Remember the Barbie movie last year? I swear they only made sure Margot Robbie looked good in every scene and picked mid af actresses to play the other barbies. The kens all looked nice but out of the Barbies, they made sure only the white one looked good.
Never been fooled by Greta Gerwig’s “woke” act
@HIBAQ123
NOTE: This is not a refutation or me trying to start shit at all because I think you're absolutely spot on with the conclusion drawn about how non-white beauty is sabotaged to uplift mid white chicks. I just think you didn't elaborate on the example as well as you could of.
First of all,
Barbie is meant to be a celebration of European beauty so the expectation of black/Asian/Arab etc. beauty being weighed equally with
Stereotypical Barbie (played by Margot) is a
hugely unrealistic ask.
Obviously, Greta Gerwig is a white feminist but even if an ethnic woman was set to direct the film, there's a strong implicit pressure to cast a blonde hair, blue eyed white woman as Barbie since that's as iconic as her all-pink wardrobe. The outrage marketing of having a black girl play the lead would most likely tank the film because that's not what audiences grew up with, and the nostalgia factor would outweigh the urge non-white women have for equal beauty representation.
With that in mind, the non-white Barbies and Kens were meant to play second fiddle to the white ones (Margot and Ken) to mimic the doll's real-life history of including non-white dolls later. They had no contribution to the plot in the actual film, so it makes perfect sense for Margot Robbie to be at the centre of attention during the film and the press tour where her red-carpet looks were the focal point.
Even the white Barbies like Physics Barbie (played by
Emma Mackay who is Margot's British
lookalike) were sidelined for having brown hair and brown eyes, so getting angry over the two black girls (Senegalese Issa Rae and lighter-skinned AA Alexandra Shipp) who were still portrayed as beautifully and classically feminine is faulty logic.
There was even an fat Barbie who is typically made a dark-skinned black woman as a subtle dig but refreshingly was made white for the film, no balancing of dark-skinned beauty and ugliness to humble African women.
Overall, it's still a win, considering it's a film about a brand centering whiteness in the first place.
BUT, you know what
really is racist from these white female directors/producers/writers in charge of the Barbie film?