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'Barbie' Girls in an Anti-Barbie World · Pop Culture Junkie®

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[Music]
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Welcome to the Pop Culture Junkie Podcast. I'm Olivia, here with my fellow
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Junkies. Nicole. And Shauna. Awesome. Well Nicole, Shauna really wanted to pick your
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brains. How did you guys enjoy Barbenheimer Weekend? Yes, hi Barbie. Hi
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Barbie. Barbinheimer Weekend was iconic. I saw Oppenheimer
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first on Friday. Because you hate women? Because I hate women obviously. Oh my
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God, I was so disappointed though. So I was supposed to see it. The IMAX in
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TMP Arizona was going to be one of the few across the entire country that was
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showing Oppenheimer in film. And we're all really excited. My husband was
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nerding out for months about this. We get there and they announce that the film
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projector was damaging the film and they can't show it on film. And we have to
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watch it on digital. And I mean I was disappointed just because he'd been
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building it up so much but it's still the same movie. You know it's still
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gonna be in IMAX and the Christopher Nolan experience. But we saw it. It was
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incredible. And then on the way out of the theater they gave us all these little
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coupons to come back to a different IMAX screenings. That was nice. And now I'm
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gonna have to sit through that movie a second time. It was good but it's three
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hours long. And now he's like so the film projector is gonna be fixed the week of
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August 10th. Do you want to go again? I got to. I'm gonna have only sexual thoughts
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about Kelly and Murphy and that's all my God. I don't know. He's got like the
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weirdest face but I still want to do things to it. Yeah. And his eyes are so
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blue. Like I just want to swim inside of them get lost in those puppies. And you
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get to see Florence Pugh naked and doing it. Spoilers. Yeah titties on IMAX.
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IMAX experience. And I know we're gonna dive into all of our Barbie
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experiences but obviously that was delightful too. Yeah I love it. I love it. I
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went to I wasn't planning on it. I was planning on going to the theater closer
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to me but I ended up going to Arizona Mills as well for the IMAX showing and
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it obviously wasn't fixed yet. So they had to sit through the commercials was
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really excited to not get any of those. But it was a really good time to go see it
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and if you have the opportunity to go see it in an IMAX theater it's definitely
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worth it. I think you get to like feel like you're there a lot of the time. Yeah.
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Did you see it yet Nicole? No I haven't but I want to. I had to see Barbie first.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. That's the real feminist here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We had a we had a
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deal, Shauna. I know. I did it for the girlies. He bought me the tickets months
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ago for the film "Event of the Millennial" and it didn't even happen so. Yeah, no.
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Gotta go watch those bombs go off again. I love it. What were you guys's favorite
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Barbies as a kid? Oh my God. I had so many Barbies. I had a weird Barbie for sure. Oh yeah.
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Okay. So I guess we'll say at the top of the episode Barbie movies spoilers. But oh yeah.
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Smart. Yeah. We're talking about your personal Barbie. Yes. My personal Barbie. I had a weird
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Barbie. She's amazing. Her name was Caitlin. I posted her on my Instagram and TikTok
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a little shout out to my socials and she's one of the Barbies where I definitely cut off
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all of her hair, dyed it with nail polish, drew tattooes all over her. But in my head she
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was such a bad girl and as a child of nine years old and got what year would that even be?
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1998, whenever I made this Barbie bad girl meant she had a kid rock tattoo in her thigh. A
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raw rule tattoo in her chest and on the back she has a tattoo that just is slut. Just
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a slut. Damn. I feel like I must have just learned that word and I was like, "Oh, that's
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bad. I think you have that tattoo. I got it my sharpie." Yeah. I love that. She's my favorite.
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And then I just have a lot of good old fashioned stereotypical Barbie along with the Spice
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Girl dolls and a Britney doll and all that good stuff. That was my favorite Barbie. That's
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what I was going to say. Baby Spice Barbie. Iconic or little blue dress, dress and I would
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watch Spice World. There's two dip sets of Spice Girl dolls. So set number one is from the
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Spice Girls record and set number two is from the Spice World record. Yes, I know. So you
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got the Spice World set. Yeah. I would watch the movie with it. Iconic, legendary. I love it.
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Nicole, what about you? Were you a brats girl? I feel like right after my age group I felt
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like it became like brats, right? Yeah. Yeah, I was more brats in polypockets. So if I had
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a Barbie it was probably just stereotypical Barbie. Yeah, exactly. That's funny. Does
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you ever watch any of the Barbie movies? If you're like, your like, Gen Z loves those things.
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I believe I did. I really can't even remember. I watched the same three things when I was younger.
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So which were probably not Spongebob. Really on parents in Disney Channel. Also iconic. These are good choices.
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These are good choices. Well, there is a polypocket movie coming out and people are pissed
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because they gave it to Lena Dunham. Oh, yeah. Is that Stone or is that just a rumor? No, it is.
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They gave it to her. Yeah. And I think she's writing it too. We'll have to, you know, see
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as time goes on. But hopefully she does as good as Greta did. Doubt it. Okay, here's an important
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question for Nicole though. How tall was your polypocket? I like it. They have sizes.
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Yes. I like the size of my pinky. See, when I look at your sister Polly Pockets would fit in your pocket.
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If she was the size of like the tip of your finger, she was like a couple of centimeters. I was pocket.
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Yes. And that was my finger. Well fit in my pocket. Yeah. Like she was really tiny and she lived
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in these little houses that would fit in the palm of your hand and you would open it up.
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You couldn't change her outfits. Her hair was all plastic and she just had one little joint.
