Barbie, or Life in Plastic

"It’s about a fucking doll!" - Amy Taubin

This week, the Marvelous! crew sets their sights on the hot pink pop cultural phenomenon that is Barbie, a billion-plus dollar (post-)feminist object/Mattel rebrand strategy grappling with the fraught, symbolic legacy of the world's most famous doll by giving her a kitschy existentialist crisis. We talk about how the film's priorities as an officially licensed commercial product limit its purportedly feminist politics, its 2016-internet conception of masculinity, how camp aesthetics and self-effacing humor disavow the specter of capitalism, and think a little too deeply about the metaphysical relationship between Barbie Land and the real world. Plus, Nicole gives a lesson on post-feminism, commodified Girl Power, and how Barbie signaled a consumerist end to Fourth Wave feminism as a meaningful political project.

(This episode is dedicated to the life, memory, and herstory of famed Barbie-critic and CIA asset Gloria Steinem.)

"After 'Barbie,' Mattel is Raiding its Entire Toybox" by Alex Barasch

"This Barbie Has Melancholy Feminism: Framing Empowerment and Grievable Lives" by Scarlette Nhi Do

"#Feminism: The Internet’s Facilitation of the Fourth Wave” by Nicole Veneto

Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert

Feeling Cynical About Barbie by Broey Deschanel

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

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Gaza Funds

PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)