How ‘Barbie’ approached ageism

Spoiler warning: this article contains spoilers for Barbie [2023]

Key points:

• Greta Gerwig’s Barbie skewered a range of controversies which have plagued the doll’s parent company, Mattel, for decades

• Ageism served as a source of inspiration for the theatrical release of a film mired in enthusiasm and online commentary

• Gerwig told Rolling Stone that the ‘bench scene’ of the film’s titular character [Margot Robbie] alongside Hollywood icon, Ann Roth, was nearly cut prior to release

As Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer [2023] hit cinema screens across the world, frenzied fanfare took over social media and praise has not yielded. However, when Drive [2011] and Bladerunner 2049 [2017] star, actor Ryan Gosling, was announced as Barbie’s deuteragonist, online commentary derided Gerwig’s vision for the pink-palate project.

Prior to the critical acclaim, 42-year-old Gosling had shrugged off the viral scorn, telling reporters that younger fans of the Barbie property “never cared” about Ken before the announcement and commentary surrounding his age was “funny.”

The film’s director, Greta Gerwig, reaffirmed the film’s overt disdain towards ageism and discrimination against older people, particularly older women. Time Magazine reported that one scene, featuring actress Margot Robbie sitting alongside American costume designer Ann Roth, prompted Mattel President Richard Dickson to fly to the set of ‘Barbie.

The scene reportedly made the final cut after Gerwig and Robbie acted out the dialogue in front of Mr Dickson, who relented. In which, a crying Barbie — disillusioned with the real world, outside of ‘Barbieland’ — tells the older woman “you’re beautiful.”

Roth, aged 91, then began to smile at Robbie’s character, responding to her compliment with a blunt retort: “I know.”

The director told Rolling Stone journalist Brian Hiatt that scene was the “heart of the movie,” and although it didn’t change the trajectory of the film, it symbolised the message behind the plot.

“If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about,” Gerwig told Hiatt.

The director included direct references to the woman who created the first doll, Ruth Handler, in 1959, offering future generations of younger women the opportunity to feel a kinship with other women who once owned Barbie dolls which reflect their own generational attitudes. 

The New York Post reported that the homage to older generations of women and approval of their confidence had seeped into TikTok, with younger users sharing a new reverence for face-filters which scan a user’s face and ‘ageify’ them.

TikTok user @sava.sun shared a video regarding the ‘ageify’ filter, which went on to amass over two million views with caption: “revisiting this filter after seeing Barbie, thinking of the ‘you’re so beautiful’ scene, and realising this face isn’t so bad after all.”

The greatest lesson people should leave Barbie with is to be happy with oneself — whether you are familiar with dream-houses or whether you see a bit of Ryan Gosling’s spirit in your own life — you are Ken-ough.