Universal Themes: Barbie

One of the big ideas they try to give you in a liberal arts education is that there is a relatively small number of common themes that run through a lot —all — of what we as humans think about and write down. Indeed, you can boil your whole first year of Western Lit down to a listicle of universal themes, and many people have. (I guess one of the themes should be “reduction to thematic core”, right up there with “coming of age” and “crime and punishment”.)

When we saw Barbie last year, I thought it was a near-perfect articulation of its core self. Others may have a different name for that theme, but maybe I’ll just call it “Barbie”… maybe it’s an archetype that will last the ages. You could sum it up as “an impossibly perfect woman learns about herself, overcoming obstacles and making the world better, while also managing her hapless Ken who is unable to use his powers wisely.”

The next couple of movies we saw turned out to explore facets of the same theme. First, we saw Taylor Swift’s concert movie, which should really have been titled “Barbie Sings”. Then we saw a silly French movie called (in English) Jack Mimoun and the Secrets of Val Verde. Although focused more on a scruffy French Ken than on Barbie herself, and granted that its notion of “impossibly perfect” is also a bit scruffy compared to Margot Taylor Robbie Swift, it fits the archetype reasonably well anyway.

Then came Poor Things. I thought it was a fantastic movie. It seemed very different at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I think it’s just a Goth retelling of the Barbie story. And in fact, a shockingly close retelling. I’m now not sure if that makes me like it more or less.

I struggled at first to put Dream Scenario in the box. Another really good film, I thought. Barbie herself doesn’t make much of an appearance. But if you think of it as a Ken story, a cautionary tale about what happens when Ken is left to his own devices…

Yesterday we finally saw Oppenheimer. Incredible film. But now that I’ve got this Barbie and Ken thing in my mind… J Robert Oppenheimer is emotionally hapless and can’t manage his own godlike powers. If only he’d listened more to the Barbies in his life!