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Imagine Thinking??

@lucid-obscurity

Brain doing a funny little jig

I think that the Barbie movie did a great job when it came to Midge, the same way it did with Allan. 

Midge is not the image Barbie gives. She's a mother. The start of the movie expresses that playing house and with baby dolls is not what Barbie is about. But pregnant Midge is about that. It's a doll that you could play house with. Her specialty was being a mother and having children. So it makes sense that she isn't like the other Barbies, she's Midge. She wasn't about being extraordinary in the way the other Barbies were, she was about motherhood.

Midge is an example of how women that choose to become mothers are seen by surface level feminism. People are apprehensive of her. She doesn't quite fit in. The idea that she could have been anything and she chose to be a mom is not always accepted well, although it should be. To the Barbies, she fits in, but to the humans, she is odd.

Then there is the comment made from the executive. He is frightened and repulsed by Midge, and the fact that she's in Barbie Land. I don't think this is just a throwaway line. Not from the movie that has taken such care in its presentation. I think it's a call out to how pregnant people are seen as "less desirable" (although that idea is insane). It's clear that the man's distaste for her is not because she is Midge, but that she is pregnant. For so many people, this could be seen as nothing, but it's clear that it is a comment on how even men within the patriarchy don't see women being pregnant as a positive. That even in a society that wants women to be mothers, being a mother is not respected. Midge is what patriarchy would prefer, but they don't even like her.

However, Midge is in Barbie Land, and not fully ostracized like Weird Barbie is. She is clearly still considered enough like Barbie to stick around. Midge is still played with, and girls still dream of being her. The women/Brabie in the movie don't act like she isn't one of them, but the executive others her. She is accepted by women, but not by men.

I think that the fact that Midge is barely in the movie, and when she is the butt of the joke is purposeful, and I hope other people feel the same way.

(This is not even close to all my thoughts on this, or the movie. Let me know if this was at all interesting to read.)

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