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Now this is the FCB Podcast Network. A brad lo Ma Soda day that
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we won't was said, and we won't say all we got it? Does
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no one get take that away? BA is gonna be okay? A day
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that we won't said and we won't say all we got it? Does no
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one get take away? Don't bad it is? Don't be okay? Hi,
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everybody, welcome back to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself with Kia
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Davis. You know the drill. I'm not even going to go through all
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of my introductions because I have a very special guest today. It's probably the
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most important guests I have ever had on the show. There's there's no one
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more important Valley. But who will grace the airways with me than this person?
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I am so happy to welcome today my Ruby, Ruby. Welcome to
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the podcast. Thank you, Ruby. Tell people a little bit about yourself.
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How old are you? What great are you in that kind of stuff?
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I'm fifteen years old, almost sixteen. I'm a junior in high school.
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What kind of stuff do you like to do? What are your favorite
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things to do? I love listening to music, going to concerts. I
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like going to the beach, anything outside. Really I like but I don't
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do it often, but I like it. Okay, Well, I wanted
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to have you on the show because I have been saying for months now I'm
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not going to go see the Barbie film. Not because I have any moral
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objection to it, but I have a moral objection to the amount of advertising
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that has been aimed at me. I feel like they're forcing me to go
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see this movie. And you know, I don't like to be told what
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to do. But you went to see the movie, and you said,
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Mom, I think you would like it. I think you would really like
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it. So, without giving any spoilers, why do you think I might
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like the movie? I think you might like it because of the humor in
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it is your humor, and also the message that one of the characters gives.
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I feel like you could relate to in a big expense. And yeah,
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so like maybe my politics might it might it might like speak to my
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politics maybe a little bit, or my worldview it might like some of it
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might, but some of it won't. Okay, this is my challenge with
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this movie. Because so here's what's happening. People, Ruby and I are
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about to leave, were about to go see this movie, and she's convinced
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me to go see it. I'm going to go see it with her,
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and then I wanted to interview her on the show about the movie, about
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what it looked like to a fifteen almost sixteen year old girl and what it
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looked like to me. I cannot make heads or tails from the conservative blogosphere
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what this movie is. Am I supposed to love it? Am I supposed
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to hate it? Because some people are saying it's got a very subversive empowerment
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message. Others are saying it's like progressive feminism, and no one seems to
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agree on it. I you know, I don't really care too much as
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long as messaging isn't like beat you over the head that it makes the movie
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so bad kind of aggressive. I don't mind it. But I'm just confused
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as to what this movie is. So I told Ruby, let's go and
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then we'll break it down. So Ruby and I are gonna leave, We're
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gonna go see the movie, and we're gonna come back and we're gonna I'm
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gonna interview Ruby about her thoughts about the movie because there are a lot of
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people too that are saying, well, this isn't something for teenage girls to
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aspire to. Ruby is giving me a crazy though. That sounds wrong too.
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Yeah, I feel like I don't know it's good for teenage girls to
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watch this movie. I think, all right, well, we'll talk more
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about that when we get back from the show. We'll have a better idea.
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We wouldn't want to get any spoilers right now. I love a better
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idea. So Ruby and I are off to the movies. We'll be back.
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Look at a split. I'll let you know what I thought. Say
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bye, Ruby, Bye, Okay, we're back for us. That was
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a few hours for you. It was a blink of an eye. It's
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like you died and went to heaven. Ruby and I just got back from
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the movies. We did not talk about the movie on the way home.
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I told her I would save my comments. So you're getting this fresh and
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Ruby is hearing this from me for the first time. So what did I
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think about the movie? You're curious, Ruby, Yes, you're dying and
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l Yes, I loved it. Yeah, I asked soon, you're gonna
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say that because you're laughing. I loved I loved it. Okay, So
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I'm gonna get a few things out of the way, a few political things
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out of the way first Ruby, and then you and I are going to
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dig in. So I know a lot of you conservatives out there are feeling
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like this is a gonna be like a feminist jab and it's gonna be all
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patriarchy, and it was. There was a lot of patriarchy in there.
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And I'll say this, I of course like this is a Hollywood movie.
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Of course some of the it's not a conservative movie. So there was like
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two or three moments where yeah, of course I like rolled my eyes,
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I'm like, oh, the patriarchy, it's are being a woman like okay,
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sometimes like it's a bit much, But honestly, I did not find
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it to be a really message like offensively message heavy movie had a message,
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for sure, but it wasn't like, hey, you're you people over on
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that side are bad and you people over on that side are good. It
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wasn't like that at all. I didn't feel assaulted for my leaves. I
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Like I said, there might have been one or two moments where I was
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like, oh, okay, whatever, But honestly, I've I thought the
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movie was done really well. It was very creative. But as far as
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the politics of the movie. I don't think you conservatives should have any issue
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going unless you're just the type of person who doesn't want to compromise on anything.
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Like I said, there's maybe one or two moments, so I don't
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want to get too many spoilers, so I don't want to like tell you
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what they were, but maybe one or two moments where it's like, all
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right, this is a bit much. But if you go with just a
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heart to see Barbie, you're gonna enjoy yourself. It's definitely not more offensive
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than politically speaking, than most of the things we see these days. And
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I know a lot of us put up with a lot, but the idea
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that it is something that conservatives should not see and it's somehow offensive to our
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core values, I personally don't feel that way. Everything subjective, of course,
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so RUBY not going to get into breaking down the movie a little bit,
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and I'll get more specific about what I liked about the movie, But
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I recommend the movie. And if you're my age, I think you'll there's
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like a lot of little Easter eggs in there for you that will really I
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mean, if you're gen X, you're going to really see a lot that
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was meant for you in the movie, and it was cute, Like there
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were some really cute moments that brought me back. So, Ruby, we
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went to see the movie. Now tell me what you thought of the movie.
