As Billie Eilish took to the stage at the Oscars 2024 to perform her now Oscar-winning song, What Was I Made For from Barbie – the highest grossing film of 2023, and the biggest grossing film made by a woman in the history of cinema – I couldn’t help but think, “What was it made for?”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Barbie was a feminist masterpiece. It was a beautiful, brave, important and at times devastating take on what it means to be a woman in today’s world; a blistering attack on the patriarchy and a boundary-breaking picture that teaches young girls how to have hope and survive in a world that doesn’t like women. The fact it reached billions of people across the globe is deeply significant for the progression of women’s rights. It was also a film that was wildly entertaining, funny and full of joy – at a time when joy is not in abundance.
Margot and Greta – the two most integral women of this boundary-breaking film – being snubbed can only, in my opinion, be down to rank sexism.
Indeed, it was deemed such a joyous film that it served as pretty much most of the filler entertainment at Sunday's 96th Academy Awards. In fact, in all my years of watching and even attending the Oscars, I can't recall a film that was referenced quite so much throughout a ceremony. Dua Lipa's Dance The Night from the Barbie soundtrack opened the show. When host Jimmy Kimmel thanked the Academy orchestra for their performance, what did they play? Barbie Girl. Barbie gags dominated most of the speeches – including Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling's brilliant banter when presenting Best Stunt Performance. No less than four Barbie stars – including President Barbie, Issa Rae – presented on the night.
And as for the actual performances, we had Billie Eilish deliver the stunning rendition of her aforementioned What Was I Made For and of course, Mr Gosling – joined by Slash from Guns and Roses plus at least 10 Kens from the film – bring the Dolby Theatre down with the most brilliant of all musical interludes: I'm Just Ken. An homage to Marilyn Monroe's 1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, it was a clever nod to the gender role debunking that is the central to the film – and had Ryan and writer Mark Ronson get the entire auditorium to their feet for one almighty singalong. It was showbusiness gold at its very best.
Yet, awards? Any actual recognition for a film that clearly captured the world's hearts and minds? (And smash $1.44billion in the box office in the process?) Nah. “Barbie, stay in your box,” was the deafening message. Only one golden statue was handed out for the film – to Billie Eilish for best song.
Feminism, it seems, in the Academy's eyes is not something to actually be taken seriously. No no, the progression of women's rights is not nearly as important as a film about men getting together to build a weapon that can destroy the world. For that (Oppenheimer), of course, is what is worthy of seven wins.
As my feminist boyfriend sitting beside me watching it observed: “It's like the Oscars are trolling feminism”.
Or maybe it was the Oscars production team who were trolling the Academy?
Perhaps, just perhaps, the love for Barbie that was so clearly displayed throughout the ceremony was actually a form of protest by the Oscars producers at the archaic and out-of-touch Academy – who decide the wins. Perhaps it was their way of showing some Barbie love when they knew it wasn't going to win big on the night, especially following Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie's snub for nominations for Best Director and Best Actress.
Lest we forget this is an Academy who have found themselves time and time again facing accusations of discrimination and sexism. For example, in the nearly 100 years of the Oscars history, only three women have won for directing: Chloe Zhao for Nomadland, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog. ‘Oscar is a man’ is a popular headline on the matter.
I'd like to think that when Barbie co-stars America Ferrera and Kate McKinnon took to the stage to present the Oscars for Best Documentary Short and Best Documentary Feature, and started reading the (random) Jurassic Park themed jokes about dinosaurs “being real”, they were in fact referring to members of the Academy. Because dinosaurs is what they so clearly are – and if they carry on like this, the Oscars may well become extinct.
For more from Emily Maddick, GLAMOUR's Assistant Editor and Entertainment Director, follow her on @emilymaddick
