One user on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu shared a guide for how women can test their boyfriends based on their reaction to the film.

For some women in China, “Barbie” is more than just a movie — it’s also a litmus test for their partner’s views on feminism and patriarchy.

The movie has prompted intense social media discussion online, media outlets Sixth Tone and the China Project reported this week, prompting women to discuss their own dating experiences.

One user on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu — a photo-sharing site similar to Instagram that’s mostly used by Gen Z women — even shared a guide on Monday for how women can test their boyfriends based on their reaction to the film.

According to the guide, if a man shows hatred for “Barbie” and slams female directors after they leave the theatre, then this man is “stingy” and a “toxic chauvinist,” according to Insider’s translation of the post. Conversely, if a man understands even half of the movie’s themes, “then he is likely a normal guy with normal values and stable emotions,” the user wrote.

  • @poopknifeEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    Because maybe… just maybe… it was also critiquing and making satire of the expectations from a ken? and emasculation? the mental effects of always being seen as a himbo? as well as how the company’s marketing idea of strong women was also enforced without consent and thereby removing agency as barbies had to fit into the box the boardroom made as well as the kens? i feel like I hear a whoosh.

    • @MrSqueezlesEnglish
      -1•1 year ago

      I was so ready for that payoff and then it turned out that Ken being defined by Barbie and having no purpose of his own except his looks was a shitty simile for how women are supposedly treated in the real world. Barbie literally exposits about it at least twice in case we missed it. I would be fully on board for a, “Be your own person.”, movie. This was a, "Men are universally, without exception, sexist to women and bad at everything and women shouldn’t put up with them except maybe a few lower court appointments. ', movie.

      Except that one nod to Ken needing an education to get a job and saying men are bad at patriarchy, but the literal next line is about how they’re actually great at patriarchy and they’ve just gotten better at hiding it hahaha… ha… ha.

      So whoosh back at ya. And what a shitty thing to say.