finally, I watched the movie of the season and I have one (1) thought on my otherwise empty head:

the little dialectic of barbieland becoming invaded by the idea of patriarchy and then barbies collectively organizing to abolish it happens all inside the little make-believe world of barbieland that the movie itself acknowledges is a reality constructed through children playing. in this regard, kens aren’t really the patriarchy, they’re a pretend version of patriarchy. barbies and kens can be easily interpreted as children imitating concepts they themselves do not understand that thoroughly. gosling’s ken himself acknowledges that he wasn’t really commited to any ideology in particular. he liked the aesthetics of patriarchy (he liked the horses!). so the movie can be read as brutally cynical, right? because it doesn’t really do the same thing the matrix does (even when it’s directly alluded): the matrix, a make-believe world becomes an important battlefield because it ties directly into the machines’ source of energy (if people aren’t convinced by the simulation, which can be read as capitalist ideology, then machines won’t be able to keep humans captive in order to drain them). on barbie, the importance of barbieland is never really stressed beyond the implication that it changes mattel’s toyline, which the execs do not want because of a vague commitment to, uh, preserving the essence of barbie? what. so by the same token that only allows barbie to be president of barbieland, barbie can only abolish patriarchy in barbieland. by the way, will ferrel sucks. but the ken number rules and is kino. that is all.