This is lecture/podcast on Barbie, ideology, gender etc. from the perspective of Zizek, Lacan, Freud and Hegel.
When I walked out of the movie, I wanted to discuss the movie through the lens of Hegel, and just yesterday I found such a discussion. Such a discussion is not only a meme to overintellectualize the movie, but arises naturally from the themes as they were presented.
I won't articulate it succinctly, but Barbie liberates the sexless idealized femininity of the "male gaze" by articulating the contradictions of such an existence, and ends by allowing herself not to be a symbol of the perfect woman, but to be just a woman with accepted flaws and humanity. Ken however goes the opposite direction, starts off as imperfect and dependent on Barbie, and ends by knowing he is perfect how he is, separate from Barbie, and believing that he is one with the symbol of the perfect man, ie, that he is kenough.
