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Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for Barbie which is currently playing in cinemas.
There’s a good few lines in Greta Gerwig’s live-action, fantasia film Barbie which humorously allude to its doll’s lack of genitalia. In one scene, Ken (played by a scene-stealing Ryan Gosling) suggests to Barbie (the poppy Margot Robbie) that he stay at her place for the night.
“To do what?” she asks, her smile warming the screen.
“I really don’t know,” a bewildered Ken replies.
Elsewhere, we see the plastic duo skating along Venice Beach in California before Barbie tells a beachgoer, “I don’t have a vagina!”
But the defining scene—the final scene—sees the doll exit BarbieLand to become a human in the real world and visits an office for what the viewer would presume is a job interview.
“I’m here to see my gynaecologist,” Barbie excitedly exclaims.
The film then cuts to black and the credits roll. It’s an ending no one really expected, and according to Gerwig, was one that she wanted to be viewed as funny and emotional.
“With this film, it was important for me that everything operated on at least two levels,” Gerwig told USA Today. “I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional. When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn’t even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden.
“And then to see Margot as Barbie, with this big old smile on her face, saying what she says at the end with such happiness and joy,” Gerwig continued. “I was like, if I can give girls that feeling of, ‘Barbie does it, too’ – that’s both funny and emotional. There are so many things like that throughout the movie. It was always about looking for the levity and the heart.”
During its opening week, Barbie has raked in USD$182 million globally (AUD$270 million) at the international box office. This gives Gerwig the record for the biggest opening ever for a film directed by a woman. Comparatively, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer attracted USD$93.7 million (AUD$139.1 million).
Barbie is in cinemas now.
