Barbie is the most famous doll in the world and she was ‘born’ in 1959 in Los Angeles.
After so many years we finally got to see ‘Barbie’ the film come out in theaters and people say that this film is succeeding, more than Tom Cruise, in the Impossible Mission of saving cinema.
Even if I haven’t been in the US for a very long time, I had never, in my entire life, seen so many people waiting in line at the movie theater!

I have watched it too, perhaps out of curiosity or to emulate my friends, and I must say that “Barbie” is a film of pure entertainment. It is colorful and chaotic, it is very fun and funny and it combines elements of comedy movies, musicals and heist films.
It touches some important topics and some people are considering it to be too feminist, discriminating and vulgar as well but nobody took the Barbie movie head on as much as the American conservative party, which made the most imaginative accusations against it.
It’s moving some political controversies and it will not land in Vietnam which has to due to a map appearing in the film and showing some disputed waters of the South China Sea, contested by various governments including those of Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia.
But the issue was enough to lead top Republican officials to say that Barbie is a Chinese propaganda tool which I think it’s quite an exaggeration.

I think the film mostly owes its popularity to the fame of the Barbie doll of course, but also to the fact that cinema really needed a ‘fresh plot’, something innovative and young.

In addition to the geopolitical aspect, the Barbie film caused another crisis apparently. That of fluorescent pink paint. In fact, such a quantity was needed for the set causing a worldwide shortage and for a while, like “the world ran out of pink!” sort of thing.

In a way I feel like the American economy seems to follow the style promoted by the Barbie movie, it is all pink as the numbers confirm. Americans, today more than ever, want to consume and it doesn't matter if the prices are through the roof. A result that is the result of two simple words: spending and resilience. A combination of desire to spend and resilience to unquestionable product increases.
This is some post-Covid reaction to seize the day which has been characterizing the new ‘American attitude.’

It seems also that more and more people resort to aesthetic surgery to look similar to the famous dolls.
A dangerous phenomenon that came to light also thanks to some media cases of “flesh-and-blood Barbies”.
According to experts, this phenomenon is made possible by prolonged exposure, especially at a young age, to role models which, combined with the innate difficulty of many people in finding their own identity or developing their own personality, would influence the choices (and judgement!) of some people.

Here in America Barbie is taken quite seriously though as there are many collectors with tons of Barbie dolls, Barbie conventions and events to exchange dolls and you can even rent Malibu Barbie villa in…Malibu, of course!
I was obviously never a fan of the doll but I must admit that this toy is an icon and in a way it also represents the golden American dream life which many, probably including myself, dreamed of at least once while growing up.
Barbie was also changed over the years and now it’s more ‘politically correct’ including many ethnicities, races and profiles.