(claps)
♪ Come on, Barbie, let's go party ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪
I'm sorry.
I should not be allowed out in public.
Mended Light.
(light upbeat music)
Welcome to "Therapist Reacts Raw,"
where my producers give me something
that I haven't seen before,
and I react to it in real time,
sharing my thoughts as an expert in relationships
and the psychology of humanity.
This is the, oh, this is the trailer for "Barbie."
I know about this.
I haven't seen the trailer.
So Greta Gerwig, who has done a lot of things
including the most recent update of "Little Women,"
which I really loved.
So we're gonna take a look at, yeah,
we're doing a "Barbie" movie.
I hear it's a satire and it's subversive,
so I don't even really know
what I'm gonna be responding to here.
Oh, I'm also by day a therapist, by night a film critic.
So I'm gonna share my thoughts on the entire thing.
Let's do this.
(light music)
Loving the heels.
And her feet stay.
Oh, she flies.
- [Ken] Can I take you out tonight?
- Sure, I don't have anything big planned.
Just a giant blowout party with all the Barbies
and planned choreography and a bespoke song.
You should stop by.
- So cool.
- Not too old, he's perfect.
Shut up.
♪ Diamonds under my eyes ♪
- Okay, it's "Toy Story 3."
- It is the best day ever.
So is yesterday, and so is tomorrow,
and every day from now until forever.
- Little Lego movie vibes.
- You guys ever think about dying?
(record scratching)
- Oh.
♪ When my heart breaks ♪
- Some things have been happening that might be related.
♪ When my world shakes ♪
- Cold shower.
Falling off my roof.
And my heels are on the ground.
(Barbies gasping)
- Flat feet! (gags)
(Barbies screaming)
- Did I have my own Barbie?
No, I did not.
I would go over to my cousin's house though
and I think we have all been at a house
where the Barbies were all naked on a floor
and it was the little brother who wanted to see
what the female body was like.
Turns out, if what you know about the female body
comes from a Barbie, you're ill-prepared.
There's nothing there.
But Barbie did create and has created
and has received a lot of criticism throughout the decades
for creating an unrealistic standard of beauty for women.
An unrealistic standard of,
but you know what, what about He-Man?
- I have the power!
- No one talks about how we hold ourselves
to this standard that we're never gonna achieve.
And you know why we're never gonna achieve it?
Because tacos exist.
- Yo quero Taco Bell.
- I can lift weights all day
and I'm still squishy and insulated.
Why don't we talk about my pain?
No, but we do see a parody already
of the ideals that Barbie represents.
The perfect life, the perfect Dreamhouse Barbie.
Ken is an accessory.
He's there for you to change his clothes
and to accompany Barbie on journeys.
He's never a character, right?
He's just there.
He's like a purse.
He's like a purse with pants.
And so, already through this storyline that I'm digging
by Barbie starting to have the real world
encroach on her life, on her perfect little life,
we are challenging all the notions
of what Barbie represents.
So, that's cool.
I dig that.
(upbeat music)
I like the design.
- What do I have to do?
- You have to go to the real world.
You can go back to your regular life
or you can know the truth about the--
- Burkenstocks!
- The choice is now yours.
- The first one, the high heel.
- You have to want to know, okay.
Do it again.
♪ Closer I am find ♪
- Look at how tall she is in her car.
(Barbie and Ken screaming)
- I'm coming with you.
- Okay.
- Oh my gosh
The design is so fun, holy crap.
- Wow.
This is the real world.
- Look at their clothes.
- What's going on?
Why are these men looking at me?
- [Ken] Yeah, they're also staring at me.
(smacking)
(Barbie gasps)
♪ You've got a ♪
- Ken is posing.
If you love Barbie, this movie's for you.
Okay.
- Barbie in the real world, that's impossible.
- If this got out,
this could mean an extremely weird--
- Will Ferrell.
So this is the "Lego Movie 3."
- Catastrophic!
- If you hate Barbie.
- Since we were like five years old.
- Oh.
- No one rests until this doll is back in a box.
♪ Even if nobody helps things along ♪
- Oh, have fun.
- [Woman] Humans only have one ending.
- Get that Barbie!
- They're missing her by mile.
- [Woman] Forever.
♪ Make your own kind of music ♪
- Okay.
- No, I won't let you do just one appendectomy.
