The far right is constantly warning that if you go woke, you’ll go broke. But when it comes to the new Barbie movie, they couldn’t be more wrong.
Barbie, which follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) as they leave Barbie Land to explore the real world, earned a whopping $162 million in its opening weekend, Variety reported Monday. This is the biggest opening weekend of the year, and the biggest opening weekend for a female director ever.
The film had already made $22.3 million at the domestic box office from Thursday previews, the biggest preview haul of the summer. It blew the previous record of $17.5 million (made by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May) out of the water.
I know nothing about this movie except that it’s apparently a fun time. Can someone please tell me what makes the Barbie Movie “woke” just for the sake of context?
Because apparently telling children/girls that they can have independence, be anything they want, and recognizing womens struggles is woke
Look man, my wife does whatever I tell her to. She was
groomedraised that way.You know how hard it is to be insecure AND lazy AND have a wife that wants to do crazy shit like “whatever she wants” or even evil communist shit like “get a job” or “talk to others without me listening in” or “disabling the GPS tracker I put on her phone”?
This movie helps drive her in that direction, then what am I supposed to do?
It also lampoons conservative culture of patriarchy.
Without spoilers, they broadly bring up the idea that equality for the sexes isn’t in effect at present moment.
Ah, thank you. I know literally nothing about it and wasn’t sure how people would be upset.
I was thinking it was like the Lego movie or something.
I wonder why people didn’t lose their mind over that Lego movie being political. Why is “average Joe is the real hero when he just lets go of restrictive norms” not a political statement? But “Barbie is the hero in her own movie by abolishing restrictive norms” is woke/political?
I feel like it might be because those movies contain a lot more than just that.
It depicts women outside of a tradition Christian gender role of being barefoot in the kitchen, and can be used as a political weapon.
Damn I didn’t realize the extremely feminine toy about princesses, playing house, being a mommy, and other typical women roles did a complete 180 to Barbie the rebel liberal skank.
You forgot electrical engineer, astronaut, …
That Barbie skank the zoologist.
https://a.co/d/1o8yxDd
It isn’t woke. Conservative critics misunderstood the movie. They’re complaining that it’s anti-motherhood (it’s not, it’s pro-), that it’s anti-male (it’s not, it properly recognizes men’s struggles), etc. But the discussion is surrounding the more political/gender norm themes of the movie which are quite openly stated and talked about (sexism, feminism, patriarchy, etc).
Haven’t seen the movie, but I’m planning to. I’m sure it’s fine. That said, as neutrally as I can I’ll try to define characteristics of a ‘woke’ movie.
If said in bad-faith, ‘woke’ means: “Something I don’t like because … women. Amirite.” (aka: A dog-whistle)
If said in good-faith ‘woke’ describes a way to write female characters in the laziest way possible. Some of the good-faith criticisms of wokeness:
There are other points I could bring up, but these are some of the basics. One can have a fun ‘woke’ movie, one can have a crap non-woke movie.
And just so that I don’t get accused of being some closet misogynist, I’m going to provide two female characters that I consider 'woke, and two that are not so that a comparison can be made to illustrate above points:
Woke:
Galadriel - from Amazon’s ‘Rings of Power’
Rey - from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Well written female characters:
Vi - from Arcane
Ripley - from Alien
Heh.
Yes. There’s that.
And, at the same time, it’s also true that Hollywood has taken established IPs, re-written them in an incredibly lazy way, and then turned around and accused people who criticize the laziness as being assholes for pointing it out.
Can you give a few examples of which IPs have been “re-written”? Rey for example is the protagonist in the new Star Wars movies. They weren’t remakes of the old ones. And Galadriel was always that powerful.
Ghostbusters
1 what’s gratuitous? More than 12% of the cast? A ratio that normally makes you clutch your pearls at the store?
2 happens in every male action movie ever made but it’s men being awesome. 3 has been every sitcom since the first sitcom (I hate 3 but conservatives have loved those shows for decades). And for 3, in men’s movies, the women were just props. I bet you love Planet Of the Apes. The man is super awesome and perfect and the woman is literally a pointless mute.
4 happens for movies with men, constantly.
Your examples are trash too. So Star Wars would have been just fine if Rey was Ray. Why?
You list Ripley but how is that different? If alien was made in 2019 you’d be saying the same shit
Your definition is if it’s like a man’s movie but a woman
Hello @Saneless I hope this reply finds you well.
Should make something clear: @DrMango asked “Can someone please tell me what makes the Barbie Movie woke”. I’m just doing my best to give a reasonably-neutral answer. I don’t necessarily agree with the attitude. (Although, I think I can appreciate it better than most who aren’t RWers.)
Also: I should have added bullet point #5:
**5. All the above are applied to established IP with existing cultural resonance. ** I regret I didn’t include it in the above list since it’s key to understanding the objections to ‘wokeness’ … but in my defense, this is a Lemmy thread - how much time should anyone put into anything on a minor Lemmy thread? ;-)
With that out of the way:
It’s not a percentage … it’s when a character is cast based on virtue-signaling rather than what makes sense for the story or original IP. For example: A story set in Kamakura period, Japan shouldn’t have Native Americans in the back-ground drinking steins of beer. A character who is described in a book as a middle-aged British Victorian butler shouldn’t be a 20-something, lesbian, black woman.
Yes, there are examples of male characters being awesome out-of-the-gate. But I would submit that the ones that resonate are the ones that had to grow. These resonating characters & stories are what Hollywood studios are re-working in the laziest way possible. (One quick example: Skywalker had to grow into his role, Rey automatically understands everything.) It just seems that every new movie based on an established IP has to make the Strong Female Character good at anything.
We’re talking about what makes something woke. Weak character and story arcs are a staple of wokeness, but not the only one.
I disagree. Ripley, for the movies time, was an original character. Moreover: She made mistakes, grew as a person, and had a decent arc.
To wrap this up: ‘Woke’ is a synonym for lazy writing when applied to established IP - especially when pointing out the laziness opens one to accusations of misogyny.
Cheers!
When people accept something happening in a male character they do not accept in a female character that is at least sexist. If Rey was male perhaps there still would have been some whining, but the sheer amount of angry men tears online over Rey being too good is in part due to her being a woman.
I don’t think people accept it happening in a male character, in both cases it makes for a bad movie. The term woke is just so politically charged it doesn’t really apply to when it is a male character.
Why is it woke when female or “minority” characters are this way but not when white male characters are this way? Your points describe the majority of movies featuring a male white protagonist.
And how is Galadriel not the way she is described in the original IP?
Not OP but both are bad movies for the same reason, the term woke just only applies to those that seem to have been made this way to promote some idea that minority women are amazing and white men suck. That’s just how the term woke evolved since it’s a politically charged term.
I don’t know much about this but is this the dwarf queen who was supposed to have a beard but didn’t? If so then yeah definitely not as described in the original IP. If not, well yeah no idea then.
I haven’t seen the movie, but I can blindly assume its either
or
Increased diversity in casting isn’t just to please a minority. Those of us in majority demographics also love seeing the demographics of real life reflected in media. Pushing the boundaries of what could/SHOULD have been is perfectly lovely.
As for your second paragraph: so it’s when women- led stories are like men’s stories have been since time immemorial.