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I thought, as a teenage girl that the message it sent was good,
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Like I feel like a little bit closer to just here. Yeah,
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yeah, good hum. I thought, as a teenage girl's good to know
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what the real world is like, like being a woman, it's going to
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be like when you grow up. And also just like, yeah, they
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over exaggerated a lot of the women talk, but like most of what they
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said was true, and going through life without knowing that stuff, you know,
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you're not gonna be too successful with Like does that make sense? Yeah,
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no, it makes total sense. I was just thinking, I want
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to break down for the audience a little bit, just give you a basic
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overview. So here's the overview of the movie Barbie. We see Barbie in
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her perfect Barbie world, and it's awesome because it's like your Barbie childhood brought
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to life. I mean, Ruby, if they don't make the Universal Horror
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Nights Barbie theme this year Universal Studios Horror, I could I imagine the Barbie
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set as like a horror I'm like, oh, I would love to be
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walking through that set. But it was really like detailed and this movie was
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very well made. I mean, is this is like perroduction. But she
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you know, we see Barbie world where Barbies are plastic and sort of fake,
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and everything's perfect, and all the Barbies are all the women are Barbies,
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and all the men are Ken except for Alan. If some of you
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Gen xers and boomers will remember Alan, you'll also remember Skipper. She shows
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up. Skipper was Barbie's younger sister because they needed a younger demographic. No
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one likes Skipper. I like Skipper. No, back in the day,
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no one likes Skipper. Skipper like came in a package. But the But
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what was great was Midge was there. You all remember Midge. Ladies,
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do you all remember Midge? Remember pregnant? They decided we need a pregnant
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Barbie. Barbie can be a doctor or a lawyer, but can she be
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a mom? And it was a creepy Midge. It was the creepiest thing
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because she had this belly that you could take out and then you open up
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the pod and there's a little being of a baby grows anyway, Barbie starts
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to get sad, and she realizes that there is um, that this is
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unusual, that her life is perfect, that Barbie World is perfect, and
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it's a perfect feminine paradise. Women hold all the roles. Barbie was made
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to be an empowering figure, and in Barbie Land she is, and the
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Kens are just guys that walk around and adore Barbie and and it's all very
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cute. And again, to say that out loud, you might think,
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oh, that's gonna get really political. It really doesn't, I promise you
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it really doesn't. And then so she has to So Barbie has to.
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Barbie realizes there's a rip in the spacetime continuum continuum and the real world is
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bleeding into Barbie Land, so she has to go to the real world and
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figure out what's going on. And the rest the rest ensues. So when
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Ruby says there are things about womanhood that she found like all of it,
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and some of the speeches and some of the messages of the movie, it's
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a lot about how complicated it is to be a woman, and um,
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and again, it doesn't feel that preachy. At the end. Maybe it
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got a little everybody had a speech at the end, and I was like,
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we can end this. But it is a lot about the complications of
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being how complicated it is to be a woman, and how beautiful that is.
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Yeah, yeah, definitely. So I like, and I thought I
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actually did cry the movie. I cried twice. No, I did,
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really, yes. I was like, I hope Ruby doesn't see me.
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I have my hand. I'm like like, oh, I don't want to
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see. I cried really early. There are some very touching movie moments in
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this movie. Definitely. Bretta Gerwig did a amazing with this movie. Yeah,
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no, she did an incredible job. There were a couple of really
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sweet moments. I'll probably cry while I'm talking about them. But spoilers everybody,
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So we'll be getting into a few spoilers here, just so you know,
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nothing too plot heavy. But when Barbie first comes to the real world,
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she's very confused because she's seeing strange things like cellulite and old people.
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And she has this moment and she's getting harassed right because she's hot. So
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she's getting harassed by construction workers, whereas in Barbie Land all the construction workers
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are women. And she sits on the bench and she's looking around. She's
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in Venice Beach, and even this is a movie Venice Beach, there's no
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homeless people wandering around, but there's no naked homeless man pooping in the back
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and in the shot. But she sits on the bench and she's just looking
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around at people, and she's looking at what people are doing. And they're
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laughing, they're crying. There's a couple fighting, there's a mom with her
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kids, and there's an old lady sitting next to her on the bench.
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And she's never seen an old woman because in barbie Land, barbies are perfect
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and they never age, they don't have saliolite, their feet are in the
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shape of my heel. Yeah, And she looks at the old woman and
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she says, you're so beautiful. It made me cry because my listeners know
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I'm kind of going through a midlife crisis right now and I'm getting older.
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I just had a birthday, yes, Ryby, you got a birthday coming
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up? Yes, And well, there is a lot of pressure for a
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woman, especially in media, when you're on TV and in front of people,
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to be the same and be cute and pretty, and that's not realistic.
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Yeah, And there's beauty in all of the phases of life. And
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I'm starting to realize that that's what I would like for you to know that
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each phase is beauty. You don't, I don't. I would hate for
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you to move forward and always be looking backwards and wishing for that time.
