PostScript: The Barbie Movie: A Conversation about a Cinematic and Cultural Event
Today\u2019s episode of POSTSCRIPT explores and examines director Greta Gerwig\u2019s film,\xa0Barbie. This Warner Brothers\u2019 movie has been in theaters for under a month but has crossed the $1 billion dollar mark during that time, breaking all kinds of box office records and making Gerwig the first solo female director to enter this rarified realm.\xa0Barbie\xa0is now Warner Brothers\u2019 most successful film, surpassing Christopher Nolan\u2019s\xa0The Dark Knight, which had held that position at Warner Brothers.\xa0Barbie\xa0has hit a kind of cultural and cinematic sweet spot\u2014with a marketing campaign around the movie establishing pink as the new black, bringing in Barbie-connected products across almost all consumer platforms, from Barbie-themed furniture to holiday home rentals, from lunchboxes and tee-shirts to new Mattel Barbies reflecting characters in the film.\xa0Barbie\xa0has also received positive reviews in the United States and globally, with audience members attending the film in pink clothing and accessories, often accompanied by friends and family members. Thus,\xa0Barbie\xa0is more than a summer tent-pole release, though it certainly has fulfilled that particular role.\xa0Barbie\xa0is more of an event\u2014driving theater attendance, conversations, and in-person community experiences.\nIn this episode, I am joined by four scholars and experts to discuss \u201call things Barbie\u201d as we examine the narrative of the film itself, the questions of gender and feminism, patriarchy, and sexuality. We also dive into the marketing campaign, the tensions between capitalism, neoliberalism, postfeminism, and an original intellectual property based on a consumer product. Dr.\xa0Linda Beail\xa0(Point Loma Nazarene University), Dr.\xa0Shuchi Kapila\xa0(Grinnell College), Dr.\xa0Danielle Hanley\xa0(Clark University), and Dr.\xa0Susan Liebell\xa0(St. Joseph University and co-host of the New Books in Political Science podcast) take up all these dimensions of this brightly colored film as we explore our thinking about this movie event that has landed in the post-Covid landscape of 2023.\nWe all found the experience of seeing\xa0Barbie, in a movie theater, to be one filled with joy and fun, for ourselves, and among those in the theater with us. Join in our conversation about\xa0Barbie, since this is both a delightful cinematic experience and a film with something to say to its audience and the world around us.\nLilly J. Goren\xa0is a professor of political science at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. She is co-host of the\xa0New Books in Political Science\xa0channel at the New Books Network. She is co-editor of\xa0The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe\xa0(University Press of Kansas, 2022), as well as co-editor of the award winning book,\xa0Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics\xa0(University Press of Kentucky, 2012).\xa0She can be reached\xa0@gorenlj.bsky.social\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies