Why Did ‘Barbie’ Bomb in South Korea?
Why Did ‘Barbie’ Bomb in South Korea?
A lack of cultural nostalgia attached to the toy and wariness of the film's feminist messaging may have kept the Korean audience away from the Hollywood mega-hit: "There is no real fan base for 'Barbie' in Korea.”
A lack of cultural nostalgia attached to the toy and wariness of the film's feminist messaging may have kept the Korean audience away from the Hollywood mega-hit: "There is no real fan base for 'Barbie' in Korea.”
The country’s gender debate is so stark that during the 2022 presidential election, Yoon Suk-yeol, of the conservative People Power party, ran a winning campaign while pledging to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, claiming that the ministry promotes reverse discrimination against men.
Crap like this is why the media has no reputation. The "Ministry of Gender Equality and Family" is 여성가족부 in Korean - which means Ministry of Women and Family. It is literally a pro-woman Ministry. This is fine and nobody I know voted for Yoon, but you have to understand it is literally a ministry dedicated for reverse discrimination. The fact the article wrote it this way is such a baffling lie to anyone who knows the subject.
Though there's no such thing as reverse discrimination. It's just good, old discrimination.
There is a huge debate in South Korea over feminism. I'm not Korean, but I've read a lot that Korean men do get special treatment from the government, colleges, and workplaces, but mostly for their mandatory military service. The argument seems to be that if women want the same treatment, they're free to sign up for military service.
Makes sense for a country still technically in a civil war, I guess.
So I went with my son and wife, I'm very open minded about things in general but for anyone to say this wasn't a movie about feminism and incels is a joke. I get it, men have movies that glorify masculinity all the time so I didn't mind watching it but to say All we care about is patriarchy and mini fridges and horses is a joke. Well made movie so I'll just chock it up to feminism getting a good jab in.
Imo it was trying to make you think about what just happened and how the fight was more of the classes rather than sexes, while presenting itself more as empowerment since thats what the brand sells, not revolution and empowerment implies keeping the status quo going, but the undertone definetly hints at the fact that the system in and of itself is wrong, not necesarily what group of people runs it.
My biggest issue with it was honestly the ending. They make it clear that Barbie world is just reversed where the men are treated poorly by the women. Which is fine. The analogy makes as much sense as it needs to for the point it makes.
But at the end they have the change to use that point to illustrate where they would like to see the world go. They could have said “wow we were assholes and our poor treatment of men encouraged this entire shit show. We’re going to treat men as equals now” but instead they simply gave them slightly better benefits than they had before and still expected to be able to treat them like crap. It would’ve been nicer to see them illustrate more equality between the genders and the results it had on the regular world.
I think it was intentional, like the undertone is that its all fucked in the end and both sides are wrong in their own way, and it tries to make you think about whatvyou just saw, specially after they make clear that barbie is unsatisfied about all stuff that happened and rather turn into a real person to maybe find meanning, and the gynecologist line is kinda like a middle finger to reality. The power fight betwen sexes while not pointless in a societal way, its rather unfulfilling in a personal level, like stuff doesnt really change as long as the angle is still in the fight of the sexes, and both sides are capable of the same shit while in power, and its more fault of the hierchical sistem in itself (capitalism) rather that if men or women are running it. But ofcourse its not gonna be upront about it since the barbie brand sells empowerement to women, not revolution, nd empowerment means perpetuating the status quo, just under new mannagement. In its self aware angle the movie kindda remminded me of deadpool, and while i like most of the humor, i get why some people wouldnt like it that much for that (besides the "ugh feminism" croud of dumbasses) the only scene where i think it was cringe was the one where they say "note to the filmakers margot robie cute blah blah blah", it felt very tryhard. Or at least thats my take on it
they simply gave them slightly better benefits than they had before and still expected to be able to treat them like crap.
Or as the movie puts it: "Eventually you'll have the same rights women do in the real world"
Did you actually watch the movie? Returning to oppressing the Kens was literally the point to mirror the equal rights movement irl.
All the Ken's care about are Patriarchy, horses, and mini-fridges, because they were given no rights or ideas of their own before Ken went to the real world, and he was only there for a few hours.
It's not a critique of men in general.