It Is Literally Impossible to Be a Monologue: The Misplaced Generalizations of Barbie

Authors

• Mabel Court

Keywords

feminist cultural criticism, gendered generalizations, women’s oppression

Abstract

The summer of 2023 was a hot pink pressure cooker that transformed the Barbie brand from a dusty relic into an omnipresent cultural phenomenon. The Barbie movie’s savvy marketing team colored billboards bright fuschia, with the film’s mystery-shrouded plot fueling a thunderous roar of speculative chatter that crescendoed until its long-anticipated release. A star-studded cast and auteur director Greta Gerwig were the cherries on top, rocketing the film to critical and economic success. The film was heralded as thematically ambitious, one of the best comedies in recent memory, and a “feminist self-aware masterpiece” (Barbie Movie Reviews). Although Barbie marked a massive victory for a female director pushing an unapologetically feminist story, the film is not without its shortcomings. The monologue delivered by Gloria, a Mattel employee played by acclaimed actress America Ferrera, kicks off the film’s third act and is one of the most emotionally resonant moments of the story for many viewers, yet it has its own limitations.

Recommended Citation

Court, Mabel (2026) "It Is Literally Impossible to Be a Monologue: The Misplaced Generalizations of Barbie," AWE (A Woman’s Experience): Vol. 12, Article 11.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/awe/vol12/iss1/11