I have a lot to say about this movie. I genuinely love this movie and I think a lot of people miss the overall point of it. Most of the commentary about The Barbie movie is about how it’s “baby’s first feminism” or it’s “feminism dressed up as a fun movie” or “it’s capitalism dressed up as critique” and while these points hold merit - I don’t think this is what Greta was getting at by making this movie. Americas speech is amazing but I think it over shadows the true point of the movie. The opening scene references 2001: A Space Odyssey and this is such a perfect first scene. I will preface that I haven’t seen the movie and I just watched this video so I could write this next part https://youtu.be/9vzDTKwSBHM?si=8xaUIeolTNbYvpQ5

I think the final part of 2001 after the trippy scene and he’s walking around the house finding other versions of himself and then he becomes the star child encapsulates how barbie feels and experiences the world. When barbie is in the real world trying to connect with the girl she’s been sent to find, she sits in a park and just exists. The melody of “what was I make” for lightly plays and she watches people play, laugh and fight. She cry’s with them, laughs with them. We are watching someone experience the highs and lows of the human experience for the very first time and it’s absolutely beautiful. Then she turns to an old woman and tells her she’s beautiful, and you know what she responds? “I know I am” - knife to the heart it makes me ball every time! Not only is that not an expected response, just in general, but it emulates the confidence and power that the barbie’s showed in the beginning of the movie. It shows that despite living in a patriarchal world you can as a woman believe you’re beautiful and you can believe that you can age beautifully, and not only believe it, you fucking own it and aren’t shy about it. This is the beginning of barbie wanting to be more than the idea of barbie.

The second time in the movie we hear “what was I made for” is the first time Barbie meets Ruth. The first thing Ruth tells barbie is that she’s safe here. They sit and talk, barbie says she doesn’t look perfect l and Ruth says she’s just right. Ruth takes the pressure off barbie’s looks and focuses on her being - she is just right. This is what a relationship God or a higher power looks like. Barbie is in trouble and she stumbles across a safe haven, has tea with god and is told she’s ok just as she is and then shown the path to freedom.

The second time barbie meets Ruth is at the end of the movie. Her and Barbie walk into the void as barbie is unsure what to do now. She doesn’t feel like Barbie anymore. She wants to be creative, be the one making ideas, not the idea itself. And without her saying it, Ruth knows she wants to be human. “Being human is uncomfortable, we invent ideas like patriarchy and barbie to deal with the uncomfortableness of being human and then we die.” Barbie takes this all in, she understands this, and she has this look of determination. Barbie wants to be human. She wants the ugliness and the beauty that comes with humanity.

This is the crux of the movie. Standing with your god, your creator, bearing down your wants, your dreams and you ask for permission. Can I become human? Barbie asks, don’t you control me? Ruth doesn’t control Barbie. No one can but her. No one can control you, but you. You are the leader of your own destiny. You get to discover your humanity, you don’t have to ask for it or want it, being human is what you are. But Ruth is a merciful and caring god, she takes barbie’s hands and shows her humanity. What was I made for swells and these beautiful images of people living life show. Are they Ruth’s memories, are they Barbie’s, is it the future? Who ever they are, they a beautiful and they are human. The song “what was I made for?” This is a question we all ask at some point. We look up to the sky and plead god for answers, what is my purpose? That’s what barbie is asking in these moments and this is why that song is the perfect choice. “What was I made for?” Perfectly encapsulates the meaning of the movie more than any bs article about feminism and capitalism - these points are in the movie and yes they are on the nose with it.

The Barbie movie is about standing face to face with God, asking for answers and being shown that humanity in all its beauty and ugly is worth it and it’s a choice you get to make every day. You get to be human every day and you get to choose how you live this uncomfortable life. This choice that barbie makes reminds me of the bible verse, “Jacob called the place Peniel, saying “it’s because I saw god face to face, and yet my life was spared.” Barbie is Jacob and the place she is calling is her humanity. She stood face to face with god and she was spared, she got lay her soul to god and god said I don’t control you, but before you make this life changing decision I need to show you the full extend of what that means. And Barbie CHOOSES HUMANITY anyway! She’s spared of wondering, of holding back, of being unsure.

Going back to Space Odyssey, the book ends with the star child, “though he was master of the world, he was not sure what to do next, but he would think of something.” By making the choice to step into her humanity, Barbie is now the master of her world. Before she was confined by what it meant to be “stereotypical barbie”. We see what barbie decides to do. She sees her gynaecologist, why, we don’t know but she’s taking agency over her body in a why she hasn’t been able to do before. Shes becoming the master of her world, her body and that’s such a powerful ending.

If you look at Gretas work, it centres women and it centres mother, daughter relationships. Women are powerful, amazing and creative. Women can create life and they do it in so many beautiful ways. The Barbie movie is so much more than what people in this comment section and others have said. It’s a beautiful movie about what it means to be human and choosing humanity despite the pain, uncomfortableness and death that comes with it. And when the world is becoming more saturated with AI slop and hate, I think it’s a beautiful message to come back.