With the Oscars nearly approaching, many people are heated that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were not nominated for the feminine-oriented movie while Ryan Gosling was. This controversy has brought up many different concerns about misogyny and racism to the audience of Barbie.
After many people started getting upset over Robbie not being nominated, many others talked about how America Ferrara was, but no one seemed to care. The uproar from the movies’ fans has many people arguing on these topics, but no one really has a solution to these problems in Hollywood.
Gerwig was overlooked and instead, other directors such as Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), and Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) received nominations. Robbie faced similar treatment and was overshadowed by Emma Stone (Poor Things), Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), and Carey Mulligan (Maestro).
As much as all these individuals deserved nominations, because Barbie was solely directed by a woman as opposed to all the other films, it seemed unfair to many people that it was not given the same recognition.
The article, “‘Barbie’ receives 8 Oscar nominations, but was that Kenough?,” quoted a statement from Gosling.
“There is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film,” Gosling said.
This also brings up the other question of how people are treating Ferrera’s nomination. Although she was nominated, viewers are focusing so much on Robbie and Gerwig not receiving nominations rather than praising her for receiving one.
While it is upsetting that the two women who were the backbone of creating this movie centered around women’s rights were not nominated, yet Ken (Gosling) was, people should not be discrediting Ferrera and her important role in the film.
Ferrera’s character, Gloria, was such an asset to the film. She gave an impactful monologue expressing the struggles that women face on a day-to-day basis. That performance is not something that should be overlooked and it was well deserved. But that is not to say that Robbie and Gerwig were not snubbed when it came to who did and didn’t receive nominations. Gerwig produced this movie from the ground up, and it would not have been Barbie without Robbie.
When the nominations were first announced, many were enraged, claiming that this is the exact problem that Barbie was displaying. The movie is centered around feminist themes, dealing with issues of patriarchy and finding one’s true self. In the movie, stereotypical Barbie, played by Robbie, goes to the human world, due to her beginning to lose her doll-like features. While in the human world, she struggles to understand who she is. All her life, she has been seen as the base Barbie doll, with no special talents or any unique characteristics. But by the end of the movie, she discovers that she is special, just as much as the other Barbie dolls.
The movie also delves into the topic of patriarchy, using Ken as the scapegoat. He, too, goes to the human world, but instead of finding his true self, he learns what patriarchy is and brings it with him back to Barbie Land. The Kens gain power and turn everything that once was Barbie’s into their own, such as changing the Barbie Dream House into Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House. In the end, however, the Barbies regain control and do not allow the Kens to work in the government, to show how things once were for women of the past.
All the issues that the Barbies faced in this movie are true to the real world, especially now with these nominations. It is important to acknowledge the fact that even though this movie was important to a lot of people, it hasn’t solved all the world’s problems, and we still need to ban together and support each other when the media will not.