Feminism is the idea that society should see men and women as equals. However, some people think feminism represents women as being better than men. One movie that has been under fire for pushing that “agenda” is Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.”

Although “Barbie” had brought in many viewers and gained $162 million at the box office on its opening weekend, making it the current highest-grossing movie of 2023, many people expressed they were not interested in seeing the movie at all. While 55% of polled Six Mile Post readers on Instagram shared they saw “Barbie” and enjoyed it, 18% of readers shared they had not seen “Barbie” and had no interest in doing so.

“Barbie” follows a stereotypical Barbie through Barbieland, a world in which the women, Barbies, run everything from the government to healthcare. The men are referred to as Kens and are superficial.

The Barbies are defined by their jobs, while Kens are labeled by very basic activities, like Beach Ken or Tourist Ken. This mirrors the real world, where society waters down women’s accomplishments because they are women.

Barbieland believes that the real world is like their own with a woman-centric society, but when Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) visit the real world, they realize it’s the opposite.

“Barbie” received mixed reviews on its humor, with some saying it was not funny, while others disagreed.

“I really liked the humor of the movie. It was exactly the kind of humor you’d expect from a Barbie movie.” Hannah Snipes, a criminal justice major at the Cartersville campus, said.

“Barbie” had fallen under fire for being ‘anti-men’ and ‘promoting feminism.’ The film portrays the reverse of how our society views women, showing that it’s not right no matter who is on the lower end of the scale.

Towards the end of the movie, the habitants of Barbieland agree that both matriarchy and patriarchy leave someone behind and that they should be equal.

The concept of feminism is consistently misunderstood by society. Anti-feminists try to argue that “Barbie” is ‘anti-men,’ when in reality, society itself is ‘anti-women’ and does not like women sticking up for themselves and wanting to be equals. The truth is that anti-feminists don’t want to understand the true meaning of Barbie; they simply want to be negative.

“Barbie was made for people who are women or who are already feminists,” Levi Marton, a psychology major at the Cartersville campus, said, “If you are not within those two categories, you will not understand this movie at all.”