How Greta Gerwig's Barbie Was Inspired By The Bachelorette's Biggest Stereotypes
She's everything, he's just Ken.
Greta Gerwig's gigantic blockbuster "Barbie," which was recently nominated for eight Academy Awards, is a clear metaphor for the Garden of Eden. At the beginning of the film the many Barbies, including Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), live in Barbieland, a place where women are in charge of everything, the world is innocent and perfect, and there is no strife nor thoughts of death. The many Kens in Barbieland are all deeply in love with the Barbies, and pretty much don't exist unless the Barbies are looking at them. The central Ken of the story is played by Ryan Gosling, and he dreams of having a sleepover with Barbie at some point. There is no sex in Barbieland (indeed, the characters, like dolls, have no genitals), but Ken is driven by a remote, lizard-brain romantic impulse to be Barbie's boyfriend.
It's when Barbie and Ken leave Barbieland and enter the real world that they are introduced to the Forbidden Fruit. In this case, though, the Tree of Knowledge provides awareness of the patriarchy. In the real world, Ken finds, men run the world and women are generally oppressed. Ken also finds that men get to wear furs, talk about horses, sing Matchbox 20 songs, and feel something he had never encountered before: machismo. He brings the patriarchy back to Barbieland and wreaks havoc.
In a recent interview with Variety, Gosling talked about "Barbie," Ken, and the sweet, toy-like dynamic in Barbieland. Specifically, Gosling compared the relationship between Barbie and the Kens to the popular reality series "The Bachelorette," notably in the way each Ken has a single personality trait, and Bachelors don't exist unless they are directly interacting with the Bachelorette.
Bachelorette's Degree
For those unlucky enough to be unfamiliar with "The Bachelorette," it's a dating show wherein a single eligible bachelorette is presented with 25 hunky dudes and forced to live in a mansion with them for several weeks. Through conversations, kissing, and various other romantic tests, the Bachelorette winnows down the men to a single romantic partner. The season finale of "The Bachelorette" features the wedding between the star and her selected partner. Of the 19 seasons of "The Bachelorette," four of the couples are still together.
It seems that Ryan Gosling is a big fan of reality TV, and saw many parallels between "Barbie" and "The Bachelorette." The Kens, he felt, weren't much beyond their clothing, especially his Ken who, late in the film, becomes defined by an ugly mink coat he adopted. Gosling said:
"Some of ['Barbie'] came from 'The Bachelorette.' [...] One guy's the guy that wears glasses. One guy has the one earring. If you were to challenge and do the same thing as that person, you'd be infringing on their identity, and so Ken's identity became the mink."
He noted that the mink coat was inspired by old photos of Sylvester Stallone, who, it seems, was very fond of furs back in the 1980s. The makers of "Barbie" felt that Ken should be similarly dressed. "As long as Ken was wearing it," Gosling said, "he was the Ken with the mink — and that separated him from the other Kens."
Ken's mink
There are additional parallels between Barbieland and "The Bachelorette," Gosling felt, seeing Barbie's Dream House (later transformed into Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House) as a version of "The Bachelorette" mansion. After all, they are both fantasy universes wherein a single woman is fawned over by an army of empty-headed hunks. He said:
"I watch a lot of reality TV. A lot. [...] It's not dissimilar, in the sense that they sit around idly waiting for the Bachelorette to acknowledge them. And, yes, they have no attention outside of the attention she gives them."
Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Barbie," along with America Ferrera who is up for Best Supporting Actress," Margot Robbie who is up for Best Picture (she produced the film), and Greta Gerwig for Best Adapted Screenplay. Also nominated was the song "I'm Just Ken" (written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt) that Gosling performs, as well as the song "What Was I Made For?" which could very well net Billie Eilish her second Academy Award before she turns 23. It's people like Eilish that highlight just how little the rest of us have really accomplished. The Oscar nominations for "Barbie" have roused a small amount of controversy, as Robbie was not nominated for Best Actress, nor was Gerwig for Best Director.
Gosling will likely lose to Robert Downey, Jr. for his performance in "Oppenheimer," but if Gosling wins and Ferrera, Robbie, and Gerwig do not, prepare for online bedlam.