For some women in China, “Barbie” is more than just a movie — it’s also a litmus test for their partner’s views on feminism and patriarchy.
The movie has prompted intense social media discussion online, media outlets Sixth Tone and the China Project reported this week, prompting women to discuss their own dating experiences.
One user on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu — a photo-sharing site similar to Instagram that’s mostly used by Gen Z women — even shared a guide on Monday for how women can test their boyfriends based on their reaction to the film.
According to the guide, if a man shows hatred for “Barbie” and slams female directors after they leave the theatre, then this man is “stingy” and a “toxic chauvinist,” according to Insider’s translation of the post. Conversely, if a man understands even half of the movie’s themes, “then he is likely a normal guy with normal values and stable emotions,” the user wrote.
Blocking doesn’t work when it just keeps sprouting new heads like a hydra. The whole damn problem that people have with the modern version of feminism is that it essentially demands that their personal problems have to be everyone’s problems everywhere, and the very existence of media which doesn’t cater to feminist ideals is a problem which must be solved. The primary argument for patriarchy, ever since the days of Babylon when Marduk subjugated Tiamat, was that women left to their own devices cause nothing but chaos and conflict. If feminists actually want to achieve equality then they will somehow have to learn to coexist with things they don’t personally appreciate. If anybody wants to learn to live in this world they will have to learn to live on their own for themselves, instead of looking at everything through the lens of how other people think about it. I’ve seen basically nothing of anyone simply enjoying the Barbie movie, but plenty of circle jerking about how other people don’t like it.
You should add a TL;DR to that which says “I don’t understand feminism and I’m making it everyone else’s problem.”
It may not line up with the theory of feminism, but it is how things have been working out in practice. That’s the whole problem, if your theory is flawed then it won’t produce the results you desire. The theory of feminism is built upon the very same patriarchy/matriarchy power struggle that Babylon was, and so it fails to account for the existence of people who don’t recognize that power dynamic. And bluntly, that power dynamic is famous for destroying nations, regardless of who “wins” it.