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She could bend in the middle. So if Lena Dunham does put your little pocket. Yeah, she probably had that too.
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She came with one bond, one joint, a dab. I love it. Why didn't I play with polypocket?
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She came with a friend sofa that she would just crash on every once in a while. Some wraps.
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I love it. I love it. Later. It's amazing. A level.
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It's amazing. Very off topic. Nicole, you may also be this way. Since I grew up in Chicago when I was younger,
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like American Girl Doll was like everything. And so I love Felicity. I still have the Felicity doll.
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I have all my American Girl Dolls still. And they're like 500 bucks a piece. Like,
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she's going to keep it. And I'm like keeping them because I'm like, they're only going to get more ex-mantigative.
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But I wanted to be a Samantha Girly, but it was Felicity all day. You know that Irish potato famine
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story. Really got me. I was going to a rich friend's house for a sleepover if she had American Girl Dolls.
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Like if I walked into her bedroom and she had those in a shelf, I'd be like, oh,
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shit, we're going to get fed good tonight. We're going to get dominoes or pizza. We're not getting
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that off-brand soda. Like I never had them. They were too expensive. That's that's amazing. Yeah,
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I got them from my rich aunts. Every Christmas. I still have like the Josefina's little piano,
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which is also very expensive. So if any exclusive American Girl Doll buyers want to slide in the
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DMs, I love that. I have an obscene amount of money. I'm sure they're not worth shit now, but
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I am. I'm not going to be. Oh, they're not. They're money but first.
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They did burst. It burst like in the early 2000s, but I just watched it like a year ago. They came out
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with a beanie baby documentary about the creator of it and how we created it, like this essentially
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like fake market of beanie babies. It's really, really interesting. I'll have to look at the name.
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I'm too nostalgic to get rid of them and they're all too cute. I'm like, how am I supposed to get rid
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of your shape like a puppy? Like, I'm going to get rid of you. You're flamingo. I can't do it.
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I love it. Well, if you guys can't tell, we're all here today to talk a bit about the Barbie movie.
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And so we're actually going to get into that after a quick break.
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So Barbie really kind of took the nation by storm over the last few months. If you've been paying
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attention up before the writer and actor's shrink, that one of the best marketing campaigns,
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probably of a movie of all time. It's really been kind of this cultural event going into the film.
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And now that it's been released, it's definitely all you'll see all over social media. Everything's
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being, if you haven't heard, yeah, right? Everything's being everywhere. Every girl down the street is going,
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hi, Barbie. But, you know, if you haven't heard a little bit about it, and the Barbie movie is being
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defined as a fantasy comedy film. It's directed and written by Greta Gerwig, written by Noah
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Bombak as well, who is also her husband. But it's the first live action Barbie film that we're going
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to see after they're really immensely populated. There are a lot of them very immensely populated.
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It's the first live action film compared to their computer animated direct to video streaming
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films that came out in the 2000s that really are popular and staples of Gen Z's childhood.
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So, if you haven't heard a little bit about it, the film follows Barbie as she has an existential crisis.
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Margot Robbie plays her, but she's joined by Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken, and then we have
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America Ferrara, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, and Will Farrell, and it's really a star-studded cast.
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But what's been so crazy and what we really want to talk about today, of course, we're going to talk
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about the film a little bit. So, spoiler warning now, I think it was Sean to give it a little bit
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earlier, but we are going to be getting into the details. So, if you haven't seen it, first of all,
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get out from under your rock, go see the movie, and then come back to this episode.
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Absolutely. But really what I wanted to talk about before we get into all the craziness, it's just,
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how did you guys like the film? I absolutely loved this movie. I mean, I think my expectations were
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really high going into it. I knew I was going to like it. But the entire time I sat there with a huge
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smile on my face, it's that perfect mix of absolutely silly and goofy and
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nonsensical. Like, there is one point in the movie where one of the interns at Mattel is asking
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what Barbie Land even is. He's like, is this like another dimension, or is it like a fantasy? And
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then they just go, yes. Don't think about it too hard. Don't think about it. And it's just like,
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all right, I accept that. But it was just so sweet and emotional. And I know a lot of people,
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like myself included cried. And I think it's just a celebration of womanhood. And absolutely just
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feminist at its core, you know, maybe not perfect, but it's absolutely something that I think moms and
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little girls should see. I think men should see this single women just, I think it's just a celebration
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of womenhood. Yeah. I agree. I love the movie. I was going into it again. Yeah. I guess with high
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expectations, just because of the marketing that they've been doing has been top tier. I've never really
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seen marketing for a movie quite like they've done it. And they did a really good job. And it was very
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powerful to watch. Just like we'll get into it. I'm sure. But the one scene just really open
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your eyes. I'm sure you guys probably know what scene I'm talking about. Yeah.
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A mirror for Rare is like monologue. Yeah. That like hit me. I was like, wow, she is right.
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She is a hundred percent on point about everything that she's saying right now. And I keep seeing
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it on social media too. People wrote out the whole part of her script. Yeah. And I just, it's incredible.
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Definitely go see it. It's really good. When Olivia and I saw it in theaters right after
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America, Ferrell is done with her speech. This woman in the audience just goes, "Hah, she's a real
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deal now. Just this success parade is so so loud. It's like touching, like heart touching, like
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moment. It's like the peak of the movie." And literally she goes, "Hah, and the whole theater just
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hackle as like it was the hardest we laughed throughout the whole movie. Everyone in that
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theater said yes. We know. That's so funny. It was just like the funniest like live part of an audience.
