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God I Love Memes

@feel-the-beat-of-the-tangerine

Big nerd. I just reblog shit I like. The shit varies day to day.

I'm sure a lot of adults in the audience cringed when Barbie said the words vagina and penis on screen. But those are merely parts of human anatomy. I hope that the children who ask what a vagina is get a truthful answer. I hope that the children who ask what a gynecologist is get a truthful answer.

I knew the word penis before I knew the word vagina, and that is the world that many children grow up in.

To see Barbie go from hating and fearing the changes to her body, to showing up bright and chipper to the gynecologist was empowering to me.

So much about the vagina is shrouded in mystery and fear, both from historically, the lack of damn-giving by medical science, and from culturally induced shame.

I was absolutely petrified before I went to the gynecologist for the first time. I know a lot of people struggle with it, for many reasons, a lot of which can't be solved by hearing Margot Robbie say she's here to see her gynecologist.

But normalizing caring for our bodies, and approaching our bodies armed with knowledge and with joy on our faces is a huge step forward.

(spoilers for the Barbie movie)

As a trans-masc non-binary person, I saw myself in Allan. I’m a boy but not a Ken, I'm Ken-like but not quite.

Allan’s role of being awkward, unsure and a little out of his element but still trying to help the Barbies through the chaos and events caused by the Kens, is how I feel as a trans-masc person who is still trying to advocate for women and discuss the issues they face.

I don't identify as a woman anymore but I still grew up as a girl, I lived as a young woman for 14 years, and people continue to be misogynistic towards me when they think I am one-- customers will talk to my male coworkers instead of me, when I’m the person with the answers

I wasn’t expecting to see myself, in terms of gender, in the character often described as Ken’s boyfriend, though it is said in a more playful, joking way rather than any attempt at representation. I’m gay and this version of Allan is definitely queer as well. Yet, that’s a separate story which has already been written, here’s an excellent article about that. [LINK]

Allan isn’t Ken, and he isn’t Barbie either. Allan is simply Allan, an idea with both masc and femme traits. He doesn’t fit into anything specific, he just is. Allan can wear Ken’s clothes but also Barbie’s pink jumpsuit-- but when he's not doing that undercover mission with the Barbies, we only ever see him wearing his own clothes. A set of clothes worn only by him, that iconic striped outfit that is signature to the real Allan doll.

Additionally, notice the horse patch on the front of his shirt, he never changed his clothes unlike the rest of the Kens when they discovered the patriarchy and a new version of masculinity, a toxic and destructive one. Allan only added something to his clothes to “fit in” or act as if he did, but he hated what the Kens did to Barbieland. He also wasn't brainwashed and never acted upon those destructive abilities that were laid out for him. He could've just joined the Kens and broke stuff and drank copious amounts of "brewskis" but he didn't.

Allan is different and it's constantly stated, "there's only one Allan" in this world of Kens (and Barbies).

I will never be Ken nor will I ever be a Barbie again, I’m not happy in either. I’ve tried both, neither is my style (or title). I wear Ken’s clothes as well as Barbie’s, and sometimes I wear Allan’s.

But, I like Allan’s clothes best, they fit me well.

So myself and two best friends got matching tattoos that say Κύριε ἐλέησον. It’s pronounced Kyrie Eleison and in ancient Greek means “Lord have mercy.” It’s one of the oldest Christian liturgical prayers and features in the Bible, and when Christianity became Latinised, it as one of the only surviving Greek prayers.

Just for fun I plugged it into Google Translate to see what modern Greek thinks of it and

10/10 A+ tat so glad its marked on my skin forever, would tattoo again

Thanks OP you ruined the liturgy for me.

never gonna hear The Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack the same way again

Frollo: Ima kill this baby

Choir in the background: Dude fuckin chill

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Frollo: I’m gonna set her on fire

Choir: Dude… chill

My entire church singing in unison: ♫ Sir, please calm down! ♫ Calm down, sir! ♫ Sir, please calm down! ♫ Take it easy, sir! ♫

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LORD, you’re making a scene

🎶 Sir, this is an Arby’s 🎶

Thinking about how every girl in my viewing of Barbie was quietly crying at the end of the movie as the credits rolled until one guy started complaining (completely seriously) about the joke at the expense of the Synder Cut and the Godfather and how a girl in my row stuck out her neon stiletto and tripped him at the stairs

God I love being a women

Okay so I watched the Barbie movie today and just WOW! There is so much to unpack, every choice felt intentional and it was just altogether wonderful. But one thing I wanted to touch on was Allan and how I think he represented growing up queer, especially for trans & non-binary youth.

