“She’s everything. He’s just Ken.”
So reads the now-infamous poster for the upcoming Barbie movie – and according to the latest trailer, the whole plot revolves around those two sentences. In Greta Gerwig’s adaptation, Barbie must contend with an evil white man in the real world while essentially parenting a horde of inconceivably dim-witted Kens.
Oh, but apparently men aren't exactly the problem here - only normal straight men are. Actor Hari Nef, a man who believes he’s a woman, says the movie will empower all those like him who don't "identify" with their biological gender.
“As much as there’s a celebration of femininity and being a girl in this [movie], I think there’s also an encouragement of letting go of the checklist we ascribe to living and living your life and being in your body your way, on your own terms,” Nef said in a Wednesday interview with Out Magazine. “The best that we can do as women, as trans women, is be there for each other and take ourselves at face value, without relying on the green light from someone or anyone else.”
Nef explained his rationale for this message in an April Instagram post.
“‘Doll’ is fraught, glamorous; she is, and she isn’t,” Nef claimed. “We [trans people] call ourselves ‘the dolls’ in the face of everything we know we are, never will be, hope to be. We yell the word because the word matters. And no doll matters more than Barbie.”
Unfortunately, Nef sees Barbie as a mere first step into trans-dominated films, even though he claims that “[i]dentity politics and cinema aren’t my favorite combination[.]”
“I’m excited to tell stories about trans people that aren’t merely redemptive, that aren’t rooted in transition or discovery,” he explained. “I’m excited for trans assholes on-screen. I’m excited for trans antiheroes on-screen. I’m excited for trans scammers on-screen. I’m excited for trans sex on screen. I’m excited for trans nudity on-screen.”
Related: CA Teacher Who Sponsored 'Transition Closets' Is Part of Anti-Catholic Drag Group
As much as we would wish it otherwise, the LGBTQIA+ agenda in Barbie doesn’t merely exist in Nef’s head. Gerwig intentionally included trans actors in the film.
“We are opening the doors to the Barbie universe,” stated Gerwig in another interview with Out Magazine. “There’s no way we could have told this story without bringing in the LGBTQ+ community, and it was important for us to represent the diversity that Mattel has created with all of the different Barbies and Kens that exist today.”
“I’ve joked before, it really did feel like Greta Gerwig’s Drag Race,” Nef said. “Because I was doing acting, dancing, comedy, and the whole time I was cinched, wigged, painted from head to toe, padded, heels.”
As pink and chic Margot Robbie looks in all the promotional material, Barbie is a far, detestable cry from a celebration of femininity. Is it really feminine to hate white men? To belittle them as dumb sex toys? To make exceptions only for mentally ill guys who think they’re little girls?
It’s up to us, the moviegoing public, to show Hollywood that we believe otherwise. I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that the Barbie movie won’t be a part of mine.
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