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I don't know if you remember, can I say, like a line from
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the movie, yes, so in the end, you know, when she
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was going with the Creator and talking about how she wanted to be in the
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real world, Um, the creator said, us moms stands still so our
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daughters. Can you know that was the second time she said us moms stands
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still so our daughters can can look back? Can I think she said to
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our daughters can go so far ahead of us that they look back and see
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how far they've come. Yeah. I almost cried when I first watched that,
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because it's true. It's true. You you know, like you were.
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I don't know if you're followers, no, but you know how you
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were an actor before and you probably maybe would have done that if you didn't
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have kids, and you can't. You stopped following your dreams as a child
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so that we us kids, me and Scott can go on and live our
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dreams, and look how far we've gone because of you. You know,
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we wouldn't be in the spots we are right now if we weren't for you,
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guys, you and dad, And I thought that quote was very nice.
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Guys, is my daughter, I s and tell her to say any
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of that. I'm crying all over again because that line too. By the
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way, that line was uttered by the great Ria pearl Man. You'll remember
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her from Cheers. She looks amazing. She was so good. There are
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so many big names in this movie, big and small. It's really a
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really fun cast, by the way, cast perfectly. I didn't understand Ryan
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Gosling at first, Like when I saw he was going to be ken,
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I'm like, why, Yeah, he was perfect. He was amazing.
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Margot Robbie. I don't like Margot Robbie. I don't get her. She
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seems like generic white lady, which they referred to a few times. But
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she was great. She was perfect. But yeah, I loved what you
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just said. And that is absolutely true, and that this listening audience,
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this is what I was trying to convey to you, that there are some
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moments that will really speak to you. It's not a movie about the patriarchy.
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They use that word a lot, but it's not about the patriarchy.
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It's about it's about what it means to be a woman and to be an
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imperfect woman. And it really was so positive and kind towards motherhood. And
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that's ruby why a lot of conservatives always get suspicious of movies like this because
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I feel like on the left or like progressives always make motherhood seem like it's
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like your last option or something like it's a letdown or And there were some
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jokes, some funny jokes about motherhood in the movie. Helen Mirren narrated the
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film, and she was great. But the truth is is that motherhood is
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a gift and it is a joy, and it is it's not like a
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second prize. It's not a runner up prize, you know, but Hollywood
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treats it like that, and this movie treated it like a good and kind
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and right choice. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When the creator said that
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she made Barbie based off of her daughter, that was like also a good
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part of you know, motherhood. Mothers care deeply for their childs or their
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children, and the fact that she made her made Barbie based on what she
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wants her daughter to be like or wants her daughter to succeed like. I
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thought that was very sweet and yeah, kind to think of what else?
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Um, okay, well there was. One of the other things I really
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loved was that there was a speech. America Ferrera plays one of the main
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roles. Great actress, she's really good in this movie too. She's got
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a great speech about how hard it is to be a woman and how how
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you have to be thin, but you can't be too thin, but you
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can't be fat, but you can't be loud, but you can't be quiet,
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but you can't in all of these contradictions. And I've complained about these
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contradictions a lot as a member of the media and a woman and a businesswoman,
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Like I never believe when people in Hollywood tell you that a woman is
00:18:52
a is a bitch because people think that women in charge our bitches because we're
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not supposed to be strong and decisive. Yeah, so we say things the
00:19:03
same way that a man would, but it sounds different. I love.
00:19:07
I always go back to Beyonce, I'm not bossy, I'm the boss.
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Yeah. Women don't get to be seen as the boss a lot. And
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so the movie spoke a lot to that. But Ruby, I thought that
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the Kens had like a decent story arc too. I thought, I thought
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definitely know Ryan Gosling's Ken. You know, he was talking about how like
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Barbie failed him, and then when Barbie first came back and saw that the
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Kens took over, he was like, it doesn't feel good, does it
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knowing that you don't have a lot of power? I thought there arc was
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pretty good. I didn't tell everything. Yeah, I was like, hang
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on, Ryan Gosling, are you about to go oscar winner on the year.
00:20:00
It was like a moment there where I was like, whoa, this
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is so real, this is so deep, Like he's staring into Barbie's eyes.
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The Ken's end up taking over barbie Land once they discover the patriarchy.
00:20:11
So they take over Barbie Land, and Ken, who has been treated like
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crap, like Ken's get treated like crap and Barbie Land. Yeah, but
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they don't take it, you know, like they it's not like like you
00:20:25
have this realization that they don't like it either. And he has this really
00:20:27
beautiful moment where he looks at Barbie and he's like, you don't have any
00:20:30
power? How does it feel like you never thought about how ill I felt.
00:20:36
Yeah, that definitely opened Barbie's eyes up a lot. You know,
00:20:40
she's feeling what Ken felt. That's what gave her a more realization at the
00:20:45
end. You know, Ken can be Ken. She doesn't have to push
00:20:49
him to the side like she always does. I liked how she helped him
00:20:53
out at the end. Yeah, because leading him on or leading him on
00:20:59
isn't the best you know, it's not yeah, gonna get him anywhere.
