Barbie and the Easy Man

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, conversations about gender, power, and representation take center stage. While history often focuses on real-world trailblazers, fictional storytelling has long been a powerful tool for examining societal norms and challenging assumptions. Two summers ago, one film, Barbie (2023), explored gender norms and societal expectations by portraying an encounter with a fictional world. This movie about a child’s play toy that has been around since the mid-twentieth century has sparked some surprisingly heated conversations. The film’s overt feminist message, along with its satirical take on gender dynamics, ignited debates on everything from its portrayal of men to its use of hyperbole as a storytelling device.

Since these discussions remain relevant, I want to revisit them through a comparative lens, exploring how hyperbole functions in fictional worlds where women hold most if not all, power. In this blog, I’ll examine Barbie alongside Je ne suis pas un homme facile (I Am Not an Easy Man, 2018), a French film that flips the script on gender roles similarly exaggeratedly.

Who is Barbie?

Barbie is not easy. In Barbie, I was pleasantly surprised to see Barbie portrayed as an intelligent, thoughtful, and generous woman and not an ignorant dummy. I grew up in an era of “dumb blondes” and overuse of the word “slut”. These labels were slapped on females who put time or effort into looking good. Movies I grew up with tried to challenge the idea that women can be only one thing—bright or beautiful.

Films in the 1990s capitalized on the “ugly duckling” story, like She’s All That (1999), touting the idea that smart, nerdy “ugly” girls can also look beautiful if they put in a little effort. Then, films like Legally Blonde (2001) challenged wrongful prejudices against beautiful women. And if anyone believes these movies are hyperbolic, I will point out that a male professor told a graduate school colleague that she was too good-looking to make it far in academia. A comment that was both inappropriate and unprofessional, though not entirely unexpected.

In a reversal of familiar motifs, Barbie World portrayed Ken, not Barbie, as dumb and vain. And it wasn’t just the blonde Ken; it was all the Kens, indiscriminate hair color, skin type, or body shape. Some viewers found this unpalatable. I have heard the phrases “angry toward men” and “man-shaming” used to describe the role reversals demonstrated in the Barbie movie. I want to explore that idea from a literary perspective by discussing hyperbole.

Punching Up with Hyperbole

A narrative often uses hyperbole to emphasize and challenge an unfair balance. It is ineffective when “punching down,” that is, using hyperbole to show someone without power having even less power. That would be cruel and harmful. But, it is quite effective when “punching up.” That is when the narrative shows role reversal to point out unequal power dynamics that favor one type over another. This can be done for race or class with some controversy, but it is always controversial when done with gender. The Barbie movie punches up.

Gender imbalance is a real part of life. Most of the modern world is led by men. Men hold more power than women in politics, religion, education, business, and other aspects of society. The Barbie movie served up a far-fetched parody of the Real World in Barbie World, where women lead, and men have one superficial job: ‘to beach’ and crave the attention of women in power. While Barbies had distinct roles, jobs, clothing, and houses, all the Kens shared a name and did the same lame thing.

When Ken visited the real world and discovered “patriarchy” (and its equine symbolism), he couldn’t even implement it well because he was, well, dumb. Even so, when he introduced the Kens to patriarchy and led a revolt to change Barbie World to Kendom, the female Barbies became enamored with serving the Kens. They threw out their job titles and eagerly handed over their responsibilities in exchange for the male gaze. The patriarchy wins, even in its simplest form, in a world where women are not inoculated against the influence of patriarchy. It takes a concerted effort and intensive deprogramming scheme to reverse the harm that patriarchy caused. Thanks to a heartfelt speech by the human protagonist, Barbie World survived and returned to all its female glory.

A Missed Opportunity or a Cry for Justice?

Some have tried to make a point that there was a missed opportunity to encourage equal access at the end of the film. For example, the Barbies could have shared their leadership cabinet with the Kens and built something more faithful to an egalitarian life. These critics have missed the rhetorical point of the movie. In the Real World (not the film version, but our version), women often try to share power. Why? Maybe it’s a natural feminine nature, or perhaps it’s the byproduct of generations of submissive influences. Whatever the reason, there is a higher probability for a woman to be congressive, inviting others, including minorities and colleagues, for collaboration. In contrast, men tend to be ingressive, seeking individual authority in a seat of power. Is this why men tend to hold positions of power longer than women of equal stature? It would explain why women in positions of power are often reserved for mentoring or helping other women with upward mobility, a phenomenon I have witnessed in academia.

