Have you seen the Barbie Movie yet? For my birthday this year, Hazel and I went to a matinee. I also decided to try to make a Barbie cake for myself. It is hard to hear some of the criticism of the movie from people who refuse to see it. For example, Rex Huppke's column in USA Today shares many of the things said about the movie. Now being a liberal and having many liberal friends, I have many friends who have different opinions. But I am going to begin by sharing a bit of my own background.
My mother was one of the feminists in the 1970s who believed that Barbie was bad for girls. Her body measurements gave girls unrealistic body images to begin. My sisters did not get to play with Barbie dolls. However, as the youngest we were given several hand-me-down Barbie dolls when I was the perfect age. I loved playing with dolls and loved my Barbie dolls. I honestly wished I could have the Dream House and her pink car. So when I told my family Hazel and I went to see the movie, they were not very interested and were shocked to hear that we loved it and thought they should see it. This is what I grew up with. Hazel found their reactions rather upsetting, but I am use to it.
Now I recently saw a friend's post about how many people are saying they will not go to it because it is a movie about a doll. She pointed out how that is really a sexist statement from people who have gone to GI Joe or Transformers as they are also dolls. Plus, she points out that Toy Story is about dolls as well. The question to these people is it because Barbie is a female doll and/or that she is a girl's toy typically?
One of my sisters told me she thought it was a bit ridiculous that all these people are dressing up to see it. Well Hazel and I both did. In fact, some older women who had just come out of the movie said, "Barbie is here," when they saw Hazel in her pink dress and jewelry. We also had frameless heart glasses like Barbie dolls. I bought them on Amazon as a set of ten. My thoughts about this is, who cares if people are enjoying themselves by dressing up or wearing pink to the movie? I know it was part of the fun. Now I should add that the last movie I saw at the theater was Frozen 2. It has been quite a while since I went. We went into one of our favorite stores in the mall where the movie theater was, and the salesperson said she has been enjoying seeing all the people walk by in their pink outfits. She hasn't seen the movie yet but likes watching the crowd.
Hazel told me she heard some people don't want their kids going to it because the rainbow in it may make them gay. Um, that is not how it works. The truth is sexuality is not really discussed as much besides when Barbie tells men in the real world that she does not have a vagina and Ken does not have a penis. There is supposedly some characters in the movie who are gay or trans, but it is not obvious, so this is not a reason to miss this movie. She also saw that some people are saying to avoid Disney because of the movie. Um, Disney has nothing to do with the movie so obviously these people have no idea what is going on. The movie is from Warner Brothers. So if you want to not support a company it is AT&T that owns Warner Brothers. Hopefully their cellphones are not from AT&T. LOL!
Hazel also told me that Vietnam banned the movie because of some body of water that they fight over rights to with China and the movie shows it marked as China's property. There is a map, but it is not on the screen for long, so I find this highly amusing as well. Oh, and because of this many conservatives are telling us the movie is hidden Chinese Communism. If you see the movie, you will find this even more humorous. People should not talk about things they don't know about. If you don't want to see the movie that is fine, but don't tell others about it, because you only make a fool out of yourself!
So, my thoughts on the movie. We loved it! It is fun, humorous and has important messages about women and men in our society. It is a movie that is sure to become a classic. For the people like my family who sees Barbie as something against women, it is addressed in the movie, and it is not that kind of movie. I have to say I agree with my friend, everyone should see it. I know Hazel and I planned to see it with friends, and we probably will go again with the friends. The movie is that good!
Since it was my birthday, I decided to try making a Barbie cake for myself. Usually, we buy a cake for me since I don't like to bake myself one. I looked at several tutorials for Barbie cakes. You can see many of them on this Pinterest Board. I bought for myself the Teacher Barbie. I picked her because her hair was up so I wouldn't get frosting on it, and she was cheap. I was disappointed that she has flat feet--how unBarbielike. (Flat feet are an issue in the movie.) I got her on sale at Target awhile back. I will admit I do not like the dress she came in so I knew I wanted to make new dress or multiple clothes for her. I started looking at clothes and patterns. I found the patterns I bought when Hazel was into Barbie and made a dress from there eventually. I plan to make her more (most patterns are also on Pinterest Board), and I ordered some clothes for her from Shein since they were cheap and came with accessories. Hopefully the high heels will fit my flat-footed Barbie.
The tutorials ranged from one to four boxes of cake mix. I ended up using two. I would do it differently if I ever do it again. Some said to use four layers of 8-inch circular pans and others said to use a 2-quart Pyrex bowl. I have a 1.5-quart and a 2.5-quart Pyrex bowls. I used the 1.5-quart bowl as well as an 8-inch round pan. The last one I found suggested a bowl that was 20 cm (8 in) in diameter with a matching round layer. As I measured the heights, I got worried about them being tall enough to cover my Barbie. I also am not great at decorating and I didn't really want to put frosting on Barbie's skin, so I decided to make a top for Barbie from a pale pink fabric. I knew I was making buttercream and figured using red food coloring it would just be a pale pink. I used the Princess Dress Pattern for Curvy Barbie from Janel was Here. I hand sewed on some attached beads I found in my supplies to decorate the neckline. I did not finish the bottom and trimmed it and will make it as a top for Barbie once I make her jeans. I also wrapped her legs with plastic wrap so they wouldn't get too messed up.
At first, I used one mix and tried to split them between my 8-inch pan and my 1.5-quart bowl. I was using an organic mix from Whole Foods, and it did not rise enough to fill either. Therefore, I needed more cake. So, I used a second mix and made two more layers. If I was going to make it again, I would use one mix for the bowl and the other for two layers. I think this would rise enough. If you are using the bowl, you need to bake it for 50-60 minutes. After they are all cool you need to carve the cake a bit to get the right dress look. I didn't do the best job with this since it was the first cake I ever carved. You also need to cut a hole in the center of each one. The tutorial I was looking at suggested a circle cookie cutter. I used a flower cookie cutter and then just and cut the bowl layer with a sharp knife to make it smaller than the cookie cutter. It was also the first cake I crumb coated. I used a premade frosting to crumb coat it. Then I made an American buttercream and dyed it pink. I got almost a perfect match to my fabric! I covered it the best I could and then needed to use a decorative tip and add some decoration to hide the transition between my top and the cake. If I didn't make the top, I would have used this tip all over her top to make the bodice of the dress. I added the decoration to the bottom as well to hide some of my mistakes. Overall, I was quite pleased with the cake and how it turned out. I would love to try another one at some point, but for now I am happy with her and am working on making Barbie some new clothes. My favorite thing when I played with Barbies was to dress her so I may be a bit obsessed with Barbie clothes.
So did you see the movie? What did you think? Have you ever made a Barbie cake? I would love to see pictures! Be sure to check out my post about Barbie and her creator, Ruth Handler.
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