The Barbie movie has been out for a while now, and as I said in my last post, I am not the first person to see the strangely conservative message hidden within the superficially feminist narrative. However, there are a few critiques of our view, but the largest and, in my view, most reasonable is as follows:
"But it is made by liberal feminists for liberal feminists. How can it really be conservative?"
This is, in my view, the strongest argument. Greta Gerwig, the director, is certainly no Ben Shapiro, as is obvious to anyone who has seen the latter's fiery review of the film. What's more, it was promoted loudly and often by Hollywood, another indicator of its participation in the liberal agenda(s). In other words, it's a meta argument, arguing from the larger context of the movie rather than from the internal contents.
The reason I find this compelling is that its premises are indisputable. Greta Gerwig is feminist. Hollywood is feminist. There really isn't room for greater interpretation, save a conspiracy of her being some kind of closeted conservative, which is incredibly unlikely. However, I don't think this is actually necessary for our view, and in this way I would argue from the story of the prophet Balaam, as recorded in Numbers 22-24.
It starts with another king, Balak ruler of the Moabites. He saw what the Israelites had done in defeating some of the Caananite nations and was afraid. Thus, he went to a nearby warlock named Balaam so that he would curse the Israelites. Balaam hears God tell him not to curse the Israelites, so Balaam refuses to go with Balak. Balak insists, and the Lord tells him to go anyway but not to say anything that the Lord has not told him. From there, a very strange event follows. While riding on a donkey, Balaam is diverted from the path twice, beating his beast after each, and then while walking, his donkey simply sits on the ground and refuses to move even as Balaam beats him. Then the donkey is miraculously given the ability to speak and tells him that the Angel of the Lord was in the road ready to smite Balaam each of these three times and the donkey moved out of the way for his sake. Balaam is then immediately able to see the Angel, who tells him again to go with Balak but only to say what God tells him. I see this as a warning not to curse Israel lest he be smitten by the Angel of the Lord, a humbling because his donkey could see more than this great prophet, and a type of Christ, as I posted elsewhere. Anyway, then Balak brings Balaam to a high place to curse Israel, Balaam tells him to perform various rites and sacrifices, and then Balaam prophesies good things to Israel. This happens four consecutive times, after which Balaam says that the Lord is the best and then heads out. He goes on to personally incite the Israelites to Baal worship and sexual immorality, but that's really outside the purview of this post. I would also commend you read the actual prophecies of Balaam, as they include some beautiful messianic prophecies as well as just of the glory of the Church and mercy of God.
Now, "What on earth does this have to do with Barbie?" I hear some of you asking. Well, it's rather simple: Greta Gerwig is Balaam. She was hired to write and direct a movie praising feminism, and she was almost certainly very willing to do so. However, there are points where true artists can only go so far. Remember: God is the essence of the three transcendentals of truth, goodness, and beauty, and thus these three are intimately connected. In this way, we see that beautiful things must, in some way, participate in truth, because they must participate in God and God is the Truth. In the story of Balaam, he was trying to prophesy evil (ie curse) the Israelites, but at a certain point, the Lord constrained Him. In the same way, though Greta's intention may have been to write a piece of feminist nonsense, what she ended up with is a masterpiece able to criticize both feminism and the toxic anti-feminism in the modern world. What's more, she even ended up praising that which the modern world despises: reality and motherhood.
We can see that much of the narrative world serves to confess the Christian story even as it wars against the Church. We see Atheists arguing for humanitarianism, which only makes sense in the Christian framework. Islam could not snuff out the Christian confession when even as they persecuted the Trinity, since they could not help but confess that their Allah had an equally eternal and personal Word (Quran). And even Barbie could not help but confess the Truth, even as the forces behind it sought for His elimination.
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