00:21:03
It's Yeah. I thought the whole thing was really great. I think that
00:21:10
it was a movie about everybody figuring out who they are and where you fit
00:21:15
in. Yeah, Yeah, definitely, and learning that your imperfections are sort
00:21:22
of a part of you. Okay. It reminded me of I don't think
00:21:26
you've seen this movie. I don't know why you would have, but I
00:21:29
wrote a review for Red State of this movie a while back. It's an
00:21:32
Amy Schumer movie. I know a lot of you don't like Amy Schumer,
00:21:34
but it's a silly little movie called I Feel Pretty. I went to see
00:21:41
it by myself one day and on like a lone movie date. And she
00:21:44
plays this sort of awkward, ugly duckling who works for a makeup company and
00:21:52
she falls and hits her head and when she wakes up, she she sees
00:21:56
a supermodel in the mirror. She's still her dumpy old self. She thinks
00:22:00
she's been transformed into a supermodel. Yes, I've seen you have, I've
00:22:04
seen some of it. I like started watching it, but oh, okay,
00:22:08
yeah no, And it's actually really good. It's actually a cute movie.
00:22:12
I went to see it because I was going to write about it for
00:22:15
work, and I thought I would hate it because Amy Schumer is very crass
00:22:19
and she's not very nice politically speaking, and I didn't know what I was
00:22:23
gonna get. And it was really nice. It was all about It was
00:22:26
all about what if you decided to just act the way you wanted people to
00:22:34
treat you? Yeah, what if you just decided to see yourself as the
00:22:38
person you wish you were. Yeah, make it till you make it,
00:22:41
bake it till you make it, girl. That is right. Absolutely.
00:22:47
And this movie also kind of reminded me of um like it was a cross
00:22:52
between the Lego movie and Toy Story. Yes, oh wait this one,
00:22:56
yeah, Barbie, Yeah, I was thinking, well, the Lego movie
00:23:00
and definitely Toy Story because there's been I mean Ken and Barbie, yeah,
00:23:07
in Toy Story. But I was thinking because Barbie and Lego movie were a
00:23:11
lot alike. They started off the same, you know, perfect life,
00:23:15
and then things started getting unusual with the main character. They had to go
00:23:19
on an a venture to figure out, you know, their purpose. They
00:23:22
were the Chosen Ones and Will Thrill or whatever how you say his name is
00:23:29
Farrel. Yeah, he's always a quote unquote villain trying to stop these people,
00:23:37
the busy businessman. Yeah, yes, there was. I don't know.
00:23:41
I just thought there was a lot of Yeah, what did you so,
00:23:49
Ruby, you are a Barbie fan? Yeah, you grew up and
00:23:55
fan is like a light word. She was obsessed. It really got to
00:24:00
the point where I was just like, oh, you're putting on the Barbie
00:24:06
Barbie movie again, I'm leaving the house. We had we own like thirty
00:24:12
Barbie movies on digital because she bought every every stupid Barbie movie that came out.
00:24:21
Now you know the ones that cost like ten thousand dollars to make and
00:24:25
they just put them out and then every kid buys them. We have a
00:24:29
lot of Barbie. I grew up with Barbies, and one of the criticisms
00:24:37
Rube is that Barbie, and the movie addresses this is that Barbie created.
00:24:41
She was created to be a companion and to empower girls and to give them
00:24:45
imagination. But she gave us this big complex, this bag like beauty complex.
00:24:51
And when I was growing up, it was a really big deal to
00:24:52
talk about um like body image and how Barbie is aren't real and it's warping
00:25:02
our sense of beauty. And I still wanted Barbie though, and post played
00:25:07
with Barbie. How do you how did how did you feel about Barbie growing
00:25:12
up? Did you feel like you wished you could be like her, you
00:25:15
wished you could look like her. Do you feel that the way Barbie was
00:25:22
presented and the way you saw it that it warped how you looked at beauty?
00:25:27
I guess growing up, when I look back at it, yeah,
00:25:33
I thought, you know, Barbie was a standard beauty or whatever. Everybody
00:25:38
wanted to be Barbie. But as a kid watching it, I never thought
00:25:42
I wanted to be her. I thought I thought she was cool, I
00:25:45
thought she was talented in all those things. But as I got older,
00:25:48
probably want to hit middle school. I My whole idea on Barbie changed,
00:25:55
Like I still like Barbie, but you know, I thought, like I
00:25:57
looked at these girls at school and I'm like, oh, they're so Barbie,
00:26:00
or like I wish I could be Barbie. She's perfect and all that
00:26:04
stuff. Um, I guess I kind of just I don't know. It
00:26:10
hits you when you hit a certain point of maturity or a certain point of
00:26:14
life. I guess that you want to be the people who are portrayed as
00:26:19
perfect and Barbie's perfect. And I know I've known my whole life, you
00:26:25
know the message Barbie gives out. But I guess it didn't feel that way
00:26:30
when I hit middle school. M Yeah. And so you're saying like in
00:26:36
middle school, you were more aware of Barbie's perfections and how you couldn't I
00:26:41
mean, you can't me and you can't ever that Barbie. Yeah, which
00:26:48
is why they made black Barbies. But then it always felt like a consolation
00:26:52
prize. It's just not the same. Um. I get that. Yeah,
00:26:56
And I think like when you were a kid, I mean, you
00:27:00
have this great hair. People have seen pictures of my daughter, like,
00:27:03
she has an amazing head of hair, and when she was a little girl,
00:27:07
especially, it was just wild and very very blond, and she just
00:27:11
looked amazing. And but that's it's not Barbie hair. Yeah, and you
00:27:18
always wanted it straight, You always wanted straightened. And I wouldn't do it
00:27:21
for a long time because not only is an expensive process, but also I
00:27:26
remember telling your dad, I don't want her to feel like I want her
00:27:30
to learn to love the hair that's on her head. I don't want her
00:27:33
to feel like she's got to be doing very unnatural things to her hair and
00:27:38
body to fit in. Because at a certain age, you don't want to
00:27:44
be different. You want to be like everybody else. Yeah, and it
00:27:47
hurts to be different, and I could see you going through that. I
00:27:49
feel like now, as a teenager, you are embracing being different. Yeah,
00:27:56
am I right? Yeah you are? Or are you like crying yourself
00:28:00
to sleep at night? Different? No? I hit. I definitely hit
00:28:04
that phase. I want to be like everybody else In middle school. Yeah,
00:28:08
I didn't like middle school. I didn't like it at all. Nobody
00:28:11
likes so it was not even the Barbies like it. No, No,
00:28:15
they don't know, they don't. The difference between you and them, though,
00:28:18
is that they'll always be trying to recapture their middle school glory and you'll
00:28:22
move on to bigger and better things. Okay, yeah, yeah, I
00:28:26
know. Well, um so did you find how in light of that?
