Have You Guys Ever Thought About Ableism? ("Barbie" Movie)

SPOILERS FOR THE BARBIE MOVIE (WITH AND WITHOUT DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY)

Warnings: the word “crippling” is said four times

The word “mute” (as in “nonverbal”) is said three times

I honestly do not know if the person in the background at Sasha’s school is a wheelchair user or not but for this article I gave Greta and the movie the benefit of the doubt and assume they are.

I finally watched Barbie (written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and directed by Greta Gerwig and produced by and starring Margot Robbie). And I have a lot to say about it.

First I want to talk about the positives of the movie (in regards to wheelchair user representation):

I was actually really impressed at the beginning.

Here, the narrator is talking and multiple Barbie dolls are spun around and shown. In the 2nd group there is a wheelchair user Barbie - and it isn’t made a big deal. It isn’t “look how amazing we are for including a doll with a disability”. It just is and that is really refreshing and amazing to see. Also, this person/doll appears to be a veterinarian or something. They have a career. They aren’t just existing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s nice to also see wheelchair users working.

Around four minutes after that, Barbie Land’s Supreme Court is shown in session for the first time. As we go in we see the back of a wheelchair user (a different one that was shown at the very beginning) for a second. She’s not on the Supreme Court, unfortunately, but she is in the middle of the screen when she is shown.

Later on, Barbie has a dance party at her house. During it, the wheelchair user (the only wheelchair user in Barbie Land, the same wheelchair user shown in the Supreme Court) is shown front and center in the middle of the screen for seven to eight seconds.

I think this is amazing and worth mentioning because I’m used to wheelchair users being in the foreground on screen for maybe a second - if at all. The wheelchair user in Barbie Land being shown for so long is noteworthy to me because, even today, wheelchair users are often ignored and excluded. And a story about a doll that advertises unrealistic beauty expectations kind of going against that is awesome to me.

Later on in the same scene, after Margot Robbie’s Barbie says “she is dying to dance” the wheelchair user is shown in the middle of the screen again with a few other people.

To me, it’s nice to see a wheelchair user be included in a group and treated like an actual human being.

Now I want to talk about the negatives of the movie (in regards to representation and language):

For me the negatives are all about representation and language.

Representation-wise:

At the beginning little girls are shown one at a time, side-by-side Barbie dolls they are copying.

Neither any of the dolls nor any of the girls are wheelchair users. So you have a wheelchair user at the very beginning but not a young person having fun beside a wheelchair user doll?

A huge thing for me personally is there being only a couple wheelchair user character in the whole movie. (More specifically, one wheelchair user in Barbie Land and one wheelchair user in the Real World.)

That’s just not realistic. We can have friends, family, or significant others who are also wheelchair users. A LOT of times multiple wheelchair users are seen together. That’s just fact.

Both wheelchair users are barely seen throughout the movie.

In Barbie Land they are seen a few times at the beginning and very little in the end. (Why give people hope of wheelchair user representation just to take it away and exclude it most of the movie?)

In the Real World, the wheelchair user is extremely blurry and hardly visible (I personally had to watch that part a few times to get anywhere near knowing if they’re a wheelchair user).

More about the wheelchair user in the Real World in a separate section.

Barbie Land is meant to be, as far as I’m aware, a utopia led by women. That being said, I wasn’t aware a matriarchal heaven on Earth would exclude wheelchair users.

One example is the beach. Barbie Land has a beach that isn’t wheelchair accessible. No wheelchair users are on - or visibly can get on - the beach.

Barbie Land is a place of party and good vibes, but there’s not a place for wheelchair users to relax and hang out with the other Barbies and Kens.

Another thing is the wheelchair user being excluded from the friend group. Throughout the movie Margot Robbie’s Barbie is surrounded by a group of girl friends (other Barbies). Obviously not all of the able-bodied Barbies are in this group of friends, but with one wheelchair user in Barbie Land, why are they not included?

Speaking about the Real World, the wheelchair user representation disappoints me.

Throughout Barbie’s (and Ken’s) time in the Real World there is only one wheelchair user. No wheelchair users on the beach and/or streets of Los Angeles, no wheelchair users in any building shown.

A few incredibly blurry shots of a wheelchair user in the background of the scene where Barbie talks to Sasha and her friends at their school.