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And like going back to, we haven't seen movies like this in so long. Like, yeah. I feel like the last
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time I was in a movie where a theater was packed where people were like laughing and having such an
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amazing time was truly like step brothers. And it's ironic that Will Ferrell is also in this. He has
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a good picker. But I think the movie was just so good. And what I thought they did really well,
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even though they had so much marketing, so many interviews about this movie is everything they
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told us was shown in the first like two minutes. So you were like, "Oh, I know all the stuff about the
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movie, but no, you really knew nothing." And they were just like, "Oh, well, this is a rolling
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intro scene." And they started like, "Can it hold you guys about enough?" But yeah, I really,
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really liked the movie as a whole. But one of the things that I thought was just so so good about
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the acting and both the writing is like it was how I played with a Barbie as a kid. Like in the way
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they act in Barbie land is just so spot on. You don't make her walk down the stairs. She floats from
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one spot to another. You know, she doesn't actually have her hands on the steering wheel. She's just
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kind of skewed she's her along and she's just kind of talking to people as she goes. It's just like
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somebody's playing with her. Yeah, and it was like the movements of their bodies. Like I think it's
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you know, physical comedy is often said to be the hardest of comedies. Yeah. And I thought they
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did an amazing job at balancing how would a child play with a Barbie versus if we're going to get
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into it a little bit. But if you see the internet right now, men conservative men specifically like
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freaking out. It's like how does someone outrage and make you think so much like this and have such
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an undertone while they're acting like how children play with a Barbie. Yeah, honestly amazing writing
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and Greta Gerwig is most famous for Lady Bird and Little Women. I'm first seen the leader of
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actor. Yeah, like I I've heard it's so amazing and they're like on my to-do list. But now I feel like
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I have even more reason to go and watch them after loving Barbie so much. Yeah, I would say I think
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that Greta is going to be like Sophia Coppola. Yeah. Where she really is such a good voice for women
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and whenever I was initially like looking at stuff about her leading up to this movie, she is one
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of eight female directors to ever be nominated for an Oscar. That's it. Eight. Yeah. My god. No.
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And it's a Barbie land. Right. But seeing the success of this movie, she just got the ability to be
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the writer on Snow White in 2024. And I am so unbelievably excited. Oh, I didn't realize that.
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She also got Chronicles and Arnia. I did hear that. That's insane. I'm not sure if I want another
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Chronicles. I've not even a movie. But no, I don't know. It's kind of Christian propaganda. My
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love to say that. It is. I didn't know that. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, as a youth group kid growing up,
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it's like Chronicles and Arnia. It's about Jesus. Which is fine if that's her thing. But you know,
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I'd be interested to see where she takes it. And you know, I don't usually go and live action
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Disney movies with like eye expectations, but you know, the Snow White casting so far looks cute too.
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And Creditious proven herself like, if it's going to be Fimness takes on these things, then sign me up.
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Yes. Yeah. Right. It's like, it was probably layers to how she would approach it. She did take that.
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The movie I think is is such a good tale of women and mothers and daughters. Yeah.
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As well. And she'd actually just had a kid. So I thought it was really interesting that both her and
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her husband wrote this and then she just had a kid and you know, it kind of goes into, you know,
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the themes of the message. And like, I think my favorite quote of it is us mothers stand still.
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So our daughters can see how far they've got beautiful. And it was it was just so beautiful. I
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loved American Ferraris as well. But I thought that was because you always grow up and you're like,
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well, I'm never going to be that person. I'm never going to be like my mom in this sense of it. And then,
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you know, you look back and you're like, no, I am my mom and I'm happy to be my mom. And I think it's
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it's such a cool like expression of finding yourself in the journey. And it celebrated so many
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different journeys of womanhood where your mom or your not and either way is fine. And maybe your
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doctor, maybe your scientist, maybe you wrote a book, maybe you just like to do your hair and wear
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print dresses. And that's fine. That doesn't make you any less powerful or any less of a feminist.
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Some people have said that this movie is like Feminism 101. And maybe so. But I think that's important.
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If you see something like that and it's not a concept that you're familiar with, you can learn a
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lot watching this movie. And if you go into it not expecting it, I didn't feel like it beats you
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over the head. It's just kind of there. I mean, I can't want to revive the patriarchy. But he
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doesn't realize what the patriarchy even is. And it's interesting watching women be treated like men
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in Barbie land. And then just watching the experience through Barbie's eyes of, oh my god,
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this isn't actually how the world works. You know, you guys get caught cold and you're not in any
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positions of power and just kind of watching that devastation. And I didn't solve the issues of
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feminism just by existing. Like, I don't know that whole journey. What are you doing? Yeah. My favorite
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quote from the movie was when I don't remember the character's name, the little girl, the daughter
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calls Barbie a fascist. She goes, control the real way. But yeah, it's kind of, you know, it goes in
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and it's, yeah, it really starts out as kind of feminism 101. Well, the women are in charge and we're
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all so pretty, but also of doing things. And then it gets to the real world. And it's like, actually,
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no, there's race inequality. And we have to work jobs and some of us are moms and we're struggling
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and we're not good enough. And we wish, like we press ourselves and, you know, just kind of,
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then it gets to that deeper level of actually, you need to go a little deeper than this.
