We asked two Bates professors, Jon Cavallero and Erica Rand, to give us the lowdown on what\u2019s up with the doll, from shelf to screen and everything in between, from their areas of expertise: Cavallero is an associate professor of rhetoric, film, and screen studies<\/a>, and Rand is a professor of art and visual culture and gender and sexuality studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rand has more than a passing interest in all things Barbie. In 1995, she published the book Barbie\u2019s Queer Accessories<\/em><\/a>, an examination of the doll, including its appropriation by children and adults using Barbie in very un-Mattel-authorized ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne big \u2018queers-come-hither\u2019 moment in the trailer is when Barbie drives along in her Barbie convertible belting out \u2018Closer to Fine\u2019 <\/em>by the Indigo Girls.”<\/p>\nErica Rand<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Many anticipated that Barbie<\/em> might have overt feminist and queer themes with Gerwig and actor Margot Robbie, as Barbie, at the helm. The latter co-founded the female-focused production company LuckyChap, and the former’s movies, such as Lady Bird<\/em>, have a reputation for feminist disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pre-release marketing hinted at such themes, says Rand. \u201cOne big \u2018queers-come-hither\u2019 moment in the trailer is when Barbie drives along in her Barbie convertible belting out ‘Closer to Fine’ <\/em>by the Indigo Girls, a classic in the lesbian-girl-with-guitar genre, and it comes up repeatedly in the movie.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n But a nod is as far as it goes, says Rand. \u201cIt would be a very different Barbie <\/em>movie if any character identified the song’s queer fanbase. But the film\u2019s camp sensibility and some glorious queer moments, like the all-Ken production number, should not be overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are other queer moments, including the casting of Hari Nef, a transgender actor, as Doctor Barbie. And, Rand adds, the movie does take on \u201cdamaging and contradictory gender expectations.\u201d Still, most of the queerness in the movie\u2019s trailer could be considered \u201cgay window advertising,\u201d Rand told NBC News<\/em><\/a>, where advertisers nod to queer audiences but in a subtle enough way that naysayers don\u2019t notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cQueer is partly what you make it; it also isn’t <\/em>whatever you make of it,\u201d Rand says. \u201cI have to say that I was\u00a0 disappointed \u2014 especially amid all that was feminist about it \u2014 in the persistent gender binary,\u201d Rand said. \u201c[In the movie,] dolls are Barbie or Ken, people are men or women. No one\u2019s asking anyone their pronouns.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rand also noted that \u2014 as in Barbie’s plastic world \u2014 the primary Barbie and Ken remain white. “The film can call the main characters ‘Stereotypical Barbie’ and ‘Stereotypical Ken’ but that doesn’t change the predominant importance of white characters.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Bates, Jon Cavallero teaches film theory, among other courses, and is the author of Hollywood\u2019s Italian American Filmmakers: Capra, Scorsese, Savoca, Coppola, and Tarantino<\/em>. Every other year, he and his students produce the Bates Film Festival<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “[Barbenheimer] frames Barbie<\/em> as the silly movie and Oppenheimer<\/em> as the serious one. That does a disservice to Barbie<\/em>, Greta Gerwig, and Margot Robbie.\u201d<\/p>\nJon Cavallero<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n He, too, has thought about Barbie<\/em> through the lens of the audience experience, including how the bright pink Barbie <\/em>and its fellow opening weekend blockbuster, Oppenheimer<\/em>, a grim thriller about the birth of the nuclear age, became an internet pop-culture mashup meme: \u201cBarbenheimer,\u201d with fans making plans to see both as a unique cinematic experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He recalls how a former student recently told him that friends were urging him to see Barbie<\/em> and Oppenheimer<\/em> back to back because, they said, \u201cyou\u2019re such a film guy.\u201d Cavallero\u2019s response to his former student flipped the script. \u201cBecause you\u2019re the film guy, you have to watch them separately<\/em>.\u201d In other words, \u201cyou have to give them their own space to let them breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n The Barbenheimer mashup, Cavallero argues, creates a troubling binary, in this case \u201cframing Barbie<\/em> as the silly movie and Oppenheimer<\/em> as the serious one. That does a disservice to Barbie<\/em>, Greta Gerwig, and Margot Robbie \u2014 an incredibly talented actress who has worked with well-known male directors who don\u2019t make full use of her talent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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