At the Movies: Barbie
What do you do when you’re a perfect girl living in a perfect world with a perfect boyfriend… and it all starts to fall apart? Explore ideas of identity, beauty, and self-worth with the help of this summer’s pinkest movie.
Transcript
SERIES INTRO
Welcome to our new series, At the Movies. Why do we do this series? Well, first, I enjoy a good movie. And any good movie tells a great story. And great stories weave in deep truths that can make us laugh and cry because they speak into deep places—our identity, purpose, hopes, and fears. The most recent movie that made me bawl was Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Go check that one out if haven’t yet.
Over the next 3 weeks, we’re going to talk about
Barbie
Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse
The Little Mermaid
The top box office movies this summer. In each one, we’ll talk about the themes they explore and the questions they ask. And along the way, find truth from God that can speak into those deep places as well. Today, we’re kicking it off with Barbie. Let’s watch the trailer!
BARBIE CONTROVERSY
Barbie is currently the #1 movie of the summer and it’s currently the #2 of 2023 movie release. It’s also been one of the more controversial ones too attracting the attention of all sorts of people. Some appreciate how the movie addresses issues like gender, identity, and patriarchy while others have called for a boycott. Some have even burned the dolls in protest stating that it is based on a woke agenda. Even before the movie, Barbie has been a polarizing cultural icon. According to Insider.com, Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, wanted to give her daughter a doll that could inspire her to be more than what was available. In the 1950s, women were primarily seen as mothers and caregivers, so the majority of dolls were babies. Although Handler modeled the Barbie doll after a German doll, which has a provocative background, her desire was to create something for girls to look up to.
DESIRES AND ASPIRATIONS
I think this is something we can all relate to regardless of how we feel about Barbie. We all have desires and ambitions, so we model our lives after someone or something that we deem perfect in the respective fields that we are interested in. We look up to them as guidance. We might draw inspiration from them to become better. For some of us, it might be a person who has succeeded above and beyond in their life goals or careers or maybe it’s something that embodies the character that you want to have.
Sometimes, not all aspirations come from a place of desire, but instead, a place of expectation. Instead of looking up to someone, we conform to a particular image because society tells us to. Maybe we conform because our parents or elders tell us to. We aspire to obtain the traits and characteristics because we believe they will help us be better. Regardless, we strive to be like others in our search to be better, maybe even perfect.
Much of the Barbie movie explores this idea of perfection. Barbie lives in a perfect world, but something happens to disturb that perfection, so she seeks to solve the issue. Similarly, Ken, who, in the process of helping Barbie solve her problems, seeks to find perfection by not being an accessory to Barbie, which causes conflict with Barbie’s perfect world. And actress, America Ferrera, who plays a character named Gloria, has a beautiful monologue towards the end of the movie that’s worth the price of admission describing the difficulties of how others expect women to be perfect without appearing to be perfect. While the movie does a wonderful job exploring questions like identity and purpose, it lacks in providing answers. I agree with an article on the Gospel Coalition written by Jen Oshman says this,
“But whereas the movie falls short in giving clear answers to massive questions about life and gender, Christians should not. We know the God who made us and died to save us. We know what humans are made for. We know both men and women are very good and both men and women need each other. We have God’s Spirit and God’s Word to enable us to be on mission together.”
(Link to article: Christians Should Welcome the Conversations 'Barbie' Sparks by Jen Oshman)
So, what does God have to say about aspiring and striving to be perfect based on our own strategies? Here are a few passages from the Bible that show us what happens when we rely on our own solutions.
RELYING ON OUR OWN SOLUTIONS – 1 SAMUEL 8
Throughout the majority of the Old Testament, God leads his people, the Israelites, but in 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites ask Samuel, one of God’s prophets, for a king. The Israelites complain that Samuel’s way, essentially God’s way, is too old school for them so much so that even Samuel’s sons don’t follow him anymore. Samuel responds by praying to God and God tells him that they want a king because they have rejected God. Samuel warns the Israelites that they will regret their decision, but the Israelites aspire to be perfect and desire to be like other nations. This is how they respond to Samuel,
“We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
Unfortunately, most of the kings ended up being evil, which eventually resulted in the destruction of the kingdom and the exile of the people living in the kingdom. The Israelites’ aspiration to be like other nations caused them to experience their destruction.
RELYING ON OUR OWN SOLUTIONS – ISAIAH 64
In another Old Testament passage, Isaiah describes how God blessed the Israelites, but they were disloyal to God and responded in rebellion by worshipping false gods and making sacrifices on strange altars. Instead of trusting in God and that He would make them right, they instead aspired to be right based on their efforts. Isaiah describes their efforts like this,
“How then can we be saved? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”
It isn’t clear in the English translation, but the words that are used in the original language to describe filthy rag would be the equivalent of a used tampon. The Israelite’s aspirations to be right were based on their own efforts, but unfortunately, all of their aspirations were meaningless. So if it isn’t up to us to be right with God, who is responsible? Verse 8 tells us who. This is what it says,
“Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
RELYING ON GOD’S SOLUTION
The solution to our aspirations that come up short is to trust God. Our aspirations to be perfect fall short. We can try to be like others, but if it isn’t dependent on God than it’s meaningless. It makes me wonder if that’s why Isaiah uses clay to describe us. Clay is basically soil and rock, which is meaningless, but when it’s given to a potter, the potter can mold clay into something meaningful and purposeful. Molding us to be a work from his hands. This reminds me of Ephesians 2:10, which says,
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Our own aspirations to be perfect and right can make us feel like we are successful, but it may often leave others impacted negatively. In the Barbie movie, when Barbie seeks to restore her perfect Barbie world, it impacts Ken’s discovery of what it means to be a man and not just a Barbie accessory. And drawing a parallel, but on a much different scale, in our aspirations and hope to seek perfection for ourselves, it replaces God’s promise of perfection for all of us. Instead of relying on our own aspirations, Paul tells us that our aspiration needs to be in Christ. In Christ, we experience what it means to be perfect. We experience what it means to be his masterpiece.
APPLICATION
Going back to Isaiah 64, to experience what it means to be God’s masterpiece, we have to be clay and we have to allow God to be the potter. So, what does it mean to be clay? In a similar image where we take on the nature of what we’re associated with, Jesus describes himself as the vine and us as the branches in John 15. Repeatedly he tells the disciples to remain in him because apart from him, we can do nothing. Similarly, clay apart from the potter can do nothing. If we remain in Jesus, the result is that we serve our purpose by growing fruit being a branch attached to a vine in a vineyard. But, if we don’t remain in Jesus, we end up withering and thrown into a fire. So what does it mean to remain in Jesus? In verse 7 it means to trust in his words. This is what it says,
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.”
It also means that we keep his commands. In verse 10 it says,
“If you keep my commands, you will remain my love”
And Jesus command is this based on verse 12,
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
So let us seek not our own aspirations, but let us remain in God’s promises by being faithful that He has and He will bless us with His perfection. Let’s pray.