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Which I loved. Yeah, it's quite funny. And so if you are not chronically online, like the,
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all of the three of us are over here, there has been quite a bit of controversy both on,
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I would probably say like far left and conservative outrage. This whole situation that'll kind of give
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a brief explainer made me be like, am I a moderate? Yeah, right. So the, the Shana kind of alluded to
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it a little bit before this. It's a lot of, and there's some valid criticisms from, from these people,
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right? Like they didn't like the queer representation. Like Alan is very subverted to a side character.
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And he's Ken's best friend. And he's meant like even back in the day, he's always kind of had this queer
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lens thrown onto him. So they didn't love that. And then the other one is such a cursory
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introduction to feminism where it's like, we've learned this in 2010 and, you know, blah, blah, blah.
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But on the other side of that token, there is people like a Ben Shapiro, like going out and buying
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Barbies and giving Mattel money in the burning them. It's very odd. It's just like on the whole bunch
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of blood light, just to shoot it with your, your gun. You bought the fucking blood light. You gave the money.
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I'm sorry. I, I understand that this, like I said, is a very surface level view of feminism. But
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that is also coming from me and you guys who have kind of studied feminism on a deeper level and
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have a deeper understanding of this and have come to terms with intersectional feminism and
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uplifting the voices of women of color. I mean, if you are just getting fresh to the feminist
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movement, welcome. We've been waiting for you. We're so happy to have you as well. And I think that
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this is nice to see. I will agree that it's definitely a lot of white feminism, which is why it just
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makes me so angry that Lena Dunham is going to be. She's the queen of white feminism
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in the queer representation. I, I made my Barbies sizzle so a lot. My Barbies were doing it.
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They were sexy. My Barbies were sexy. I mean, and they were having sex with kin too. They were
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just kind of rubbing their plastic smooth bumps against each other a lot. And then my mom walked in
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and found them in a precarious situation. I was like, what are you doing? And I was like, I threw
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them and they landed like that. Like naked. She's on a blind turn on accident. But like,
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it's an accident, mom.
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Mom, I promise. I don't even know what the thing is. I just really like dogs.
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They're doing it like, they're walking like dogs too.
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Yeah. Well, can and okay. So in in this film, you know, once you get to like,
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ruminate on it and think about it, like everything that happens in the real world when people are
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playing with Barbies happens in Barbie land. So maybe they were, they were really getting it on.
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It's been how to. But they definitely would rub. They would rub parts.
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Yeah. I mean, that just, that just sounds like a grand old time, you know.
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Yeah. But it's one of my favorite ones. If you guys haven't seen on Twitter, we're calling it
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at Twitter. We're not calling it X. I've set Elon's. These people were taking movie reviews and
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putting them on the Barbie poster. Yeah. And so I grabbed some where it's like Barbie and alienating
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dangerous and perversive film. Yeah, let's turn the ratings down. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead, Nicole.
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The feminist agenda will kill us all. Next one. Barbie, they won't be happy until we are all gay.
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Which is true. I will not be happy until all of you are as gay as I am.
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Yeah. Well, I think we're all a little gay. So, you know, I'm happy.
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I always say that to my husband. I mean, he has the biggest crush on Ryan Gosling.
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And I'm like, baby, listen, in the words of, of butters from South Park. Well, a little bit bisexual.
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It's, it's so good. I mean, ultimately, I think. So his performance is, is so amazing. But I was
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in the middle of the movie, looked over at Shana whenever he was like deep in his mojo, dojo,
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costumes. I was like, if this was not Ryan Gosling, I would have the Ick for this actor so hard.
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But he is so hot. Like, it just can't like, uh, so bad. This movie is abs. Any chance they have
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to show his abs. Oh my god. And you know who else is dummy, huh? And I wish he would have taken his
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shirt off. I know. I love how he went from like, we are intersectional feminists. Yes, like woman.
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And now we're like, you know, let me make it. Let me object to my, let me object to my, the man.
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Okay, listen, I just love Seemoo Liu. And I wish he took his shirt off. Listen, that's all I'm gonna say.
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Literally the back flip. My favorite part is like him and Ryan are actually like still going on
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about, uh, Ryan not being able to do a back flip. Ryan is a, or I guess Ken. Ryan is a force girl.
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He's a force girl. And throw. And it just makes so much sense. Ken is a force girl. Oh yeah. Okay,
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growing up back to when we had Barbies, well, you know, call you said you didn't really, but like,
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how many kids did you own? We all had like 30 Barbies, but how many kids? No. I had a white and a black
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kin. You had a black. Yeah. I love it. I had two kids. Um, one was, he came in a set with like crazy
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90s hair barbie or something. She had really long hair like down to the floor. And he had this like
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purple, one of those jogging suits that make the swish swish noise when you walk. It was peak 90s.
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So he was my kin. And then I also had Harvey Kinkle from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. And when you
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pressed a button in the back of his head, he would wink his eye. He was like trying to wink. Yeah.
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I have a lot of bow. I can't wink. I can barely move. I loved that they put earring magic Ken in it.
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Oh my god. It was like the most bisexual, uh, I guess gay Ken ever. Absolutely. So I was listening to
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the story of how they accidentally did this because at the end, whenever they have all the weird
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Barbies, like the dog that poops or whatever, they're all these discontinued like really fricking weird,
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like who approved this, who signed off on this. So Barbie, whenever they started to like fade from
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relevancy, right? When it right before Bratz came out, they were trying to figure out like, okay,
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how do we appeal to these millennials, right? These millennial children. And so they were like,
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we need to make Ken cool and relevant. So these people from Mattel started to go out to raves,
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not knowing that a lot of the raves at the time were like gay club scenes. And so they were saying
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all these men. Yeah, no, they were saying all these men with one earring in and they were like,
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oh, cool fashion statement. But back in the day, that was how you would signal that you were gay.