00:28:33
It's almost like, this is one of the things I really loved about the
00:28:37
film. They didn't star wars it right where you get some new, hot
00:28:44
shot young director in there and they're like, we're gonna trash everything about what
00:28:48
you loved about this and we're gonna burn it down and we're gonna rebuild it
00:28:52
in our modern image. It wasn't like that they really honored the spirit of
00:28:56
Barbie. I thought. I didn't feel like I was looking at it like
00:29:00
woke Barbie. Yeah, I was looking at But did you feel that the
00:29:06
movie maybe corrected some of those problems that Barbie brought up for you as a
00:29:11
kid. Did you feel it addressed it or do you have any thoughts about
00:29:15
that at all? Well? Sort of in a way, I guess it
00:29:21
made me realize like like, oh, I don't know, actually I think
00:29:26
about it, like I guess it opened my eyes really that the whole Barbie
00:29:32
situation was a misunderstanding and that a lot of people took it as you know,
00:29:37
she's just a blond demo and stuff like that. Hey, y'all,
00:29:47
this is Ali Michelle. I'm a conservative social media influencer that has been censored
00:29:52
by big tech. So I broke away from the restrictions and started a podcast
00:29:56
called pillow Talk with Ali Michelle. Shows a space to have real conversations about
00:30:02
the issues that impact our everyday lives without the fear of being canceled by the
00:30:07
big tech tyrants. Subscribe to pillow Talk with Ali Michelle and FCB podcast on
00:30:12
Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you getch podcasts. That's Ali a
00:30:19
l II. Come check out my show. I'll see you there. Oh.
00:30:23
I love that point. It is a great point. Ruby. This
00:30:26
is another good sort of I think subversive thing that happens in the movie is
00:30:32
the way we judge each other. Oh yes, I was just thinking that
00:30:37
warm line where the daughter said like, oh, men hate woman, women
00:30:41
hate woman, like that thing. Yeah, she's the daughter. There's a
00:30:47
surly teenager in it, and and she's sort of our modern conscious conscious through
00:30:53
the whole movie. And there's one moment where she tells Barbie, everyone hates
00:30:59
women. Men hate women, women hate women. It's the one thing we
00:31:02
can all agree on. Yeah, yeah, but she's not really wrong.
00:31:07
She's not really wrong to think about it. There's like and just living life.
00:31:14
You know, you're a woman or I'm also young a woman, and
00:31:18
there's people I don't like who are also a woman, And there's people who
00:31:22
don't like me who are a woman. And men just don't like us.
00:31:27
They don't like us, but they love us, which is also a can
00:31:30
contradiction, right, Like I'm mad but I need you, Yeah, exactly.
00:31:37
Um, it isn't funny, like I had told you. So,
00:31:41
Ruby and I watched The Bachelor, the Bachelor series. We were watching the
00:31:44
Bachelorette and she had to let a guy go. And I can't remember the
00:31:48
exact circumstance, but I told Ruby, I'm like, you have to be
00:31:52
careful how you turn down guys. Men are fragile, and like, this
00:31:56
is something I wish somebody had told me. But like a man expressing that
00:32:01
he has romantic interest in you, that's for him. That's a very vulnerable
00:32:07
position to be in and men aren't used to being in that position because patriarchy.
