Dispite their reputation, cats are very very socal creatures. Cats do the equivalent of this for you when they sit in front of your laptop and put their arms on the keyboard or put their paw on your phone while you’re using it. This is their love language, it’s how they show that they like you and care about what you care about. They don’t understand why you care about it but they’re trying.
If you turn around and do the same for them they’ll be absolutely delighted. Sometimes when our youngest cat goes to the scratching post I scratch it with him too and he loves it. He’ll gets so into the scratching that he ends up climbing it cuz he wants to scratch with his back paws too. If they’re chirping at the window I’ll sometimes go over to see what they see and they usually scoot over so I have room beside them to see the offending bird or insect and they’ll purr like crazy cuz they’re so happy I’m helping them
We’re not appreciating the Weird Barbie enough. It’s said in the movie that she helps everyone who need help while they always see her as someone who’s not as good as them. She was friends with all dismissed Barbies and Kens, was there to offer support and safe shelter for everyone who needed it in Kendom, without her nothing in the movie would’ve been alright. When Stereotypical Barbie calls her “ugly and unwanted” she still helps her.
She was representing a woman in women’s world who was pushed aside by other women because she didn’t fit in but still had more wiseness and kindness than everyone who thought they’re better than her.
You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow, we’re always doing it wrong?
You have to be thin, but not too thin, and you can never say you wanna be thin. You have to say you wanna be healthy, but also, you have to BE THIN.
You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass.
You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean.
You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas.
You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time.
You have to be a career woman, but also, always be looking out for other people.
You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is INSANE, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining!
You’re supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood, but ALWAYS STAND OUT and ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL. But never forget that the system is rigged, so find a way to acknowledge that but ALSO, always be grateful!
You have to never get old. Never be rude. Never show off. Never be selfish. Never fall down. Never fail. Never show fear. Never get OUT OF LINE. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory, and nobody gives you a medal or says ‘thank you!’ And it turns out, in fact, that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything is your fault.
I’m just so tired of watching myself, and every single other woman tie herself into knots, so that people will like us.
And if all of that, is also true for a doll just representing a woman, then I don’t even know.“ -Gloria the barbie movie
And also the way Barbie and Ken are role playing heterosexuality without any inherent sexuality of their own, without any understanding of what it means, or even any genitals at all! Just pretty-girl + handsome-guy = obviously a couple. And the way it fucks them both up! Because they’re both stereotypes, neither of them is a specialist version, no brain surgery or pilots license or Nobel prize for either of them. They’re just assigned the roles of Every Man and Every Woman. And Ken ends up doing Way Too Much because he’s hanging his entire self-worth on being important to Barbie. And Barbie just isn’t interested in him, she was assigned a boyfriend she didn’t ask for and doesn’t want and doesn’t know what to do with, just because that’s what society expects of men and women, that they will necessarily couple up and fall in love because… that’s what they do. Regardless of any personal quality of either party.
It’s about heteronormativity and amatonormativity and the unrealistic expectations society sets boys and girls up for from infancy. Barbie and Ken are every pair of toddlers sharing a sandbox while the adults around them call them each other’s little “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” even though neither party understands or is capable of understanding the implied meaning of that. Or wants to.
It’s a literal funhouse mirror of that weird pressure put on kids to perform heterosexuality from an early age. It examines how that leaves us unprepared for the complicated reality of actual relationships even if it turns out that you are heterosexual and do want sex and romance. Boys and girls aren’t really allowed to be just kids on the same team, so they grow up into men and women who generally want very different things from each other and are trained to look for it in everybody because anybody is better than nobody, and try to force it to work.
Barbie and Ken letting each other go in the end was perfect. Barbie the Every Woman realizing that she doesn’t have to be special, she just has to be, and Ken the Every Man realizing he has to seek validation elsewhere and lean on his fellow Kens for emotional support, WHICH THEY GIVE.
Barbie (2023) really had Barbie say “hey. I know the reason you hurt me is because I hurt you. I’m sorry I hurt you, because you didn’t deserve that. I know you are a better person than this, and you are fully capable of being that person. I can’t change the past, and I don’t think we can be in each other’s lives anymore without hurting each other, but i am sorry and I want you to be happy. I want you to find your identity and love yourself and live.” and then she realizes she’s also talking about herself.
she’s saying “I deserve to live. We both deserve to live.” it is one of the kindest things I have ever seen done to someone and to themselves in any piece of media ever
ALT
