Have you seen the 2023 summer blockbuster movie Barbie? Warning, Spoiler Alert!

It’s a spoof on Mattel’s iconic Barbie and Ken dolls, and how they influenced girls for generations; creating idyllic stereotype roles for women and men which informed little girls. It’s about the  plastic-fantastic imaginary Barbie world goes terribly wrong when it collides with reality. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, the movie is very entertaining, with a strong message, cynical, clever, funny, and grossed (at this writing) over $1.3 billion. It reminds us the Barbie fantasy world is just that, fantasy, and not the reality we live in.

“Stereotype Barbie”, played by Margot Robbie, broke away from the Barbie world when she had thoughts of death and suffered anxiety due to her imperfections; flat feet and cellulite. At first she couldn’t handle these thoughts and then fought back by leaving the Barbie world and looked for “truth” in the real world. In the end, the movie broke traditional gender stereotypes and attacked male misogyny and female subservience; delivering a strong social message.

Taking a page from dharma talks I’ve heard from Rev Harada and Rev Turner; there are often Buddhist messages imbedded in contemporary entertainment. It was all over the Barbie movie. Barbie was plagued by the concept of impermanence and death, and questioned what her life was really about. Barbie couldn’t accept the imperfections she saw in herself and went off the rails trying to figure it out. At the end of the movie, Rhea Perlman, playing Ruth Handler, the creator of the Barbie doll, delivers the big message; "Humans only have one ending. Ideas live forever";  while Billie Eilish’s song “What was I made for” played as the credits rolled.

Our Buddhist practice addresses this stuff head on. The Buddhist ‘set up’ is our Four Nobel Truths, the ‘plot line’ is our Eightfold Path. Most of us don’t suffer the full Barbie syndrome, but we all face the unvarnished reality of our lives, and wonder “What was I made for”. In this movie, the battleground is how we’ve been introduced to 2-dimensional gender roles in our society and face all the misconceptions embedded in them. For me, life as an older, white, privileged, male isn’t all it was cracked up to be. 😎 That’s one of my crosses to bear. We all have some. Good thing we have Buddhism.

In Gassho.

Ricky