00:32:13
Yeah, and so, um, I learned the hard way by getting
00:32:19
I'm one. I remember one group of guys. I was being a smart
00:32:22
ass to them when I was a teenager and they tried to run me over
00:32:25
with their car. Yeah, like I've heard, so there's I've had crazy
00:32:30
guys. But I told her you got to let guys down little they're fragile,
00:32:36
and sure not the Barbie says. She says, you gotta be careful
00:32:40
about how you let guys down because they're so frail. I told you,
00:32:45
yeah, And then Ken was so frail when at the end of the movie,
00:32:50
she's like, maybe you should just learn who you are without me,
00:32:53
and he was. He was so upset. Yeah, you're definitely now you're
00:32:59
not getting what you're not getting in this movie. Is a is a strong
00:33:02
macho man. Yeah, that's not this movie. And if you're complaining that
00:33:08
that guy isn't in this movie, I would posit that you've never played with
00:33:15
Barbie and Ken in your life, because Ken is the least important part of
00:33:20
the Barbie universe. Everybody knows this. Nobody wanted Ken. Ken was set
00:33:24
decoration right, Yeah, yeah, he never You can't like change all Ken's
00:33:30
outfits and like it's not Ken wasn't fun. No, that's how the movie
00:33:36
treats him. That's how the movie treats him. So you're not going to
00:33:38
get that moment of like, oh, I'm finding out who I am as
00:33:42
a man, but you do get some nice moments where it's like, but
00:33:45
I do have a role as a man, yeah, play, Yeah,
00:33:49
they do. Definitely. Also a lot of people are mad about the fact
00:33:53
that they made made Ken like that. How he would just like, you
00:33:57
know, portray Barbie like that because a popular show when I was a kid
00:34:02
was Barbie Life in the dream House and Ken and that I know, he
00:34:07
was so sweet, And everybody's like that Ken would never do that. Why
00:34:09
would they ruin him like that in this movie? And it's just like the
00:34:14
fact, I guess they don't understand that all Kens would do that if they
00:34:17
got the chance to. And I don't know if you remember in Toy Story
00:34:22
the Ken and that, yes he was a real jerk. Yes, that's
00:34:27
like the only good Ken that you've seen is in Barbie the the Barbie Show.
00:34:31
Yeah, that's the only Kenny. You can't just like be upset that
00:34:37
those those kids don't have contexts for Ken. Yeah, so that they feel
00:34:43
like the Ken that they grew up with is the Ken that always existed and
00:34:47
yeah, it's not. Yeah, and this movie was made for me,
00:34:52
right, not for you right, not for your generation. And that's another
00:34:57
interesting aspect of this. Should you take your daughters to see this movie?
00:35:01
You know, I took my teenage daughter, but there were kids there,
00:35:04
there were elementary age kids there, and it's a Barbie movie. And I
00:35:07
think it's only natural to want to take your daughter to the Barbie movie.
00:35:12
I don't know if I would have taken you really, and I would and
00:35:15
I would have been extremely disappointing. But there's a lot of adult reference.
00:35:21
It's one of those like there's adult references that are sort of subversive, and
00:35:25
you can decide how you feel about that, because sometimes Disney movies do that
00:35:30
too, and that would always bother me. But it's not just that,
00:35:34
it's that a lot of it is so contextual and so symbolic. I don't
00:35:42
know that the little kids even got half the movie. It's really not aimed
00:35:46
at them at all. No, I don't think they would have understood it
00:35:51
at all. Yeah, they don't grow up with Barbie at all. Like
00:35:54
at least I grew up with barbiere versions of Barbie. You grew up with
00:36:00
like every single Barby. But like these kids nowadays, like they don't they
00:36:06
didn't grow up with any Barbie. They're just and they're too young to understand
00:36:10
the purpose of the movie, the message of the movie. Yeah, so
00:36:14
it's just I don't think I don't think it would make sense to them.
00:36:17
I don't think it would make sense. I mean, maybe they might like
00:36:20
the colors and the set pieces and watching a real life Barbie. I'll come
00:36:23
to life, Margot, Rob Robbie looks amazing on screen and it's and it's
00:36:29
a feast for the eyes for sure, But I'm not even sure that your
00:36:32
younger kids are going to understand the concept of the difference between real life and
00:36:37
Barbie life. And um so this movie definitely this is a gen X movie.
00:36:45
Yeah, for this is a gen X movie. And even the songs
00:36:50
that they there was a nineties vibe to it with the music that I was
00:36:54
like, oh my gosh, this is too funny. Um let's see what
00:37:00
should we talk about and what stood out to you? Anything stand out to
00:37:04
you about the movie or that you haven't mentioned yet. I feel like I
00:37:08
mentioned everything, but the whole did I did we talk about Gloria speech.
00:37:13
I think we did. The mom the mom speak, yeah, right,
00:37:16
talked about how we stand we stand still so our daughters can No that was
00:37:23
our head or that was a creator's speech, Oh, Gloria the mom the
00:37:29
mom Oh, yes, about it's been impossible to be a woman. You
00:37:32
can't be too fat, you can't be too thin. You can't say you
00:37:36
want to be a thin, you can't say you want money, you can't.
00:37:37
It was a great speech, and frankly, I mean there might have
00:37:40
been one or two points where I was like, all right, this is
00:37:44
like typical patriarchy, but honestly she was speaking the truth. Yeah, definitely.
00:37:51
I mean I feel like a lot of people are mad about that too,
00:37:52
that speech. Really think it was just like overdramatic. It is what
00:37:57
a lot of people think. Well, first of all, all the whole
00:38:00
movie is exaggerated, and there's no such thing as over anything in this movie.