Why make the one Real World wheelchair user blurry and almost impossible to see? It’s the Real World, it’s reality. Wheelchair users deserve to be shown out in the open living our lives. Believe it or not, we’re human beings and we like to do the same things able-bodied people like to do.

It’s not that difficult to include multiple wheelchair users.

Near the end of the movie, Gloria (played by America Ferrera) gives a monologue about how difficult it is to be a woman in the world.

It’s a beautiful monologue, but there’s one thing I couldn’t help but notice: the wheelchair user is not present during it.

Being a wheelchair user doesn’t just magically get rid of hardships, sexism, etc a woman goes through. Being a woman does not mean someone can’t be a wheelchair user and vice versa.

A - the - wheelchair user could’ve done what every able-bodied person in that room did and LISTEN. A - the - wheelchair user could’ve nodded to what Gloria said.

A couple obvious problems I have with this representation - with this movie - are (1) there is only one wheelchair user character in each world and (2) neither of these “characters” are actual characters. They don’t have names, they don’t have lines. To me, it seems like these “characters” were added simply for “diversity”.

It’s great wheelchair users were acknowledged in this story at all, but it feels like adding a wheelchair user or two to hopefully not get called out, but not caring enough to make these wheelchair users actual characters with any dialogue.

Something regarding this movie that I’ve only encountered a few times is…I have no idea who plays the wheelchair users. I have no idea if any of the actors are actual wheelchair users.

As far as I’m aware the wheelchair users are not credited (either in the credits at the end of the movie or on IMDb). Neither in the movie nor on IMDb is any person credited as played anything like “Wheelchair User Barbie” or “Wheelchair User Student”.

Not acknowledging people’s presence and work is not okay.

At the end of the movie (with the credits) dolls in the movie are shown how they look(ed) when they are or were sold.

No wheelchair user dolls are included. Many dolls included were discontinued, there are wheelchair using dolls that were discontinued…so wtf??

When preparing articles like this, I do something I really don’t have to do: I fact check.

I watch, pause, and rewind the movie so many times just to make sure what I’m saying is accurate.

It’s honestly mentally and emotionally exhausting.

I shouldn’t have to pause and rewind it multiple times to see any wheelchair users. I shouldn’t have to pause and rewind the movie to see A wheelchair user student.

Language-wise:

Also in the Real World, when we first knowingly meet Gloria, she uses an incredibly ableist word.

She named a Barbie she drew “Crippling Shame Barbie”.

The word “crippling” is a problem because it’s used in a negative way.

Yes some physically disabled people have chosen to reclaim and take back the word, but that is our choice - no one else’s. It is every physically disabled person’s own discretion.

According to Google, the two definitions of “crippling” are “causing a person to become unable to walk or move properly” and “causing a severe and almost insuperable problem” (and “insuperable” means “impossible to overcome”). This means whether you consciously intend to talk about disability or not, by using that word you immediately negatively correlate whatever you’re talking about and disability.

There are simple, easy replacements for “crippling”. I personally use “debilitating” or “extreme”. The reason for this is those words, as far as I’m aware, don’t cause harm to people.

It’s honestly mind boggling hearing this word in a movie that was made and released this decade. Yes it’s the real world, but why would you not want to make it less ableist? Why not have Gloria be a person that doesn’t say that word? There are people - of all sorts of ages - that don’t want to cause more harm to disabled people, and, therefore, don’t use that word.

I also watched and want to talk about something in the “Director’s Commentary” version of Barbie. (This is also language-wise.)

At the beginning, Greta Gerwig talks about the doll-turned-character Midge.

She calls Midge “mute”.

As far as I’m aware, “nonverbal” is used instead of “mute” now. I personally only hear old ableists - if anyone - describe someone as “mute”.

That language is obviously not okay. Additionally, saying it about a character that is played by an actor who is not nonverbal is incredibly unacceptable.

Also, Greta easily could have said that Midge didn’t have any lines instead.

But, even then, that isn’t true. Midge verbally says “Hi” to Margot Robbie’s Barbie at the beginning of the movie.

With all this ableism I fully believe no wheelchair user was consulted during the making and/or filming processes of this movie.

Either way, none of this ableism is okay.

Overall, Barbie is a good movie, but I feel left out, an afterthought, and - honestly - forgotten. And it shouldn’t go unacknowledged.