There is power in narrative and visual media to show imbalances with humor, albeit unsettling humor. Using hyperbole in a fictional setting can present a story that draws attention to power imbalance and leads the audience to consider a change. The end of Barbie does this well. Demonstrating the apparent power imbalance favoring women draws attention to the absurd. Viewers who may have never thought about the injustice of a male-dominated committee or leadership may suddenly become keenly aware of the disadvantages of imbalance. However, It is curious that many viewers seem more concerned with advocating for egalitarian leadership in a fictional universe than raising awareness of fundamental power imbalances in our real world.

Another Example of Feminist Film Hyperbole

Take also, for example, the 2018 French film Je ne suis pas un homme facile; I Am Not an Easy Man. My daughter called this film—”the Barbie movie, but for grown-ups.” The film shares the story of a chauvinistic man obsessed with collecting and bragging about his sexual encounters with beautiful women. One day, he hits his head and wakes up in a world where men dress and live to please women.

This alternate universe does not present a fair and balanced society run by women. Instead, we get a hyperbolic reversal of power dynamics from those in our real world. Women are viewed as more powerful, more likely to be stronger, smarter, and hold positions of power. By contrast, men worked in positions submissive to women and learned from a young age how to think about themselves as sexualized objects who needed to dress and sculpt their bodies for the pleasure of women. The film mocks the ridiculousness of misogyny and patriarchy. This is an effective way of punching up.

Some critics fault these films for a missed opportunity to present a visual example of a better or more equal society. But this also misses the point of the satire to bring viewers into an aha moment where they realize how ridiculous it is to expect one particular sex to be groomed from a young age for submission to the other. This was portrayed in a satirical way to draw attention to the imbalance. The absurdity teaches us about the injustice of power imbalance. The author made a point about subjectivity by putting male characters in a female social script.

Resistance Through Narrative—Why “Punching Up” Matters

Stories in any form can challenge, disrupt, and shift the way we perceive systems of oppression. When films like Barbie (2023) and I Am Not an Easy Man (2018) use hyperbole to invert gender roles, they engage in resistance storytelling—narratives that punch up at power structures so deeply entrenched that they are not moved. The purpose of such a narrative is not to undo the damage but to alert viewers and listeners to a problem. These stories force audiences to confront inequalities they might otherwise dismiss or ignore.

Despite the progress made in feminist discourse, women struggle—not just in representation but in real-world power structures. The expectation that women should always work toward equality while men maintain dominance as the default reflects a persistent imbalance. Women are often expected to be inclusive, to advocate for shared power, and to create spaces where everyone can thrive—while men in leadership are rarely held to the same standard. Worse, women are pitted against each other in a system where access to positions of power remains limited. In academia, business, and politics, women and other marginalized groups often compete for a handful of “diversity spots” rather than having genuine, structural access to leadership.

Reframing to Reexamine

Narratives that expose systemic imbalances are vital for challenging entrenched power structures. Barbie’s hyperbolic role reversal unsettled audiences—particularly those who had never fully considered the pervasiveness of patriarchy in everyday life. Yet, resistance through subversive storytelling is far from new. Biblical narratives also amplify the voices of women and other marginalized figures, offering implicit critiques of dominant power systems. However, these perspectives are often overlooked or distorted when interpretations are filtered through modern power dynamics. Reframing biblical narratives through their eyes serves the same purpose as contemporary films that challenge gender expectations. If we read Genesis and Exodus through the actions of women—rather than centering patriarchs and male heroes—we uncover a counter-narrative. It is a story where the earliest acts of justice, faith, and defiance are performed by women long before men assume their roles.

Just as Barbie and I Am Not an Easy Man use hyperbole to highlight the absurdity of gendered power imbalance, the biblical text itself contains moments of subversive resistance that have often been overlooked. Recognizing these stories for what they are—radical challenges to systems of oppression—allows us to see the Bible not as a book that reinforces patriarchy but as one that, when read through the right lens, actively challenges it.

This reframing is not just an academic exercise; it’s a call to reexamine the narratives we accept and the ones we choose to tell. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we must ask: How do we recognize the structures that still pit women against each other rather than dismantling the systems that limit us all? How can we tell better stories—not just fictional ones, but the ones that shape our workplaces, institutions, and theology? And most importantly, how do we ensure that the voices of those who have resisted oppression—both in scripture and today—are amplified rather than erased?