Kenough. Please, Kenough.
I can't take another word about the Barbie movie.
Ryan was my favourite Mouseketeer from the very beginning. I liked his swoopy bangs and his big ears, and he made me laugh. I really didn’t need much else in elementary school, so the crush was set. I followed my crush through a lot of Canadian tv, bit parts (he’s adorable in Remember the Titans, though even the guy playing his dad has a more memorable role), and premium movie channel classics (Murder by Numbers hive, rise up! There are dozens of us!). Obviously I was there for The Notebook, and the entire real-life Ryan and Rachel romance. But right around the time he became the internet’s boyfriend, I tapped out. Ryan Gosling was fun when he was my whimsical little blond guy crush. Ryan Gosling: Sex Symbol was way too much of a product, and his self-awareness about the whole thing didn’t offset it. I still really like him as an actor in just about everything I’ve seen him in, but I’m not the fangirl I once was.
Imagine my weariness, then, at him becoming the breakout star of the goddamn Barbie movie. Weary at the coverage, yes—it felt like every review singled his performance out more than anyone else’s. But also weary at how the Barbie movie itself singled his performance out. The story starts out being about a Barbie doll connecting with the woman who played with her as a child, and who is now transferring her existential dread into the Barbie. Ken’s plot—discovering the patriarchy and using it to wreak havoc on Barbieland because he feels unappreciated—completely hijacks that story. America Ferrera becomes tertiary, her instantly famous monologue (which earned her her own Oscar nomination) notwithstanding.
So, as angry as white women are about Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s “snubs,” they could stand to direct that anger at writer-director Gerwig and producer Robbie themselves. As comforting as the self-victimizing narrative of white feminism is, these two white women had so much agency here. They’re just as much a part of Ryan Gosling’s “Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda” moment as the Oscar voters are.
It is also funny to me that the people who defended the Barbie movie from those of us who called it Feminism 101 by saying “some people need Feminism 101!” are now giving us a White Feminism masterclass. This class of Oscar nominees has a lot of thrilling/bewildering firsts: first Afro Latino Best Actor nominee! First Native American Best Actress nominee! First time I have to choose between Danielle Brooks and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in my Oscar pool! But y’all are stuck on two white women not getting nominated. Please, go drink some prune juice and let the shit go.
