Nature is the key to Barbie’s success.

“Man! I Feel Like A Woman” is more literal than people realize. ⁤Shania Twain, who wrote the lyrics to​ a riff from her ex-husband Mutt Lange,‍ says the​ song was at least ​partially inspired⁣ by the ​drag queens of mid-’80s Ontario. Twain also insists the song is⁣ a rebuke of dour feminists who see women’s glass as perpetually half empty.

Understanding Barbie

Maybe it is. “Barbie”⁣ —⁢ both doll⁣ and movie — is at​ least trying to understand.

As Camille Paglia wrote⁣ in her introductory essay⁢ to Sexual Personae, “Art⁤ is form struggling ‍to‌ wake from the nightmare of nature.” This is Barbie: genitally smooth,⁤ briefly pregnant, curvaceous and petite all at once.⁤ (I’ll take her⁢ just ⁣as seriously as ‌her detractors.) Greta Gerwig’s ‍film reflects that ambiguity to great effect. It’s neither ‍good nor bad. It’s just funny.

Paglia’s Influence

Paglia ‌is precisely the right thinker to consult. Sexual Personae ‌congealed over the course ⁣of the mid-’60s, was finished​ in ⁣1980, and finally published in 1990. Barbie​ dolls first hit shelves in 1959.‌ By the time Paglia began‍ poking holes in the anti-humanism of ​feminism’s emergent consensus, women⁤ were entering colleges and workplaces ⁤ at historic rates that upended ‌sexual politics in less than​ one generation.

Barbie came along for the ride, morphing into⁣ new ⁤and progressive identities but always retaining her ‍beauty. In ⁢Gerwig’s ⁣21st-century hands, Barbie could be president, she could be disabled, she could ​even be a ‍man.

This is ⁣not all‍ that different from the incoherence Paglia⁤ writes about in‌ Western art. ​It’s⁤ our⁢ struggle to transcend nature.

Gerwig’s film is predicated on the hilarity ⁤of innate sex ⁤differences. She⁣ mocks Mattel for ​discontinuing a pregnant Barbie and allows America Ferrera to find purpose in motherhood. Ken’s Mojo ⁢Dojo Casa House jokingly needs disinfecting ⁤to be ⁤converted back into a⁢ Dreamhouse.‌ There would be no point in going on ​— nearly ​every laugh line in “Barbie” relies on the‍ audience’s understanding that men​ and women are different.

The Power ‌of Women

“Woman’s current advance in society ​is not a voyage from myth to truth but from myth to ‍new myth,” observed Paglia in ‍the midst of sexual upheaval. “The rise of rational, technological woman ‍may demand the repression⁣ of unpleasant archetypal realities.” Those realities are‌ identified by ⁣the author as​ menstruation, pregnancy, vaginas, and more. Barbie is‍ liberated from all ⁢of these inconveniences, ​free to⁢ go to ‌space or serve‌ on the Supreme Court. But⁤ she’s still wrapped in pink, and she still has breasts.

Ken, as the narrator says, does not have a good day​ until he’s noticed by Barbie. Why? It’s ultimately⁤ women’s validation that leads to procreation.‍ This dynamic is resolved by Barbie realizing after returning ‍from the⁢ Real World that she took Ken for‌ granted. Paglia’s critiques⁤ of feminism always place women in the driver’s seat of history for‌ this‍ reason. They’re ⁣not the powerless victims of leftist lore. They are ⁤the ‍mysteries man works ⁢all his life to crack.

Which is, of course, very funny.⁢ It’s impossible to blame anyone for going into the movie with the expectation it would reflect that leftist lore more than⁢ the ‍truth. Perhaps that explains why the script fell flat with some right-leaning critics. But “Barbie’s” second week at⁤ the box office ⁢was⁤ stronger than ‌“Oppenheimer’s” ‌first. It’s one of the most successful week-two runs ⁣in ​history. That is to say, people like it. And‌ people ⁤don’t ‌like woke content,⁣ which is‍ why it’s almost ‍always a commercial failure.

“Barbie” just isn’t⁤ what the hyper-political minds of online punditry expected. ⁣It’s hardly ⁤perfect. The⁣ male bashing is a little gratuitous. But the ‌co-ed writing team of Gerwig and Noah Baumbach capture Barbie and capitalist, post-industrial⁢ America’s very real struggle ⁣against ​nature without exactly taking‍ a side. Men can be women, but‍ women still have ‌to make gynecology appointments.

The Thrust of the Western Pursuit

It’s a ‌dangerous sense of ⁢indecision but ⁢it’s ‌one of which the film is almost⁤ unaware, as is the case with contemporary feminism’s inability ⁣to grapple with, for ‍instance, TERF-dom. The overarching theme of ​Barbie does not belong to a ⁣political ⁣party or ⁢cause. We’d be kidding ourselves ⁣to ‌think even most mainstream conservatives want, for⁣ instance, a ‍workforce closed to women, a repealed 19th Amendment, or male-only ​credit cards. As⁣ Paglia says, “We must honor⁢ the chthonian but not necessarily yield to it.” This is the thrust of the Western pursuit.

Some ‍argue that devolves inevitably ⁢into high-tech, genderless dystopia. ‌Others, correctly as I see ‌it, argue this will always be a tug-of-war ​between tech and nature, with‌ tech at an often invisible, but important, disadvantage.

Gerwig and Baumbach ‍can’t​ quite⁣ commit to the ⁢genderless dystopia of progressive fantasies.

“In a ‍totalitarian future that has removed procreation from woman’s​ hands, ⁢there ‍will also be no affect and no art,” wrote‍ Paglia. “Men will be machines, without pain ‍but also without pleasure. Imagination has a price, which we are paying every ⁣day. There is no‍ escape from the biologic chains that bind us.”

While this is‌ certainly ‌a prescient vision of ⁣a ⁢world molded ⁣by ⁢postmodern androgyny, it is not the world ‌of Barbie ⁤Land. ⁣We all know, as Paglia‌ articulates, “the ⁣sexes are caught in a‍ comedy of historical indebtedness.”

“Man can feel like a woman.‍ He can ​never be her. That’s the‍ joke,​ and it⁤ will always be funny.