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Yeah. And so like if you only had one in, people would know their face on the internet or something.
29:47
Yeah, it was on a certain year. So people could safely meet people in public and in these crowds.
29:55
And so they also, they had already just done like magic Barbie who like grows hair, right? So they're like,
30:02
okay, we're going to make a magic Ken. And at the time, all these people at least gay clubs were
30:09
wearing a ring that goes around a certain body part. And so they were like, wow, what a cool fashion
30:16
statement. It was a cock ring. Yeah. And they were like, yes, in clubs at the time.
30:23
Absolutely. Yeah. And so they were like, oh, what a cool pendant. Like that'll be so fun. And people
30:31
like immediately when it got released. Because I remember when I was in like middle school, people knew
30:36
that like you had an earring on one side. It was like seeing. And so they released a doll that was like
30:42
gay signaling and wearing a cock ring. Oh, and so people wear cock rings right now.
30:48
It's called magic earring Ken. No, I'm talking cock ring Ken and I pressed images. This is on you now.
30:53
Wherever this goes, he's like, yeah, no, no, he's giving. He's in a mesh shirt. He's in a purple leather vest.
31:02
He's wearing a lavender mesh shirt. And literally like lavender marriage is like a relationship between
31:12
two gay people, like a lesbian and a gay person. They get together so that they could hide.
31:17
Is that why Taylor's song is called lavender haze? I would say yes, but you know, the
31:22
the headler is my stone man and open square. If I go there. Oh my God, he's absolutely, and I love him
31:31
and I want one. Yeah. And you know, there were some really funny ones like the head midge in it,
31:37
which if you don't know who midges, it's fucking disturbing. Like it's a little baby that you like
31:44
pull out of her. Like you can pull them and pull it out of her. And Alan was supposed to be the
31:50
father, like her boyfriend/husband. It goes back and forth, but he was supposed to be the father
31:56
of his child. Yeah, lavender marriage. Melissa. Yeah. Oh my God. It's so funny. The fact that Mattel
32:05
let this be made, I think is amazing. Like you look at like a company like Disney. I think there
32:12
were a lot of going back to intro feminism, right? Like five, 10 years ago, there were a lot of
32:18
documentaries about like the impact that Barbie had and like how much damage she did. Like I would say
32:26
she's almost like lumped into this group of like, and it kind of goes in that monologue where she's
32:31
like, we put all of this onto a doll. Like how fucked up are we that like we put all of this pressure
32:38
and society things on our doll that we made. Yeah. And it is really, really crazy. I think honestly
32:47
it's going to be one of those movies that are just studied forever. And if you're like listening
32:52
to this and you're like, it's a girls movie. Like I'm just like a movie fan. I'd rather go see like an
32:57
op-inheimer. I did want to include this. If you're a movie buff, if you've loved old movies, if you
33:02
love film, Greta Gerwig did an interview with Turner Classic movies. It was amazing. It was really,
33:09
really great. But she has a ton of references throughout. So where she pulled a big influence from
33:15
when it comes to Barbie land is the Red Shoes. But also like singing in the rain, Wizard of Oz,
33:21
an American in Paris. And we obviously had 2001 space Odyssey as that opener scene. And I just
33:30
thought it was really, really cool. I don't know if you've actually heard this yet. But the girls,
33:36
when Barbie goes to them and meets them at the school, they're all the original Bratz dolls names.
33:42
No, they're not. They all look exactly like the Bratz dolls. Did you get that up? The call right away.
33:47
I didn't pick it up. No, but I saw it literally like right when I got out of the theater. And I was on
33:52
the floor. Social media or whatever. So it came up. And they have the characters and they have
33:57
next to the dollar they represent. And they look identical to the dollar they're supposed to represent.
34:01
Funny, funny nod. I think that Mattel has come such a far away though. And I mean, I think they
34:09
realized that they had to kind of catch up with the times. And I watched one of the documentaries
34:14
that was about how damaging Barbie was. And I think it was through the eyes of a Mattel employee who
34:20
was kind of trying to, I don't know, keep up with, you know, how do I reinvigorate this brand? And
34:29
they do have a lot more representation in body sizes with Barbies now. They have different heights,
34:35
different waistlines, so many different skin colors. They have Barbies and wheelchairs. So I really
34:42
liked that they represented that in this film. And that not every Barbie was stereotypical platinum
34:48
blonde tan. You know, we had a wheelchair, a Barbie and a wheelchair on the dance floor getting down.
34:55
And everyone was still just Barbie. So I don't know. I think that that part of it really,
35:01
you know, I could see Mattel being like, yeah, look, look, we were getting better. We're doing this.
35:06
We're putting in the time. And you know, they're not perfect, if I any means. But what capitalist
35:12
company is? I remember like right before I started like getting out of playing with Barbies,
35:20
they had just launched like their Barbies around the world. Yeah. And it was kind of like American
35:25
girl don't where they would have like that token person from there. And then that was it. But I
35:31
think they've done a really good job at not just having like one black Barbie or one Indian Barbie and
35:37
all those things. But I think it's the best possible PR move that could have made because again,
35:43
like they talk about in the movie, like we put so much weight on Barbie. And for them to continue,
35:49
they had to acknowledge it in a way where it wasn't like a PR statement. And it was like we get it,
35:56
we want to be better. And while they say people like me, people older than me are like reconnecting
36:02
with Barbie in a way where like I've seen a grown-ass adults go buy like five Barbies since I've seen
36:08
this movie. I have been so to to buy Barbies. I want to go buy Barbies that look like each of my friends,
36:14
like for my friends, bachelor at party. Oh my god. If she listens to this episode, whatever spoiler,
36:19
I want to buy her like a Barbie that looks like her. And I'm sure I can find right. And it's definitely
36:25
me like dig out some of my old Barbies and just this so nostalgic. I love it. I love that so much.
