I am laughing over waves of nausea. Sometimes I go to the Upper East Side, where I used to live, and I marvel at the ranks of women at little bistro tables who seem to: "... gather in community with millions of other people expressing themselves by imitating someone else, just like you." THESE WOMEN ALL BUY THE SAME FACE. AND HAIR! AND BODY! I am so confused by the mass desire to look alike. Is it just a safety thing? If I have paid $XMM for this face and body I have done all I can not to look like I'm mortal and therefore I become unassailable? Or I guess you can achieve immortality by making a device that could kill us all. Sigh.
Well, you have done it again. I leave this article unsure whether to cry, scream or laugh like a maniac but I sure leave it with a few more of my braincells restored. Thank you for your relentless work <3 I hope you had a lovely July and your efforts to finish up your book went well!
LOL! The "glow" that's actually just "the grappling-with-the-devastating-consequences-of-my-actions anxiety sweats" lol....we can add this to the list of other beauty trends (you've analyzed so well!) that are really just naturally occurring responses to stressors like sunburn, inadequate sleep etc., which we can get for free 😅
I just watched Barbie and I hated it and have no one to talk to about it. I didn't even hate it for the reasons I thought I would. SPOILERS LIKE CRAZY. The fact that the Barbie plan to take power back from the Kens involved concealing their strength and intelligence, pretending to be dumb and weak and ignorant in order to trick the Kens into fighting themselves, that's the same shit they've been pushing at us my whole life! They tell you not to come at him directly, they say men need to be managed, they can't be told things like adults. Women may not be in positions of power, but you're the power behind the throne, because you manipulate the men, they say. Such toxic horseshit. I wish they'd set fucking fire to Ken, I'm so angry about this stupid movie and I kind of was hoping that I would enjoy it even though it is corporate propaganda, and I'm angry at myself about that.
I do think that was deliberate and Gerwig was trying to reflect the absurdity of that back to us, but it fell flat for sure. No subversion of norms detected!
NONE at all! Why are there so many articles calling the movie subversive??!! I didn't like how the movie wants to ostracize pregnant Midge, anything that's "weird", Growing Up Skipper, cellulite, etc. It's shoring up everything it pretends to subvert. I left the theatre feeling sad.
I like your suggestion that another ending would see all women move to Barbieland.
The fact that we’re talking about it in this way is a win for Gerwig. She made a movie people want to talk about even if it upsets/offends them. I just wish at the very end, way after the really good truths about life were told, she’d stopped and not preached any more. It would have been more powerful.
Definitely a win for Gerwig and Mattel! A loss for feminism and the rest of us lol. If I were to rewrite the ending I'd have Barbie and the "real" women chose to become dolls again & retreat into the "safety" of Barbie Land. Feels like more of a reflection of American rn, where many women are retreating to "trad" norms and/or retreating into objectification ("beauty") — AKA rejecting their humanity — as a way to deal with the horror & uncertainty of post-Trump/post-Roe conservatism
Barbie should have been a horror movie. Then everything would fall into place. I actually, hmm, I think if someone just went through it and put a horror soundtrack over the whole thing, it would be a much tighter piece of art.
I mean I really don't think so! She's been very clear in her interviews that this is the movie she wanted to make. I don't think we need to make excuses for Gerwig or her marketing choices, or assume she would have chosen better if she could — she is a millionaire celebrity at the helm of a $145-million film with plenty of power and agency. She knew what she was doing, and she made the movie she wanted to make, and she marketed it the way she wanted to market it. She's not some powerless person bending to the whims of Hollywood!! She is Hollywood.
I bought that Grandelash serum and it did make my eyelashes grow! The cost of my Bambi eyes was a left eye that constantly leaked for six weeks, just a slow welling that occasionally turned into a tear and ran down my face, sometimes without me realizing.
The Vogue article is wild
It made me want to vomit, just like someone who's received a high dose of radiation! So on trend! Are we doing chemo-chic yet?
I am laughing over waves of nausea. Sometimes I go to the Upper East Side, where I used to live, and I marvel at the ranks of women at little bistro tables who seem to: "... gather in community with millions of other people expressing themselves by imitating someone else, just like you." THESE WOMEN ALL BUY THE SAME FACE. AND HAIR! AND BODY! I am so confused by the mass desire to look alike. Is it just a safety thing? If I have paid $XMM for this face and body I have done all I can not to look like I'm mortal and therefore I become unassailable? Or I guess you can achieve immortality by making a device that could kill us all. Sigh.
