Half of UK women have had ‘Kenough’ with Barbie

50% of British women believe the Barbie franchise is a negative representation of their gender.

A study by YouGov found 52% of women think the doll depicts a harmful image of females.

An additional 3% said they would be “displeased” if they were described as having Barbie characteristics.

This comes only weeks after Greta Gerwig’s mammoth Barbie movie launch, starring Margo Robbie as the stereotypical blonde doll herself and Ryan Gosling as her devoted Ken.

Despite appearing in promotion as a comical plot for Mattel’s best-selling toy, the film has strong feminist themes throughout, poking fun at patriarchal society whilst celebrating woman and girlhood.

It brands Barbie as the revolutionary toy that allowed girls to aspire to be more than mothers, to be doctors, dancers, news anchors and Nobel Prize winners.

Prior to its release, Ms Robbie said the doll was the perfect device to open conversation in a light-hearted way.

She said: “People feel really strongly about Barbie.

“Some people love Barbie, some people have a lot of problems with Barbie but everyone has an associated memory with Barbie.”

Despite the film’s best efforts, the YouGov survey suggests Barbie has yet to fully convince women of her positive image.  

29% also said that Barbie has had a negative impact on women in society, a further 11% were unsure.

Interestingly however, only 8% of the YouGov female participants had seen the film prior to the study, most of which were in the 18-29 age bracket.

This generational divide continued throughout the study with younger participants being more favourable towards Barbie.

The Daily Mail’s columnist, Sarah Vine commented the same pattern between herself and her 20-year-old daughter.

“She loved every second; me, not so much,” she said, “it’s a deeply anti-man movie, an extension of all that TikTok feminism that paints any form of masculinity.”

She added: “Every male character is either an idiot, a bigot or a sad, rather pathetic loser.

“If the roles were reversed, and a male director made a film about how all women were hysterical, neurotic, gold-digging witches, it would be denounced – quite rightly – as deeply offensive and sexist.”

Greta Gerwig has responded to the criticism saying: “My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men.

“I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.”