Allan was always out of place and uncomfortable in every scene he was in, he didn’t fit in with the Kens or the Barbies, he was just Allan. Allan was the only Allan that existed, he even questions why he’s the only one in his opening scene. Another thing I noticed is that they paralleled a lot of Kens pining for Barbie back onto Allan with his longing glances and attempts to get Kens attention. He also doesn’t fit when the Kens create their whole “Kendom” patriarchy. Even though he should be benefiting from it, he’s not, because even though he’s not Barbie, he’s also not Ken.

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I cannot stop thinking about the scene where barbie first cries and she looks around the park to see the people and she sees loneliness, and fights, and sadness, but she also sees laughter, and love, and hope, and she cries, and she laughs, and she looks, and watches the reality that is being alive. There is ups and downs and it is far from perfect but at its very core, it’s beautiful, and important.

This is the first time she sees what being alive truly is, beyond the side effects she started experiencing, beyond her first interaction she had with the real world. This was the first time she stopped and really watched where she is, WHO she is.

the barbie (2023) experience as an afab non binary person is just [reconnecting with your femininity and love for pink bc you couldnt when u were younger bc being too girly will get u made fun of] [feeling guilt bc u dont identify with being a girl but girlhood is so inherently beautiful and magical and no experience is truly like it] [healing the inner child in you by allowing yourself to enjoy dolls and pink and maximalism] [unapologetically letting yourself wear pink and be stereotypically girly in a society where being non binary means you have to be presenting androgynous 24/7] [getting your heart shattered and then put back together again with sparkly glue over and over in the span of two hours] [realizing that no matter what you do you have somewhat experienced girlhood and it shaped you to be the person you are today and you will never get to erase that experience or truly disconnect yourself from it] [appreciating and understanding your mother in a way that you thought wasnt possible without experiecing motherhood]

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barbie is not an "anti man" movie at all. it's so obvious to me that the kens were written like idiots not to call all men idiots (well... maybe a little) but instead to show how easy it is for someone to get taken advantage of. it's important to remember that while the barbies and kens are played by and written as adults, they function in the real world and overarching narrative as adolescents that don't know very much about the world.

reading ken as a young boy, he's initially nice to the girls around him (if insecure, lonely, and feeling pretty disrespected) but as soon as he steps into the real world, he sees all these men who feel very secure in their masculinity and self-assured, and he wants that for himself. he falls into the trap of the patriarchy much like a lot of young boys in real life fall into extremist right wing ideologies. but ken's insecurity never really goes away, it just gets covered with faux fur and headbands and country music. it's why he cries and admits to barbie that leading was hard. he never really wanted to hurt the barbies at all, he just wanted to feel confident and accepted by everyone, but especially barbie.

ken was never the problem by himself. he wasn't made into the world hating women. he was manipulated and turned into a misogynist by society.

the barbie movie really does have everything. a utopian barbie society with a portal to our world. car chases. musical numbers. genuinely nuanced conversations around the double standards women are expected to uphold and never address, articulated multiple times by multiple characters establishing that the legacy of barbie (the franchise) is neither wholly positive nor wholly negative. BBC’s Pride & Prejudice (1996). an omnipotent narrator voiced by helen mirren. a second omnipotent narrator voiced by lizzo. ghosts. horses. half the cast of sex education? lesbian subtext. an original soundtrack full of brand new songs that also includes at least three separate needledrops of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.  sisterhood and also discussions of the difficulty of “sisterhood.” Beach. some of the best set design i’ve seen in a contemporary hollywood movie. existentialism. california. more lesbian subtext. earring magic ken. what a movie