If I had the money for body modification, I would get a tail. How you gonna spend all that and not have a tail? Wasteful.
an extra arm would be nice. i live alone and hauling the groceries would be a lot easier.
Oh wow, I totally believed those were real products - the word play was just too good!
Haha I was in marketing for years :)
The Vogue article reminds me that capitalism is truly relentless. What we won’t do for fresh beauty content. . .
Well, you have done it again. I leave this article unsure whether to cry, scream or laugh like a maniac but I sure leave it with a few more of my braincells restored. Thank you for your relentless work <3 I hope you had a lovely July and your efforts to finish up your book went well!
Oh my god, this is brilliant. You never fail to amaze me with your acute commentary!
LOL! The "glow" that's actually just "the grappling-with-the-devastating-consequences-of-my-actions anxiety sweats" lol....we can add this to the list of other beauty trends (you've analyzed so well!) that are really just naturally occurring responses to stressors like sunburn, inadequate sleep etc., which we can get for free 😅
I just watched Barbie and I hated it and have no one to talk to about it. I didn't even hate it for the reasons I thought I would. SPOILERS LIKE CRAZY. The fact that the Barbie plan to take power back from the Kens involved concealing their strength and intelligence, pretending to be dumb and weak and ignorant in order to trick the Kens into fighting themselves, that's the same shit they've been pushing at us my whole life! They tell you not to come at him directly, they say men need to be managed, they can't be told things like adults. Women may not be in positions of power, but you're the power behind the throne, because you manipulate the men, they say. Such toxic horseshit. I wish they'd set fucking fire to Ken, I'm so angry about this stupid movie and I kind of was hoping that I would enjoy it even though it is corporate propaganda, and I'm angry at myself about that.
Anyway. Oppenheimer, huh?
I do think that was deliberate and Gerwig was trying to reflect the absurdity of that back to us, but it fell flat for sure. No subversion of norms detected!
No subversion of norms detected, bless you for putting it into words.
NONE at all! Why are there so many articles calling the movie subversive??!! I didn't like how the movie wants to ostracize pregnant Midge, anything that's "weird", Growing Up Skipper, cellulite, etc. It's shoring up everything it pretends to subvert. I left the theatre feeling sad.
I like your suggestion that another ending would see all women move to Barbieland.
The fact that we’re talking about it in this way is a win for Gerwig. She made a movie people want to talk about even if it upsets/offends them. I just wish at the very end, way after the really good truths about life were told, she’d stopped and not preached any more. It would have been more powerful.
Definitely a win for Gerwig and Mattel! A loss for feminism and the rest of us lol. If I were to rewrite the ending I'd have Barbie and the "real" women chose to become dolls again & retreat into the "safety" of Barbie Land. Feels like more of a reflection of American rn, where many women are retreating to "trad" norms and/or retreating into objectification ("beauty") — AKA rejecting their humanity — as a way to deal with the horror & uncertainty of post-Trump/post-Roe conservatism
Barbie should have been a horror movie. Then everything would fall into place. I actually, hmm, I think if someone just went through it and put a horror soundtrack over the whole thing, it would be a much tighter piece of art.
Good points. Wonder if that was her original ending and Hollywood told her to rewrite it?
I mean I really don't think so! She's been very clear in her interviews that this is the movie she wanted to make. I don't think we need to make excuses for Gerwig or her marketing choices, or assume she would have chosen better if she could — she is a millionaire celebrity at the helm of a $145-million film with plenty of power and agency. She knew what she was doing, and she made the movie she wanted to make, and she marketed it the way she wanted to market it. She's not some powerless person bending to the whims of Hollywood!! She is Hollywood.
You are spot on.
Darling, who would not want those Nuclear ApocaLIPS?? The end of the world is so IN right now!
THIS IS SO F*%^#ING GOOD!!!
Oppenheimercore. Oppcore. Fedoracore. SmokingManCore. Radiationcore.
Jessica, the Oppen-Products™️ are the funniest thing, no exaggeration, I have ever seen.
Poetry.
I bought that Grandelash serum and it did make my eyelashes grow! The cost of my Bambi eyes was a left eye that constantly leaked for six weeks, just a slow welling that occasionally turned into a tear and ran down my face, sometimes without me realizing.
DANG
You are brilliant and I hope you voice reverberates across the world
Brilliant as always laughter really is the best beauty culture movie transformation medicine. 😂😂