Considering Barbie (and Marriage and Singleness)
Being human can be very uncomfortable … People make up things like the patriarchy and Barbie to endure how uncomfortable it is. Jen and I saw Barbie over the weekend. We both liked it; were both surprised by it. I thought it was funny and smart and multi-layered to a degree that I still haven’t fathomed. The film’s reframing of sexual politics as an existential problem allows it to address deeper human questions that apply to both men and women. I also found it surprisingly compassionate. It managed to proclaim the let’s-take-down-the-patriarchy part of its message without anger and without, as Jen put it, being preachy. Barbie’s final rejection of…
Hell of a Kiss
Down here in Melbourne, bus-stop advertisements are telling us that the Art Gallery of NSW is currently hosting an exhibition of iconic nudes from the London Tate collection. “Nude” exclaim the posters over a photograph of Rodin’s “The Kiss.” Apparently, this is the first time that iconic sculpture has left Europe, and it’s a centrepiece of the exhibition. “It’s a work that has amazing presence and power,” said the gallery’s curator in an interview with the ABC. “It’s one of the world’s most famous images of human love.” Well so it is, but I found out something interesting about “The Kiss” recently. It’s actually a story from hell.[1] The lovers…
