Two break-out things:
The link to my “Summerrrr” Spotify playlist was broken in a previous newsletter. Here it is!
Yasmin Fahr has a new cooking Substack newsletter that I wholeheartedly recommend. You’ll dig it if you’re into delicious things like garlicky one-pot broccoli pasta…
Have you seen Barbie? Spoilers below (and literally everywhere all around you, what are you doing?)…
I don’t want to ease in here. In my opinion, if you have a problem with the way Kens are treated in Barbie, then… surprise! You’re a feminist. As Alex Abad-Santos at Vox says, “‘He’s just Ken’ caught fire not just because [Greta] Gerwig’s movie shined a spotlight on Barbie’s hidden-in-plain-sight feminist dynamic, but also because we—real people—don’t live in Barbie Land. In our world, women are taught that having everything is impossible without compromise and that, unlike Barbie and just like Ken, they should conform to the hobbies, careers, and whims of their heterosexual partners.”
There are so many genius moments in the movie, including one of the funniest: when Ken offers to play his acoustic guitar at Barbie. The theater in which I saw it erupted in laughter, all of us having grinned and borne that injustice more than once in our female lives. The bit about men explaining The Godfather; oof it’s just so good.
Of course, one such genius moment comes when America Ferrera’s character, Gloria, gives the speech to end speeches about how impossible it is to be a woman. I’ve put the whole thing below, because it’s required reading. But some snippets are worth posting twice: “We have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong.” And “always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful.” And, of course “never get old.” There was not a dry eye in the house.
And that brings to mind the subtle genius at play in many of the negative think pieces and TikToks and talking heads on the news. As they drone on about how the Kens are treated and unfair double standards, they are articulating all of the ways in which women have been treated (…not well!) for centuries. But it’s deeper than that. They miss the point because while it’s a feminist movie, it’s actually about all of us. “Life is hard for everybody,” said Gerwig to The Times. “I think equally men have held themselves to just outrageous standards that no one can meet. And they have their own set of contradictions where they’re walking a tightrope. I think that’s something that’s universal. Just as much as women have been lost in some morass of how to do everything. I equally see that as true for men. For everybody. We equally beat ourselves up.”
Leaving the theater and for the next few days, I had #feminism swimming through my mind. Moments and memories would pop into my brain, almost as if out of nowhere. I thought about movies like Gone Girl and Promising Young Woman and Bombshell. I thought about these satisfying (sorry!) videos of men testing out a period cramp simulator, often unable to even stand up straight as she turns up the dial.
I thought about how tiring it is for all of us to be this angry and this pretty all the time.
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