Dorothy and Barbie

Dorothy and Barbie

More in my heart and brain to share—- apologies for being binary but the issue I see is binary.

I am noticing that you all may be getting quite tired of what I have to say about this movie … however that fear in me ends up being exactly what I am talking about.

I deserve to speak up and say what is true in me.

I keep writing because I see this dilemma all over the world and it scares the utter life out of me.

This is long —- grab a comfy chair and be with me if you will.

When I was 5, 6 and 7 and had sleepovers at my Grandparents…. At bedtime Grandma would pull out a heavy olive green copy of the Wizard of OZ with its thick manila pages, artful color plates and large calligraphy first letters of each chapter.

I heard the story from child perspective.

Years later I watched the movie many times with its fearful moments and with hope for a happy ending.

Now, here comes this Barbie movie that is about a doll premiered in 1959 —- hitting the big screen in 2023.

Both are movies about women… and both about the hero’s journey… and the path toward owning oneself as a sovereign being. A person embarking on this journey has looked within and wondered about the values of their brain, the tenderness of their heart and the capacity of their courage.

These beings have found their way through eras of being asleep…, they have been attacked by flying monkeys or objectifying men, they have had to look at their “weirdness” and their fears. They have had to make choices…. To give up by sleeping in the field of poppies or choosing a high heel or a Birkenstock.

They have had to stand up against being brainwashed by men’s entitlement and desires to be in charge and by a small white haired man behind a curtain pretending to be the great and all powerful wizard of OZ.

Two stories…. A girl and a grown woman over a century apart brought to the big screen to show a path of coming home to themselves…

Not through some act of men but through the courage to face their lost-ness. The lost- ness is a product of everything in culture pointing them toward the enforced superiority of male bodied people.

That place in women that just has had to put up and shut up for untold centuries.

Barbie’s pink and white gingham dress is a salute to Dorothy’s blue and white gingham pinafore.

The pink cobblestone streets a subtle reminder of the yellow brick road. “Weird Barbie” and the Wicked Witch of the West demanding choices be made.

The marquee on the theater in Barbie Land advertising the Wizard of Oz… went by so quickly it is easily missed…. harkens to the similarity of the journey about to begin.

All that to say….

Again…..

this Barbie movie is tracking a profound wake up call that the idea that “everyday is the best day ever” won’t be sustainable.

That death will enter in.

That there will sadness and joy.

That there will be freedom and hard choices.

There will be loss and awakening.

The only promise is that “there is no place like home” especially when home is truly about actualizing your very own heart.

The Soul Journey…. The Hero’s Journey is taken on with fierce heart, with trembling courage and deep questions. It can be a walk through miasmal forests or roller blading in Venice Beach. It can incorporate visions into the future and hazy recollections of the past.

There is no ease but there is comfort. There is pain but there are caring companions along the way.

But in the end….when the journeyer comes face to face of whether to become human by embodying one’s once plastic self or clicking our ruby slippers three times… we see the patriarchy fading into the background or stepping into their hot air balloon and disappearing into the clouds.

However…..Somehow a hundred years has not absolved the cultural stance that a woman doesn’t have the right to be fully expressed, to be powerful in her own perception, to be listened to with equal attention.

That explaining everything is not necessary and that women’s perception of everything is different and just as valid as men’s. That accrediting a man for the brilliance that came out of a woman’s heart and voice…. These actions have not changed nearly enough… not close.

Looking for the power under the pink….. is really asking everyone to take off any blinders that has prevented them from seeing inequality with clear eyes. To make the decision that sex has nothing at all do with women’s intelligence or right to be in the world— respected, acknowledged and treated with dignity. To be quiet for awhile and listen to the female voices around you no matter how soft the sound.

I cannot write enough words about how profoundly this movie has catapulted me into an even deeper exploration of this cultural imperative……

These two movies are more alike than they are different.

“The Wonderful Wizard of OZ” was written in 1900 and two years later turned into a play. In 1939 the movie was released. The Barbie movie was written in 2020 in the quarantine of the Covid pandemic.

I wish I could sit down and have a talk with Greta Gerwig.

I feel she most certainly has had a personal experience of this journey.

As have I.

If you read this far…. Deep gratitude.