36:35
No, I love how it's making everybody reminisce. I got out my mom's old Barbies from the 60s that were
36:40
passed down to me. She had a skipper. She had a Barbie. She has a midge. She's not pregnant midge.
36:45
But she's got little fun of midge. Yes, dude. It's so cute. She's got this cute little like bangs
36:52
and flipped out red hair, little freckles. It makes me feel more connected to my mom,
36:58
just like the movie. Every generation is kind of played with Barbie. Yeah, yeah, that's so cool.
37:06
Oh, so glad you have those. I know. They're really cool. Yeah, I looked over at China and I was like,
37:13
are you okay? In the middle of the movie. I'm holding it together. Hashtag dead mom's called.
37:22
All right. Is that a Barbie? Dead mom Barbie. Dead mom Barbie.
37:35
Did China, baby? It's just a prince. She knows. And experimented mattress.
37:43
Dead, too. Okay. Actually, like favorite really, really subtle reference.
37:49
And I laughed so hard. China didn't get it in the moment. I was crying at the scene where she
37:57
looks at the old lady and is like, you're beautiful. And she's like, I know. And then right after this,
38:02
they're like talking the mom, the daughter and Barbie and Gloria and Barbie are like,
38:09
I love this. And she's like, are you two shining to each other? Which is a reference for the shining
38:16
whenever they can telepathically talk to each other. And if you didn't really pick up on this when
38:22
you saw the movie, it's like heavy, cute brick influence. And she really does quite a few nods,
38:29
jam. So I love that. She put that in there. And she's so good. I can't praise that interview. She
38:36
did enough where she talks about her influences. Like, I love watching people create art when they
38:42
just have like such a genuine appreciation of it and love for it. And you know, the people who came
38:48
before them and who kind of paved the way. And then they take those influences respectfully and make
38:53
it their own. I love that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Absolutely. If they were going to make a pop culture junky
39:02
Barbie set. And each of us came with accessories and outfits. What accessories? What two accessories
39:09
would you come with? And what would your outfit look like? Just real quick. No pressure. Go. Okay.
39:17
My Barbie, I know the outfit because it's very, I'm literally wearing one right now. So
39:22
it would be a yeah. It would be a silk slip dress, like a midi dress. It could be any pattern. I'm
39:32
probably black though. Let's be honest. I wear all black all the time. With some like heel boots
39:39
that would be your outfit. My accessory would be a brick and morty bomb. And then a
39:47
it's like I have one right behind me. No, okay. Side note, super side tracked. But every time someone's
39:58
like if someone broke into your house, what would you do? Like what would be the closest thing that
40:03
you grabbed? And it would always be my brick and morty bomb because I would have a two-pronged approach
40:08
here. Okay. It would be throwing the bomb water in their face and then hitting them with it. And
40:14
it's such thick glass that I don't even think it would break. And I'd get a if it did have a
40:18
stamping device. And then the robber leaves, you just really were like, "God, that was stressful."
40:25
And then you're like, "Oh, that sucks." Yeah. Not to squirrel. But my other accessory because it does
40:35
exist in Bargueland is Ziggy. It would be a little Ziggy because we had sugar daddy, and he had a dog,
40:43
named sugar. So Ziggy could be a exist. So Ziggy is the dog in case anybody listening is like,
40:49
"What the fuck is her Ziggy?" Not the bomb. Not the bomb. We did not hand the bomb.
40:54
If we did it would probably be like pick me seeks because you know it's always willing to give me
41:00
a helping hand. I think your bun's name should be Zaggy. So it can be Ziggy. Ziggy Zaggy. Ziggy and Zaggy.
41:08
Oh my god. When they had the bar between where the little girl's cutting the hair off the barbie
41:14
and like putting her in the splits, that was just a scene from my childhood. So...
41:19
So, this girl's playing... Oh, fucking up this barbie's hair.
41:22
I can't believe it took me this long to say this, but I saw a TikTok earlier. And the person that made
41:29
weird barbie was Gloria. You see it in the flashback. And she had the words Gloria on the wall.
41:38
And so Gloria also made weird barbie. That's hilarious. I love that. And see, I need to rewatch it.
41:44
I've got to go out with my husband. So I'll catch little things I did this game.
41:48
I got to see Oppenheimer again first. All right, what's Barbie Nicole coming with?
41:56
Mine is gonna have... I just bought this outfit and I'm obsessed with it. So it's gonna be my Barbie outfit.
42:02
And just like a workout romper that girls have been wearing lately.
42:07
You did look cute now. It's from Amber Crombie. Oh yes, yes, you did see me in that.
42:11
Oh, because it's adorable. That is true. I forgot. See? I'll do it all the time.
42:17
My shoes would be just regular... I call them gym shoes. I'm sorry, I'm from the Midwest.
42:25
Gym shoes, sneakers, tennis shoes. I don't know whatever you want to call them.
42:28
Tannies? Tannies. And then my two accessories would be
42:33
Chapstick because I'm always using Chapstick.
42:37
And my other accessory would be... I don't know if glasses are an accessory but like I can't see
42:47
without these. So this would probably just be a part of my outfit actually.