- But I'm a man.
- But not a doctor.
- Can I talk to a doctor?
- You are talking to a doctor.
- Do I need a clicky pen? - No.
- A sharp thing. - No.
- There he is, doctor!
- Somebody gets security.
- Oh my gosh.
Okay.
So, Ken represents the ideals
that men especially carried in the '50s and '60s and before.
"Let me talk to a doctor."
"You are talking to a doctor."
Can I, no, you can't do an appendectomy.
Just one.
Why not?
So definitely a feminist love letter to Barbie
which doesn't seem like it should go together,
but it might be the salty and sweet mix that we love
and that we need.
If you love Barbie, this movie's for you.
If you hate Barbie, this movie's for you.
What a great selling point.
Just bring everybody together.
A little bit of existential crisis mixed in there, right?
People have one ending.
Ideas live forever, right?
That's that tagline that was shared with Barbie.
We all die, but our ideas can go on forever.
Although, I wonder if they're going to explore the notion
that ideas do, some ideas do,
and a lot of ideas fall by the wayside
as people grow in empathy and understanding for one another.
The ideals in which Barbie was created, those ideas, right,
that time period.
It's like a time capsule.
And she's had to evolve with the times, evolve or die,
because Barbie has received,
and the creators of Barbie and what Barbie represents,
has received no shortage of criticism and fire
throughout her entire history,
and yet she has endured.
So here's what I want to know from you guys.
Why is that?
Why does Barbie still exist?
In my mind, it's the simplicity.
Traditional Barbie is a cipher.
You can project yourself onto her.
You can project your dreams onto her,
your wishes, your hopes, so you can be Barbie.
It's easy to identify with her
because you just put yourself on her.
And I think He-Man, going back to He-Man,
is a lot like that,
because He-Man doesn't have a lot of depth either.
He's got a big sword.
He rides some sort of green tiger thing.
And he fights a skeleton with muscles.
There's not a lot of depth there.
So if I wanna be He-Man,
I can make myself He-Man and project all that onto him.
He's a cipher as well.
I know feminism is a loaded word
and it means different things to different people,
but what are the core tenets of what it's supposed to be?
It's equal opportunity.
It's acknowledgement that women can be tough
and men can be tender.
That we don't have to be boxed in by expectations
of who we're supposed to be based on our gender.
That's something I agree with.
That's something I'm on board with.
Especially because I am a man
with more traditionally feminine traits in a lot of ways.
And I'm married to a woman
who has more traditionally masculine traits.
So, I certainly identify with that.
And I'm interested to see how this movie
deconstructs the mythos and the ideals of Barbie
by throwing her in the real world.
It reminds me of the Brady Bunch movie from the '90s
where characters from the '60s
are suddenly thrown into the '90s
and they have to deal with a shifted real world.
"Blast From the Past" with Brandon Fraser.
Any sort of film where characters from one era
or from one simple world, "Enchanted" also comes to mind
as I'm seeing this, going from the idealized cartoon world
to the nitty gritty real world
and having to deal with the harsh realities of life.
That sort of story, that speaks to me.
And I think it speaks to all of us
because it's about something we can relate to,
the transition from how we view the world as children
to how we view the world as adults
and the growing pains in between.
So, I'm actually on board.
Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling,
who doesn't wanna see a movie with the two of them?
This looks smart.
This looks funny.
As both a therapist and a movie buff,
I will be there opening day,
and I'll probably bring my daughters
and my sons if they want to come.
So, I dug it.
What are your thoughts on this "Barbie" trailer
and your thoughts on my thoughts?
Let me know in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this,
check out my "Therapist Reacts Raw to 'Stranger Things'."
I've actually seen the first three seasons.
I've yet to catch up on season four.
So, I react in real time to the scene
where Eleven attacks her bully with a roller skate,
and handling bullying, and my experience with that.
And so, yeah, take a look at that.
If you, like Barbie, are dealing with the harsh realities
of the real world, you can get support
at our membership site, which is currently 50% off.
It's a launch price.
It's not gonna stay that way forever.
But at the time of this video, 50% off.
The link is in the comments below
where we have video courses
and book clubs and live Q&A,
a virtual book club and live Q&A with Alicia and I
every month to give you the support that you need.
So, until next time, folks, keep shining.
We need your light.
(upbeat music)