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 😹
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
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.
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.
You are describing every modern conservative ever
I'm describing Ben Shapiro, the man in the picture.
...as well as every other modern conservative.
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.
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):
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:
This is the epitome of "conservatives" today: unhappy, vengeful, trying to destroy things for other people, and only focused on nonsense culture-war stuff.
It makes me sad. If they just spent a fraction of the effort they use to tear things down to build something worthwhile up instead, we'd be much better off.
Don't be sad! There's people of all political groups and belief systems working hard right this moment to improve things, they are just quiet and don't draw attention to themselves... Join them and we can literally make the world a better place! 😁
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