Plastic Fantastic
What the Barbie movie has to teach us about our own perception of American history
Welcome to From the Teacher’s Desk, where we take turns further reflecting on our episodes and applications to the classroom.
My little Millennial heart was singing as I waited for the Barbie movie to start just a few weeks ago. I’m sure you’ve at least seen the previews too. This film was either going to be fantastic or a flop - and I’m happy to say it landed on the side of fantastic for me.
But at Lit Think, we’re here for more than a love letter to the stories that make us laugh and cry and feel all the feels. So let’s jump into some good literary analysis of Greta Gerwig’s latest hit.
What do we already know?
The movie does a great job of first establishing Barbie World through the eyes of children. Problems are easily solved. Girls feel powerful because Barbie permits them to be more than mothers and wives. Why go any deeper?
This perspective is a great reminder of how American history is often taught to children. The Pilgrims and Native Americans were friends. Abraham Lincoln ended slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation. But this one perspective fails to acknowledge all the other layers that are left out of the story.
It’s a crucial reminder of our burden as educators to complicate the narrative for our students.
Who is left out?
As the Barbie movie addresses the gender binary, it points out that someone always has to be left out. In both the Barbie Dreamhouse and Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House, one character is literally without a home, simply based on who has been given the most social power.
We do this all the time in our storytelling as well. The classic literature we share in our classrooms often only highlights the perspective of one section of society. And the Barbie movie does the important work of reminding us how it feels (for both Barbie and Ken) to not feel included or important in the daily workings of our world.
When we ask our students, “Who is left out?” in a specific story, we’re encouraging them to develop a deeper understanding of narrative power and audience perspective. These are the types of tools that make for great English students AND great citizens of the world.
Where are we getting our information?
I really appreciate this perspective I heard at a teacher conference recently: as 21st-century educators, our job is not to shy away from technology, but rather to model ethical use.
Confirmation bias is a real thing, and this is even more true when we send our students down the path of personal research. The more we can encourage them to seriously think about who is behind the information they’re receiving, the more we’re encouraging them to remain curious and open-hearted.
In the words of Mr. Weasley, “Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain!”
Some Resources
All of this feels easier said than done, right? We can’t fix the problematic history behind us, but we can work on how we move forward. As Ruth Handler says to Barbie in the movie, “We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back and see how far they've come.”
So check out some of these resources to get the conversation started in your classroom.
Encourage students to think beyond what they already know with this 20th-century taboo game.
Expand your classroom definition of civil rights through this discussion prompt (and some great podcast suggestions).
Get your students thinking about where they’re getting their information with this Digital Literacy 101 activity.
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