Gooday, humans, welcome to safe space for dangerous ideas, and here's a slightly, ever so slightly dangerous idea.

How about we have a nuanced conversation about the most beloved and most controversial in some ways movie of the decade, Barbie?

Why, you ask, am I doing an episode about Barbie?

So many weeks.

Loat these many weeks since it first dropped, since I first saw it.

Well, I wanted the dust to settle.

I wanted to sit with it a little while.

I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon.

I didn't want to insert myself into what seemed to be some pretty crude criticisms of the movie by crybaby men who felt that it was, I don't know, too feminist or something. That's not the point that I'm making. But the point that I want to make is just that it's not feminist enough and not in the right way,

and it's not actually grappling with the issues that it thinks it's grappling with.

Now, one could say on this question,

why would you bother criticizing a movie that is made for 13-year-old girls and is just a comedy?

To the extent that Barbie gives 13-year-old girls a sense of the conundrum of womanhood that resonates with them, I think that's great, and I applaud it.

To the extent that it's only a comedy, I think that's great, and I applaud it.

But it's only a comedy, stop taking it so seriously line, is a little bit tired.

It's a line that I never liked John Stewart using when he was the host of the Daily Show.

You know, people would call him out for some particular political position that I felt he should have actually defended.

And he would say, this is a comedy show. We're on after a show where puppets make prank phone calls. I mean, you know, what do you want from me? I always felt

that was a dodge. He was an important figure in the politics and culture of the United States at the time,

and it behooved him in some way to acknowledge that. And similarly, with Barbie, The first two-thirds of the film could arguably

be a fun, candy-colored popcorn, high-heel extravaganza comedy. But the final act begins with a powerful

and very serious speech by the America-Ferara character about what it means to be a woman in the present day.

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