42:54
My other accessory would probably be my AirPods. My big, I have AirPods Max's
42:59
The pros and I like the actual ones. Probably those so I can always listen to my music.
43:04
I love that she's got Chapstick. She's wearing pink. She's ready to run away if she needs to
43:10
from the situation. What about you, Shana? Okay, so Barbie Shana would probably be wearing like
43:20
black, high-waisted shorts and then some kind of like mesh top with bats on it that shows off the
43:29
cleavage a little bit. But with subtle, subtle Barbie cleave. Off to the Barbie. Yeah, she's not
43:36
slutty Barbie. She's like, she's like a decent Goth Barbie. Does she have the slut I do it on her back?
43:43
She's got slutty, I'm gonna lower back. It's scribbled nine-year-old handwriting.
43:50
I should get that tattoo. I should bring this my weird Barbie to a tattoo shop and be like,
43:56
give me this slut. Sure, my husband of eight years would love me getting a tattoo that she says.
44:03
It's like, it's Shana. What was it? You turn it around.
44:11
Don't look a ranch. Yeah. It's from Boy the Millers. No way, Brett.
44:19
And she be wearing black platform sandals. I'm gonna copy you Olivia and she would have a little
44:27
buffy with her, which is the dog, not the slayer. But you know, if I could hang out with a Sarah
44:32
Michelle Geller Barbie, that would be cool too. My accessory is SMG mother. My accessory is just
44:38
buffy the bandwriters. So how little buffy with me? And then probably a glass of red wine in the
44:43
other hand. Alcoholic Barbie. She's very... She's going to press and Barbie. That's different.
44:50
I'm just depressed and Barbie. It's like, who else felt so seen during that depression bar?
44:56
It's like, I'm insulted Olivia like, with like this to me.
45:04
Like tapped me. Look at us. I saw someone be like, I'm not depression, Barbie, because I watched the
45:13
Kiran-Ivy version. It's like that scene in Parks and Rec where Ben is depressed and he's like,
45:22
I'm not depressed. Could a depressed person do this? And it's just all these like miniature toys
45:26
that he's building. Look at all I have. Could a depressed person do this? My favorite is all the people
45:33
who are like adults who made like these like cyborg. Like the mean kid in toy story, like versions of
45:39
their Barbie. Like one white cloth and then it's like human centipede. You get there. And they're like,
45:45
I feel so bad for her in Barbie Land. And no, that is like someone commented on the video and was like,
45:56
this is the task version of Barbie Land, which popped up movie. This came in to be Barbie. Yeah, that's
46:05
not gonna become that. The destroyer of worse. It's so funny. Well, you know, even though Shana
46:15
went against women and and all of feminism, I did want to kind of talk about Barbie and Oppenheimer
46:21
opening weekends. So Barbie not just like beat out Oppenheimer beat some of like the records of
46:29
all time as well. Their budget was 145 million. They made opening nine 22.2 million dollars. She
46:42
was the biggest debut between Thursday and Friday. They made 70.5 million dollars just on
46:51
the free night. It's the biggest comedic debut of a film ever. That's insane. That's amazing. Yeah.
47:00
So really, really cool. They made so much money. And of course, it's just continuing. Today, the day
47:09
where recording is just the seven day mark. So we don't have opening week. All right, when it comes
47:15
to Oppenheimer, Barbie, more than doubled its success. And so, you know, I mean, it's three-hour
47:22
movie. It's a hard sell. So, you know, where Oppenheimer was a great movie as well. And Oppenheimer
47:29
was rated. Yeah. So it is gonna have a smaller audience. That's able to see it or wants to
47:35
sit through a three-hour movie. And it's definitely more violent and mature than Barbie. But
47:42
yeah, it's a second. It's opening for a R rated film. The first was the Passion of the Christ.
47:51
Oh my god. Which I saw in theaters with my youth group in the web. I've never seen it.
47:58
I make a joke on Easter. And I'm like, should we watch Passion of the Christ every Easter?
48:05
We just don't know much Passion of the Christ with you next Easter.
48:08
It's obvious we have a picture of it. We can make, oh my god, a Passion of the Christ drink.
48:14
A blood of Christ. Yes. Yeah. It has to be wrapped.
48:18
Oh, man, we're losing all of our our Christian listeners for sorry.
48:23
You believe it? Yes. I mean, you know, if you've made it this far, we'd love you.
48:31
Even despite your choices. You know, I do want to kind of wrap this up. Obviously,
48:40
this was an amazing soundtrack. So many original songs, which I love to see again. I missed
48:46
one soundtracks where just everything. I loved it. Do a leap of song is such an earworm. Oh my god.
48:54
It's just such a good sad disco song. And so I'm curious to know what was your favorite song
49:02
from the movie? My favorite song from the movie is Push by Matchbox 20.
49:08
I have this like running joke with my friends. I worked in an office years ago that would play
49:13
Matchbox 20 like multiple times an hour. And anytime they played it, I would send a Matchbox 20 gift
49:20
to the group chat of Rob Thomas from like a music video. And so the minute it came on, I was like,
49:25
I love it. And just all the kids sitting around because women, how many of us have had that date
49:33
with a guy where he just plays acoustic guitar, and looks awkwardly into your eyes. And you don't
49:39
know how to react. And you're like, oh my god, is he going to go through the whole fucking sound?
49:43
Yes, he is. He's going to sing the entirety of Wonderwall at May, right?
