What's the plot of Barbie?

File under Writing, plots and 2024 Oscar memes

Dear Friend,

Last week, the 2024 Oscar Nominations were announced. On social media, Barbie stans voiced annoyance that Greta Gerwig wasn’t nominated for Best Director nominations, and Margot Robbie didn’t receive a Best Actress nomination.*  

A meme that appeared several times on my social media feeds was this one.

… not exactly true.

At quick glance it seems to express a sentiment with humor and appealingly shareable brevity. But when Paul asked me what I thought about it, my response was,

“I feel like the person who wrote it either didn’t see the movie, or doesn’t understand the definition of plot.”** 

I think the meme’s author is alluding to the fact that there are parts of Barbie that depict a patriarchal system where ideas and achievements of men are often given more attention and respect than those of women—and that this thematically parallels a situation where “Ken’s” achievements would be lauded while “Barbie’s” accomplishments are overlooked.

That’s a fair observation, whether on agrees with it or not. It’s just not the plot of the movie — at least as the term is used by screenwriters. I have vague memories, when I began writing school, of learning specialized definitions for terms that were already familiar to me from a broader use in everyday life, so perhaps my definition of plot has become overly wonkish, but it’s helpful (for me) to look through my “Writing as craft” toolbox now and then. Hopefully it will be interesting for you as well.

In the everyday world, if someone sees you reading or watching something, a common question to might ask is “what’s it about?” A common answer might cover the plot or the story—in everyday life, these can be kind of interchangeable. Or one might answer an underlying question, “what it’s about about?” by saying something like, “it’s about an alien occupation, but it’s really about class warfare,” in which case we’re talking about theme.

But for a writer (at least for me) it can be helpful to distinguish plot from theme and even from story. The oft-used E.M. Forster quote goes :

“The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief, is a plot.” 

A good starting definition of a narratives plot is the series of events that occur— in the order that they occur— due to causality. That happened, and because of that, this next thing happened.  

I’m not sure who came up with this worksheet (or I’d give credit), but it’s sometimes used in writing classes to help students determine whether they have a plot: 

• Once upon a time there was ____

• Every day they ____

• Until one day ____

• As a result of which ____

• As a result of which ____

• As a result of which ____

• Until eventually ____

Let’s see how it works with Barbie:

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS (IS) a “Stereotypical” Barbie.

EVERY DAY she enjoys a perfect life in her world where Barbies rule and Kens are second class citizens. 

UNTIL ONE DAY she begins to have involuntary dark ruminations about mortality as well as troubling physical symptoms, like heels that touch the ground, skin blemishes, and cellulite. 

AS A RESULT OF WHICH she has to consult the scary but sage-like “Weird” Barbie, who tells her that to restore her perfect life, she must travel into another dimension (The Real World) and find the child whose thoughts are disrupting her reality.

AS A RESULT OF WHICH  she undertakes the journey

AS A RESULT OF WHICH she arrives in The Real World where she doesn’t understand the rules.

AS A RESULT OF WHICH she breaks some rules.

AS A RESULT OF WHICH she gets arrested…

And so on and so on… until

AS A RESULT OF being pursued by Mattel Executives who want to re-box her, Barbie must escape with her friends back to Barbieland only to discover that Ken has overturned the old “Barbies-on-top” power dynamic and established a patriarchy!

If you’ve seen the movie, you might be thinking, But wait! That causal chain of events isn’t what leads to every important event in the story. Like, what about when Barbie gets a bunch of visions of a little girl named Sascha? Doesn’t that happen kind of randomly and not a result of anything we’ve seen Barbie do? Or how about when Barbie returns to Barbieland and discovers the rise of the Kens? Isn’t that A RESULT OF Ken’s adventures in The Real World, not Barbie’s?

These are excellent questions! If you are asking them, you should check out next week’s letter, which I’ve just realized is going about subplots!

To summarize

A meme inspired me to play around with breaking down the plot of Barbie…

AS A RESULT OF WHICH it became apparent that Barbie’s narrative is too big and complex to be serviced by just one causal thread…

AS A RESULT OF WHICH, we have realized the discussion needs to expand to include subplots (and a little more about main plots as well).

Subplots are fun! And don’t worry, I am definitely not leading us down a rabbit hole without knowing where it will lead next. Not at all.

Wonkishly yours,

Barrington

* Just for future context, should this be read when all of this is a distant memory: Barbie did receive one of the ten Best Picture noms, and America Ferriera and Ryan Gosling each snagged a Best Supporting nod. And of course the “outrage” over the “snub” elicited alternate views on the topic which fed a few more news cycles. 

** The author is, of course, also misusing “literally,” but bringing that up these days would be pedantically and figuratively beating a dead horse. However, I will say I think I wouldn’t have had so strong a reaction to the meme’s incorrect assertion had the author not amplified it with the LITERALLY (in all caps! 😬).