Consequences Of The Pursuit Of Brilliance...

 Hi!

So, over the past couple of weeks, my hubby and I went to two movies. We took part in the Barbenheimer idea. 

First, Barbie.

This movie hit me in ways I never expected. I found myself holding back tears in a few different places, over lines and scenes that I'm not certain were designed to do so. 

This, at least to me, was so much more than just a fun, bright, funny, musical offering of entertainment. Of course, I had read some articles and seen different videos providing some pretty polarizing opinions about the movie and the themes therein. But, like with everything, I don't base my opinion on something off of what others may think. I went in with an open mind, and left with an inspired, if not bit broken, heart.

Barbie is heartbroken when she finds out that the women in the 'real world' are still struggling with so many of the same things she thought she and her sister Barbies had 'fixed.' 

The innocent and opposite experiences she and Ken have when they first arrive in the real world tell you everything. He feels empowered, she feels diminished. Right out of the gate. 

In Barbie world, the Kens are sidelined, treated as support for the Barbies, the 'arm candy' for lack of a better phrase. The Barbies hold all of the positions of power. The Barbies run the world. 

The whole thing was a stark reminder of just how far we have yet to go. As women, as men, as a humanity that likes to pretend things are a lot more 'equal' than facts and stats prove. 

Some men seem to be very threatened by the themes in this movie. They look at it as an attack. None of the videos I've seen, nor articles I've read give a real reason why they are so upset. What in particular do you believe is sooooo demeaning, derogatory? 

Guys, if you are that upset at a movie that simply depicts men being treated in a fantasy world the way women are treated in the actual world, you are getting upset for all the wrong reasons. If you found the way the Kens are treated in Barbie land, although a bit, and I do mean a bit, exaggerated, your rage should be aimed at the actual inequality that women face in the real world every single, bloody day. 

These upset men say that the movie is filled with man-hating, emasculating ideas. Ok. So using that logic, and the fact that this is simply a flip, a mirror held up to this slightly magnified version of the world we live in every day, why can't you accept it as insight instead of insult? 

That, in and of itself tells us, as women everything we need to know about just how far we haven't come. If being treated the way we do feels like an attack, an insult, a dehumanizing way to walk through the world, why do insist we live that way? 

In the real world, not some imagining put forth on the big screen, we are treated as less than with impossible standards to live up to at every turn. 

Until the real world implements levers to bring about actual equality for everyone, I don't want to hear men, especially straight white ones, complain about how 'unfair' their depiction in this one particular movie was. Boys, it's time to watch movies through a different lens. If you can muster the balls, I challenge you to watch pretty much any movie, but definitely action movies flipping the characters' genders in your mind and see how that sits. Try doing it without prejudice, without your ego getting in the way, with a completely open mind and heart. Just try it. For not just your sake, but for the sake of your mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces, and friends. 

Then there was Oppenheimer.

First, a bit of a case in point. If this string of historic events had taken place last week, I'm not sure that many, or any, more roles would have been filled by women than were filled in the 1930's, '40s, and '50s. The political roles, the physicists' roles, people on powerful boards and committees, etc. 

I left this movie with an almost overwhelming case of the 'what ifs.' What if the brilliant minds would have refused to move forward once they found out the full intent of the powers that be. What if Oppenheimer had acquiesced to his conscience, his instincts. What if the powers that be had integrity, empathy, and compassion for all humans and not just interest in flexing military muscle. 

Could a cold war have been avoided? Would we, as a planet, still live under constant nuclear threat? Would war-loving minds have simply come up with a different way to have a dick-measuring contest? Inevitable, or avoidable? We'll never know for sure.

Consequences of the pursuit of brilliance. Especially brilliance that also has a conscience.

The science was elegant, incredible, beautiful. The consequences, horrific, devastating, ugly.

The reasoning that was behind the mushroom cloud decisions was shortsighted. It seems that Japan was on the verge of surrender without the threat of devastation. Was the horror actually necessary, or just a way to show their big stick? Again, we will likely never really know. 

I left this movie a bit terrified and wary of those in charge of defense decisions, disappointed in humanity and the cruelty we are capable of, and a bit anxious for what might come next. 

I truly there are those of us who are blessed with the gift of brilliance for a purpose. To help humanity survive, thrive, and move forward, improving life for each and every being on this earth. Strides in medicine, safe energy, and the everyday lives of all of us.

I can't believe these gifts are bestowed to make things worse. The worst of us are the only ones who twist logic, and tilt history to paint villains with a hero's brush.

Ironically, this is generally the same swath of people who are trying to paint Greta Gerwig, the brilliance behind the Barbie movie, a hero, at least to me, with the brush of a villain.

In closing...

It's okay for women to wield power. Really. It is. If women getting treated on an equal plain as men is somehow triggering for you, you need to take a much closer look at you. If you are threatened by equality, well, that just tells you how much further you need to go. If you feel emasculated by a mere movie that depicts women as the ones in power in some fantasy world, your masculinity is as fragile as a neglected newborn left outside in a tornado. 

It's okay to NOT weaponize brilliance, and just let it be used for pure good. Really. It is. 

Albeit art, science, or something else entirely, we can just let it be brilliant without tarnishing it with hate.