00:38:06
Everything fits. But I thought it was relevant. Did I thought it
00:38:13
was very important? Everything was true? Yeah, yeah, and not just
00:38:19
for even like from a feminist point of view, let's say, but also
00:38:22
like if I'm your age, Ruby, I'm looking at that as like that's
00:38:27
what social media feels like. You know, I'm looking at all these perfect
00:38:30
people and they've got perfect filters and perfect wardrobe and they have their stupid perfect
00:38:37
fridges where everything is organized and their room is perfect and everything around them looks
00:38:40
perfect. Of course it's fake, and our brains know that, but our
00:38:45
hearts feel like there's something wrong with me because I'm not this perfect. Yeah,
00:38:52
I feel like and social media makes you as an especially as a young
00:38:55
woman. It makes you makes you have to choose, you know, to
00:39:00
pursue this perfection or be an ugly duck. Would be weird Barbie. Yeah,
00:39:05
let's be weird Barbie. Kate McKinnon was weird Barbie. You know the
00:39:09
Barbie that you know you cut the hair off and painted, put your mom's
00:39:15
makeup on her and maybe the dog chewed up her foot. We all had
00:39:19
those Barbies. Yep. I think also the little montage in the middle of
00:39:28
like when the creator told her to feel and like, just like to show
00:39:32
Barbie what the real world is like, the good, the good parts of
00:39:37
it. I thought that made me cry the first time when I watched it,
00:39:40
because the videos were like obviously not videos from yesterday. Like they were
00:39:47
older videos, and it made me think of my childhood and like, yeah,
00:39:52
it was good, like life was good. Like there's bad parts of
00:39:58
human life, but there's also really good parts of human life. And that
00:40:00
made me. I think I left watching that movie ten times more mature than
00:40:05
I was before. You said that. When you came back, you said,
00:40:08
I think I thought you were joking. You said, I think it
00:40:12
was life changing. Yeah I do. I rely, I was like,
00:40:15
okay, Ruby, coming out, I stand by that, I really do.
00:40:20
It was open my eyes for a lot of things. Even if I
00:40:24
can't tell you like what, like what is new about me? I know
00:40:32
it's there. You feel different, Yeah, you feel changed. Yeah,
00:40:37
this is what I love about movies. Ruby, This is really up movies
00:40:42
and writing, reading, which you kids don't do very much of these days.
00:40:45
But this is but this, But this is why I love movies so
00:40:51
much. Because it sounds ridiculous to say out loud, but there are moments
00:40:57
I have seen that have changed me. And that is the sign of a
00:41:02
beautiful work of art. Yes, like you look at something like remember when
00:41:06
we went to Hawaii and we were on the Nepali coast. We were on
00:41:09
that boat and we were looking at the cliffs like that changed me. I
00:41:15
had never seen anything that beautiful, and it changed how I looked at the
00:41:19
world and how God created it. And as silly as it sounds, I
00:41:23
think sometimes movies do that too. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I
00:41:29
haven't had many experiences that changed me yet until this movie. I don't know.
00:41:37
Maybe there was, but I just can't think of it at the top
00:41:39
of my head. And obviously it didn't change me enough for me to remember.
00:41:45
I think this is one I'll remember, though, because of all the
00:41:49
hidden messages in it and the not hidden messages in it. I don't know.
00:41:55
Yeah, I think I bet or owns to me what you're expressing.
00:42:00
Isn't just that your change. This movie was the thing that made the changes
00:42:07
in you. It sounds to me like you're already maturing in this movie,
00:42:12
like pointed out some of the things for you. Yeah, that's probably what's
00:42:15
happening. Like, yeah, that's what I think. Actually, I think
00:42:17
I do feel that way, right, you know. It's it's like I
00:42:22
get on this show. A lot of people write me and they say,
00:42:25
you verbalize something that I always thought and I never was able to bring to
00:42:30
the tip of my tongue, you know. And that's what sometimes seeing a
00:42:35
message or a theme in a movie that moves you is like it's like,
00:42:39
yeah, that is what was in my heart. I could never get it
00:42:42
to the tip of my tongue. Yeah, that's probably sounds about right.
00:42:45
Yeah, yeah, Mom's right, and now you're right. Sometimes. Well,
00:42:52
I enjoyed the movie. I recommend it. I think the themes were
00:42:57
wonderful for the most part, really, and the cast was fantastic. Yeah,
00:43:01
they were really well casted. I think, yeah, who's your favorite
00:43:07
Margo, Margo Robbie. Yeah, she, Jeff's great, portrayed everything near
00:43:12
perfection. I think I didn't understand the casting. When I first saw this
00:43:17
movie was in production, I didn't even understand the movie, to be honest.
00:43:22
I'm like, what is a Barbie, a live action Barbie moving gonna
00:43:25
look like? And why are all these stars in it? But Greta hats
00:43:30
off to Greta Gerwig. And there's a line at the end of the movie
00:43:34
where I was like, this is a Greta Gerwig line because Greta Gerwig she's
00:43:38
an Academy Award winning director, but she was an actress she is still an
00:43:43
actress. I think she popped up in that movie somewhere, but she is
00:43:46
an actress. But she moved to directing. And there is a moment where
00:43:51
they where Barbie says to the she meets the creator of Mattel of Barbie,
00:43:57
and she says to Reap Perlman, the creator, I don't want to be
00:44:01
the thing that was created. I want to be the one who creates.
00:44:07
Yeah, she's talking about she doesn't want to be the idea. Yeah,
00:44:08
she wants to be the idea maker. I was like, yeah, oh
00:44:13
my gosh, I wanted to stand up. I was like, incredible.
