, typically women are just in the backseat, but not for Barbie. Barbie showed the world that what is traditionally seen as a 'man's job' can be done by anybody, regardless of what gender they were assigned at birth.

Barbie's message has always been "You can be anything", as the slogan quite literally goes, and Gerwig's take on it was pretty literal. While the Barbies in the movie are presidents and supreme court justices, journalists and novelists, the real Barbies were the women who put their hearts and souls into creating such a touching film for people all over.

Barbie is not just a cutesy little girl movie. It's not just a critique on the patriarchy (and the matriarchy, actually). It's a movie about empowering those who haven't had any power at all, and it managed to do so within the world of its story, as well as outside of it.

Because of Barbie’s massive success, millions of little girls all over the globe have been shown that they can truly "be anything", even in the face of adversity and disdain. Barbie taught the world that it doesn't matter who you are, you can make a difference and make it big through teamwork and dedicated effort.

Barbie showed not just little girls that they matter, but the whole world.

And frankly, it's about time.