Six months after the release of the movie, Barbie took home the award for “Cinematic And Box Office Achievement” at the Golden Globes on January 7th. While this night should have been about rewarding all of the hard work that went into creating this movie, it was instead gifted with the ‘jokes’ of host Jo Koy.
Although Koy claims the jokes weren’t all written by him, and that they didn’t come out right, he not only belittled the entirety of Barbie, but all of the people involved. His jokes not only discredited the movie as a whole, but the comments that were made about it had nothing to do with the underlying message. Jo Koy’s entire monologue proves why the movie was made in the first place because men will never be able to truly understand how hard it is to be a woman in society.
Not only did Jo Koy claim that the movie was solely about “a plastic doll with big boobies” he also made a claim that the ‘key moment’ in the movie was when Barbie went from “perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet.” While he was trying to follow this up with a joke about character actors, it really just made everyone annoyed and incredibly flat.
The point of the Barbie movie practically had nothing to do with her appearance, but the existential crisis she faced about figuring out her true self. Existentialism is considered to be when someone questions not only the purpose of existing but the overall purpose of life. All her life Barbie has been advocating about feminism and the empowerment that has been embraced by everyone in the real world. We as viewers clearly see that this is wrong because, in today’s society, women are still not treated as equals and are not given many opportunities for empowerment. Not only have women been taught to serve men, but we have been thrown on the sidelines.
When most men watch the Barbie movie, they think it is stupid and agree with Ken’s views instead of Barbie’s, which once again proves the fact that they will never be able to understand what life is like as a woman. They think this movie was a silly little kid movie with Margot Robbie playing a ‘hot doll with boobs.’
Although this movie is a light-hearted, fun film, there are so many underlying messages that are so important for women. Dealing with not only the complex idea of finding your true self and your purpose in life but also proudly implying so many issues relating to feminism. Overall, this movie had so much more than it implied on the surface, and it is one that really deserves to not only be watched, but seen and heard. This movie stands for so much more than Barbie simply being a feminist icon, and people like Jo Koy shouldn’t get to take that away.