00:44:16
That's a Greti Gerwig line. And every actress goes through that. Some actresses
00:44:22
stay acting and some move on to directing because that's a big thing in the
00:44:28
creative world too. It's like there are people who are the ideas and they're
00:44:31
happy being that, but there are people who make the ideas and there's power
00:44:36
in the creation. Yeah, and uh and in being in in making a
00:44:42
in creating. So that was a great theme. I Yeah, I loved
00:44:46
Greti. I am the hats again. Hats after Greti Girwick. I think
00:44:51
she did an incredible. Definitely, I'll be watching all her movies now on,
00:44:54
for now on. There's uh, what's the one she won the award
00:45:00
for Ladybird. I think it's called Oh I Love Ladybird, you do,
00:45:06
Yes, that's Greta Gerwick. Oh I didn't know that. Yes. So
00:45:10
that's another thing I find oppressive is that she's an indie filmmaker, and most
00:45:14
women are that. I don't think there's a lot of women directors out there
00:45:17
who can do big budget films. You see more failures and successes. I
00:45:22
think, I honestly think that just has to do with the female brain and
00:45:27
yeah, you know, um, but there's incredible independent work by women or
00:45:32
but but then you get people like Patty Jenkins who did Wonder Woman. I
00:45:37
mean she was amazing, But um, Greta Gerwick did indie and then she's
00:45:42
got this big budget production and she nailed it. She absolutely nailed it from
00:45:45
the start. The set was amazing, the cast was perfect. The fashion.
00:45:54
I loved all Barbie's outfits. I love them, even the simple ones
00:45:59
who wore at the end of Yes, I'm not the very end, the
00:46:01
yellow dress. Yeah, I thought that was really cute. Yeah, on
00:46:05
her yeah, she looked great. Um, I don't know if I have
00:46:10
anything else to say about this. We had a good time. I am
00:46:14
so glad we went. I did not want to see this movie because I
00:46:16
didn't want to succumb to the advertising assault. But the truth is that it
00:46:21
was a great film, and I'm really glad. I thought with my daughter,
00:46:23
Yes, it's given us stuff to talk about. It was so fun,
00:46:28
it was Yeah. Ruby was like, you gotta go see it,
00:46:31
mom, I think you'll really like it. And you were right, and
00:46:36
I was right, Yep, you were well. Ruby, You're you're very
00:46:39
wise young woman, and you're developing into a very wise young woman. And
00:46:45
I uh, I have a lot of respect for the way that you viewed
00:46:50
this film and the things that, um you say moved you about it.
00:46:53
I think you have expressed yourself wonderfully today. So thank you for being on
00:46:59
the podcast. Thank you. Is there anything that you would like to tell
00:47:01
the listeners. No, there's thousands and thousands of thousands of people listening to
00:47:07
you right now. I think when you watch movies and listen to songs,
00:47:14
think about the meaning behind them, because they really do change change you.
00:47:20
That's what good art does. Yeah, it changes. You absolutely. Don't
00:47:22
just listen to what you like or like listen to the background songs. You
00:47:28
have to listen to the lyrics or the quote. That's it's the main part.
00:47:34
Yeah, that's the main part. Yeah. That's why every Christmas I
00:47:38
put on Die Hard and I quote every line. And my kids do not.
00:47:47
They are not impressed with my annual Die Hard Fast every year. Well,
00:47:52
it's exactly the amount of time it takes for me to decorate the tree
00:47:57
after you all have a banden to me, it's the same thing every year.
00:48:00
Everyone grabs three ornaments, puts them on the tree, and then I'm
00:48:04
left to do the whole tree myself. Much true. I help you for
00:48:07
a good thirty minutes. Dad and Scott, Dad, No, Scott only
00:48:14
hangs one. Yeah, and I have to beg him to do that.
00:48:16
Yeah, you do like you. He wouldn't do anything if you weren't.
00:48:21
And Dad, fair enough. He puts up the tree, he takes down
00:48:23
the tree. But y'all could like pick five ornaments, and we have so
00:48:28
many ornaments. Anyways, this is welcome to mom and Daughter argue on FCB
00:48:34
Radio that subscribe button. I think this is getting fascinating. Well, maybe
00:48:38
we'll do let me know what you guys think. If you went to see
00:48:42
the Barbie movie, let me know what you think. Or if you have
00:48:45
some comments about my very special guest today, maybe you want to respond to
00:48:50
something that she said, Please email me j lt Y at ProtonMail dot com.
00:48:53
J lt Y at ProtonMail dot com. There's no video or pictures from
00:48:58
this podcast today because people can hear my daughter, but I don't think they
00:49:01
need to see my daughter. She's got to go back to public school in
00:49:07
a couple of weeks. Yeah, I don't want her splash shawl over the
00:49:14
Does your school have a your school has a TikTok page? Right? Yeah,
00:49:16
yeah, I don't want a splash showl over their daughter of right wing
00:49:21
that job. You know people are putting rotten eggs in your locker. They
00:49:28
can find it, all right, So write to me jilt why ProtonMail dot
00:49:32
com, hit subscribe, hit like on this um, and don't forget to
00:49:37
rate and review if you would buy my book, also drawing lines Why Conservatives
00:49:43
must begin to bottle fiercely in the Arena of Ideas, are available for purchase
00:49:47
at Amazon or wherever you buy your books and follow me on Twitter at real
00:49:53
Kira Davis until we meet again. First of all, go see Barbie movie.
00:49:59
I think you'll enjoy it. And second of all, every once in
00:50:00
a while, just stop and listen to yourself. A brain is all my
00:50:07
soda day that we won't stay and we won't say all we gotta does no
00:50:13
one get Tictatto and dude bathe is gonna be okay. Brands are my soda
00:50:19
day that we won't saying and we won't say all we gotta does no one
00:50:23
get Tictatto and Bathe? It's gonna be okay. This has been a presentation
00:50:30
of the FCBT podcast network, where Real Talk lifts. Visit us online at
00:50:37
FCBT podcasts dot com.