The Bizarro World

There are many instances where the writers of The Barbie Movie satirize the gender roles present in society. Some of these moments reflect the actions and habits that we see in A Doll's House. For example, when Barbie enters the Mattel headquarters, she asks if she can talk to the women in charge of them. She is expecting that women are running all of the important and highly responsible tasks, just as women run everything in Barbie Land. Since Barbie Land is portrayed as a bizarro world where gender roles are essentially reversed, it shows that in the real world, men are supposed to be performing important tasks and should be leaders. In Ibsen's play, he portrays women as unaware and not influential, such as when Dr. Rank tells Nora,

RANK: Do you have any real idea of what society is? (Ibsen 110)

The manner in which the men such as Dr. Rank speak to Nora in the play shows that women do not have roles in society that carry the same importance and responsibility as a man's role.

The second piece of satire is when the CEO of Mattel gets defensive when asked about women in the business. He exaggerates the influence that women have on the company by saying two women have worked in the board, even if one or both of his examples seems far fetched. This throws light on the idea of hiring women only for the purpose of improving their own public image, not because they actually want the women because they are competent. It can almost be described as a charity in their eyes to hire women, and the company wants to be portrayed as a charitable company so consumers will not use that against them when deciding what to buy. When Torvald offers a position at the bank to Mrs. Linde, he speaks as if he is doing Mrs. Linde a favor, which is likely true because it was likely hard for her to find a similar job elsewhere because she is a woman. Torvald says,

HELMER: You've come at a lucky moment, Mrs. Linde. (Ibsen 111)

It seems that without Torvald, Mrs. Linde would not have gotten the job. If Mrs. Linde did not know Nora, she also would not have gotten the job, showing the dependence that women had on men in that time in their own careers.