49:48
No, he's going to fuck it up. And then he's going to start over and then do the whole song 20 times.
49:55
If it was really just a song and it was a wait, oh wait, oh wait, just let's go.
50:02
This is always, we all have that naked head right now who we're thinking of who did that.
50:07
And I hope he's doing well. I don't know. God, yeah, that's why I just stopped dating people who
50:12
played music. I was pretty scared. I think my favorite is Speed Drive by Charlie XeX, but I think the
50:23
Billie Eilish song is amazing and it was so good for the score of the movie because it's
50:29
throughout the whole movie. Yeah. And it's just so deep and so good. But I love Speed Drive.
50:37
That unicorn. I think we can all guess. I know. It's definitely what was I made for by Billy.
50:46
I listened to it before the movie and we came out because she released it. Yeah.
50:49
Before the movie came out, so I did listen to it beforehand and the music video for it is so
50:53
cute. It's her playing with miniature Barbies of herself. And it, let's not know true Barbies of
50:59
herself. I take the bag. It's outfits that she's worn in the past. And they're on little Barbies.
51:04
Oh, yeah. It's cute. And it's such a cute video. But definitely that again, like you said, Olivia,
51:10
it just really makes you think like just the title and itself gets you question like what was I
51:16
made for? It gets you question like why you're here kind of thing. It gets really deep. We're not
51:19
going to do that right now, but existential. Yes. But yeah, obviously, I think we could have
51:25
all guessed. I don't know if you watched the interview. She did about it. It was pretty good. I
51:31
saw clips of it, but you know what? She really talked about like how it was the right question for,
51:39
I mean, I think she just what turned like 1920 for that age grouping. And then also it's, if you
51:45
really listen to the words, I think it's such an interesting commentary on fame as well. Like what
51:51
was I made for? Am I just something you paid for? I'm not really real. I think that's really,
51:58
really interesting knowing what we know about Billie Eilish and kind of like the way she's been treated
52:05
especially lately. So I thought it was all around just such a beautiful movie. Very good for women.
52:11
To round it out, a movie made for women doesn't mean it's the absence of men. I think the message
52:19
at the end really is finding your individuality and self. And so, you know, I think that you should be
52:28
not defining yourself by a relationship with somebody. And yeah, you know, men and it's definitely not
52:34
anti-ment as anybody would say. Yeah, being pro women, being pro women does not mean anti-men. And
52:42
you know, I think if you were a man who saw this movie and maybe was a little triggered, think in
52:50
word, right? Like things that upset me and have caused emotion in me or often mirrors into myself. But
52:59
I personally have not stopped thinking about it. I saw that like six days ago, five days ago,
53:05
can't do math. And it's all I thought about. And so I think it's a very beautiful movie. And
53:12
depending on your side, I think there's a message for everyone. I totally agree. And it is
53:18
interesting that anybody who says that it's anti-men, it's because they're seeing men being treated
53:24
as women are used to being treated. So, oh, you guys don't like that. You don't like it when the men
53:30
are objectified and made to feel silly. Oh, that's weird because that's just the lived woman experience.
53:37
And so if it makes you uncomfortable, just realize that's the commentary, you know, like, this is what
53:44
women experience every day. Yeah, I thought it was beautiful. I loved it. I can see it being one of those
53:49
movies that you pop on when you want to be in a good mood. And you're just like, I need something
53:53
happy to watch. I'm going to watch the Barbie movie. So, I absolutely recommend it for everybody.
53:59
10 out of five Barbies. It was Kenneth. It was Kenneth also, yeah, so good. I said this to
54:08
shot yesterday that I was like, I found these shirts that says, I am not drunk enough. And I was like,
54:15
oh, I'm wearing these. That's it. It's so good. Yeah, thought it was very female empowering. I
54:24
walked out of it and I was like, well, I am actually very happy to be a woman right now because
54:29
after watching this, it made me realize that we can do anything and we will not stop to get
54:35
what we want and be treated as equals to others because we deserve it just as much as everyone else.
54:41
And yeah, I really enjoyed that. The whole main cast was basically females. Obviously, men were
54:48
there, obviously, but they weren't the main point of the movie. And finally, we have a movie that's
54:52
for us. Not just us. It's for everyone obviously. So that's multiple times. But you guys get what I'm saying.
54:58
Like, for sure. Yes. It's female for us. Yes. So nice. It's unfortunate that we had a
55:05
wait until 2023 to get this. But we have it. And I'm happy. Yes. Yes. How I love being a woman.
55:14
Well, that about wraps up this episode of Pop Culture Junkie. But before we get back into our
55:20
boxes, Barbie Nicole and Barbie Shauna, where can listeners find you on social media?
55:25
You could find me on Instagram and TikTok @nicole_eldridge , and on
55:32
Twitter at any @naeldridge14 You can find me, Shauna, on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads @shaunatrinidad
55:43
s-h-a-u-n-a-t-r-i-n-i-d-a-d. You can find me Olivia on Instagram @livimariez
55:53
and then on TikTok @livyolife420 Rick and Morty Bong. And you can find Pop Culture Junkie
56:07
podcast, socials on our website popculturejunkie.com. From there, you can find links to our podcasts on
56:14
all platforms so you can subscribe as well as rate and review the show. Come back next time for another
56:19
another hit of pop culture. Bye Barbie! Bye Barbie!
56:24
Pop Culture Junkie is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
56:30
So entertain me, entertain me right now?
56:33
I need it bad, I need it bad.
56:36
Cause I need it bad, I need it bad.
56:41
[MUSIC]