“What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, Thursday, December 19, 2024

I've been ruminating on the Barbie movie for a year and a half now. I didn’t write about it after I watched it last August, though several of the film’s themes have sat with me, and I think it’s time to look back at this film as a deciding moment in America’s culture war that has culminated in the re-election of Donald Trump in November. Greta Gerwig’s allegory, Barbie, is the antithesis of the America in the Republican future just a little over a month away. To be clear, neither Barbieland nor the real-world Venice Beach is utopian. Barbieland is matriarchal until Ken (Ryan Gosling) teaches the other Kens about patriarchy. The film shows a world of smart Barbies, doctors, lawyers, judges, astronauts, scientists —and Ken dolls who “beach” as a profession, waiting for a Barbie to give them attention. Margot Robbie as the archetypal blonde Barbie feels dissatisfied with living in a place where “Every day is the best day ever, and every night is girls' night, from now until forever,” venturing out where the world is not plastic.

I USED TO KNOW, BUT NOW I’M NOT SURE. Released on July 21 in the United States, Barbie was the highest-grossing film of 2023. As a PG-13 comedy, the 2001 campy Legally Blonde feels like an obvious influence on Barbie. The strong-female-driven cast builds on the trend of films like Spy, Ghostbusters, Ocean’s Eight, and Greta Gerwig’s previous films like Ladybird. Many reviewers have probably given a great interpretation of Barbie as a feminist allegory, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the symbolism. A film like Barbie could fill volumes due to its multiple levels of interpretation. However, I would like to focus on the backlash to the film, particularly by men who felt that the film was either attacking them or simply not for them. I think that both of these issues are related. Of course, not every film is made for everyone, and a strong female cast often guarantees low male turnout. But why is that? A strong male lead in a film doesn’t necessarily mean that few women will watch the movie. I think it’s a difference between how girls and boys are raised. In today’s world, girls are educated much in the same way as boys. While opportunities may not actually be the same, most educators and school systems have a disposition of equality, yet for decades, the math and science careers were mostly dominated by men. When picking role models, it wouldn’t be unheard of for a girl to pick a famous male in a field she hoped to enter one day. But how many straight-cis-gendered boys had female role models? What about today? If we have met any benchmarks in an equitable society, this question feels asinine, especially when women have pioneered work in previously male-dominated fields. But still, there are fathers, pastors, uncles, and even teachers who would discourage a young man from taking a female role model, may turn the otherwise straight boy gay. It’s an absurd belief given that girls have been educated with male role models. 

JUST SOMETHING YOU PAID FOR. There were at least four factors that made the live-action adaptation of Barbie work. First, the nostalgia for the Mattel doll and some of its history is woven into the story, creating, bringing back old fans, creating new ones, or at the very least giving the viewer an appreciation for Barbie culture. Second was the smart writing. Greta Gerwig uses multiple levels of interpretation and irony to develop Barbie as a feminist symbol, reappropriating the doll from its sometimes arguably subversive history. Gerwig created characters with different views about who Barbie is and what she symbolizes, and all viewpoints seem valid in the film. The third success is the cast. The top-billed actors, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, are not just pretty faces. Gosling’s performance as the himbo Ken is arguably one of his best roles. Besides Gosling, most of the actors do not stray much from the types of characters that they have played in other roles. The handsome Simu Liu is an innocent dancing Ken doll, not too unlike an action figure without the superpowers of his Marvel character, Shang-Chi. Kate McKinnon,  Michael Cera, and America Ferrera similarly bring a connection to their past work. But I would argue that Will Ferrell’s role as the Mattel CEO blesses Gerwig as a new generation of comedy writers. Ferrell spent the ‘90s and ‘00s playing some of the most ridiculous roles on Saturday Night Live and the silver screen. It’s not that Ferrell’s talent outshines Robbie, McKinnon, Ferrera, or the others in the movie; it’s a kind of passing the torch to a new generation of actors, and in this case, actresses. 

LOOKED SO ALIVE. The final ingredient that made Barbie work is the music. Leading up to the film’s release, singles were released from the album. Much of the music in the film is original and features some of the current top pop artists. The first single, “Dance the Night Away,” came from Dua Lipa, who also appears in the film. Other artists such as Tame Impala, Khalid, Lizzo, Charli xcx, Sam Smith, Haim, and Ava Max rounded out the soundtrack with different genres. Aqua’s 1997 hit “Barbie Girl” made an appearance on the soundtrack, sampled in the Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice track “Barbie World.” Matchbox Twenty’s 1996 song “Push” also makes a hilarious entry into the film, though only the film’s score includes a version of Ryan Gosling singing the “man anthem.”  The biggest single from the album was the last single, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” Eilish earned a second British chart number 1 and a second Academy Award. The song was a hit before the film was released, but featured in the movie, “What Was I Made For?” represents a meta-awareness Barbie has when she meets the dolls’ inventor, the late Ruth Handler. A review of Eilish’s hit by the fundamentalist Christian site PluggedIn.com failed to read the lyrics of “What Was I Made For?” outside of the context of Christianity. On a literal level, Handler is like Barbie’s god; she created playthings for her children and started Mattel with her husband to sell the product to parents and children who adult-styled dolls to fantasize about the child’s own grown-up life. Yet, Eilish’s god metaphor isn’t the only way to read the lyrics. The song also seems to have something to do with transactional relationships, when Eilish talks about “Something you paid for.” It also seems to deal with pop-stardom. Eilish has sometimes been called an industry plant which is a term that belittles a star’s efforts and focuses only on the money record labels pour into artists who “came out of nowhere.” “What Was I Made For?” could be interpreted to be a discussion about fame, essentially, what was the point of a star’s meteoric growth? Is there a purpose? Finally, the song could be about the human experience, especially the feminine side of humanity. The ‘50s style that Eilish evokes along with the “classic Barbie” aesthetic the song’s music video depicts certainly conjures images of the kept housewife of that era. What is the point of life? What is the point of being made for someone else? Barbie was not just a celebration of the doll but an invitation to a deeper discussion, just as “What Was I Made For?” was an amendment to the film’s discussion and a stand-alone discussion. 

 Read the lyrics on Genius.