GOOD NEWS: Barbie Rules
Good News: An enewsletter for donors and nonprofits
on strategic planning, governance, fundraising, and executive leadership.
Barbie Rules
What is it about Barbie that makes it one of the highest grossing movies of all time? Why do so many who have never seen the film perceive it as a feminist rant and threat to society? And what do foundations and nonprofits have to learn from the movie and the reactions it provokes? A few thoughts:
1. Our Existential Crisis: "Humans have only one ending. Ideas live forever," says the character who created Barbie. At its core, Barbie is on a journey of self-realization. So is your foundation or nonprofit. Nothing is static. Questions about identity, purpose, and capacity persist, especially during a startup phase or leadership transitions as cultures evolve. The most effective way to navigate such a course is through intentional conversations and actions with people we trust. We won't get it right all the time but acknowledging the necessity for introspection with humility is almost everything. Deliberate contemplation and decisive action are a powerful combination.
2. Paradoxes and Hypocrisy Are Everywhere: Barbie celebrates and ridicules many of the same things all at once. The movie is about meaning and self-discovery while Mattel sales go through the roof with ubiquitous product placement. Is Barbie a role model or the root cause of the harm done to girls by unrealistic expectations? Will Ferrell as Mattel's CEO illustrates the more than occasional corporate hypocrisy when confronted about his male dominated company and board room, "We are a company literally made of women. We had one woman CEO in the 90's, and another one, at some other time. So that's two right there. We have gender-neutral bathrooms up the wazoo. Every single one of these men love women." Learning to live with inevitable tensions and contradictions - even absurdities - is necessary to manage the imperfections present inside and outside of your organization, all while reflecting on whether you walk the talk of your messaging.
3. Entitled Mindsets: Beware those projecting an air of certainty and entitlement, especially if those people are distanced from circumstances on the ground. Among my many favorite exchanges in the movie is Ken's response to a doctor when told by her that he can not perform "just one appendectomy," despite his manly persona and whimsical wish to operate. When told by an actual doctor that he has no medical training or education and asked what makes him think he is qualified to perform an appendectomy, Ken replies without a hint of doubt or self-awareness, "But I'm a man." As my daughter puts it, "For all the people who don't like how women treat men in the Barbie world, that's how it is in the real world for women. It really is a man's world. The movie called that out."
4. Consequences of Entitlement: The flip side of unearned and uninformed authority is implicit and explicit oppression, especially for women and women of color. "It is literally impossible to be a woman. You must never grow old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never stumble, never fail or show fear, and of course, you must never be sassy. It's very hard, it's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you. And it turns out, in fact, that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything that happens is your fault, " says the character Gloria when describing what it is like to be a woman. Do you know any female staff or board members who may say the same thing in a candid moment? Be sure to establish a team and culture likely to encourage checks and balances on all of our biases and their destructive consequences.
5. High Standards with a Light Touch: It is easy to be overwhelmed by the weighty issues of the day. Barbie is a hit, in part, because on the surface the experience is bright (PINK! ) and funny. We feel lighter when the movie is over even though some of its themes can be heavy, even bringing us to tears. It is a gift to your board, staff, and those that your organization seeks to serve when high standards are sought after and profound challenges are met with a light - PINK! - touch. Easy to say, sometimes very hard to do.
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
Will Ferrell on Throwing Darts and Not Succumbing to the Pressure of the Result (25 minute watch)
"This wonderful professor had no idea how his encouragement of me to come and interrupt his class no less was enough to give myself permission to be silly and weird. I was just trying to throw many darts at the dart board hoping that one would eventually stick. Yes, I was afraid. You're never not afraid. I'm still afraid. I was afraid to write this speech. But my fear of failure never approached in magnitude my fear of what if. What if I never tried at all? Enjoy the process of your search without succumbing to the pressure of the result. Trust your gut. Keep throwing darts at the dart board, don't listen to the critics, and you will figure it out." Will Ferrell to the USC Class of 2017
Watch Here
No Is a Complete Sentence (46 minute listen)
"Is there something you'd go back and tell yourself at 21? There is: No is a complete sentence. No apology after it. Just no." Jane Fonda in response to Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Wiser Than Me
Listen Here
A Slyly Subversive Blockbuster? (3 minute read)
"Yet in Gerwig’s multiplex-friendly spectacular, this spectre of unrealisable expectation is slyly reconfigured into a weirdly liberating parable about being whatever (size, profession, attitude) you want to be – whether Ken and The Patriarchy like it or not. A smart script, co-written with Noah Baumbach, reminds us of Mattel’s constant attempts to reinvent their product (Earring Magic Ken;Palm Beach Sugar Daddy; inflatable breasts Skipper – yes, really) and their embarrassed discontinuation of models that incurred consumer/retailer ire. It all culminates in an entertainingly feisty dismantling of male power (“He took your home; he brainwashed your friends; he wants to control the government”), pepped up by Gosling’s deliciously vacuous apex-Ken performance and carried shoulder-high by Robbie, without whom this audacious flim-flam could well have fallen flat on its face."
Read Here
New Website for TTG
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