The internet has gone insane because Barbie—the highest grossing film of 2023—has been nominated for eight Oscars instead of 10, snubbing Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig for Best Actress and Best Director respectively. Screen Rant’s Sarah Little called this a “horrific shock” and said that “being left out of two significant categories [proves] the movie’s point about patriarchy.” I know what you’re thinking: how can anyone type these words? But many have. And it gets worse. Collider’s Shaina Weatherhead echoed these sentiments, saying that leaving “two of Barbie’s key players out of major categories, [proves] that even when they make one of the biggest films of the year—and honestly, ever—women will always take a back seat at the most important night in cinema.”
The thing is, Barbie hasn’t taken a backseat at all. It has eight nominations. Even before Weatherhead wrote such a preposterous sentence, she acknowledged that Robbie received a nomination for Best Picture (which goes to the producers, including Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment) and Gerwig (alongside her husband, Noah Baumbach) received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. So, tell me again how this is an attack on feminism? Maybe it’s that Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Actor. Little said that his nomination and the women’s snubs “validate Barbie’s point about men being celebrated for their achievements with ease while women have to work twice as hard to be seen.” It’s that same line once again. It’s not like Gosling and Robbie were competing against each other in the same category, like this silly tweet implies. Imagine the shit show if they had made the acting award into one gender neutral category like everyone wanted some years back. I doubt even Gosling would’ve made the cut. The spots for Best Actress this year were highly competitive, but it also includes Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) as the first Native American woman to receive an Oscar nomination (Yalitza Aparicio was the first Native Oscar nominee), which is something to celebrate!
Weatherhead said that America Ferrera’s nomination for Best Supporting Actress is “dampened” as a result of Robbie and Gerwig’s snubs because they are dominating the conversation. Well, Weatherhead is right about that, but she adds that Ferrera “got nominated for an Oscar for Barbie when Barbie herself did not.” Okay, I mean, I think you might be the one who is dampening conversation.
Mary McNamara wrote a truly insane piece for the LA Times with a bizarre opening, but she soon remarks: “How did voters justify giving Barbie, with its very clear message that women have to dance backwards in heels to get half the validation their male peers get, a best picture nom while ignoring two women who made that picture possible?” As already stated, Robbie and Gerwig were not ignored thanks to their producing and writing nominations, but these comments seem to imply that voters should’ve watched Barbie and gone, “yes, I must vote for this film in every category because that is the correct, feminist thing to do, as the film suggests!” We’re living in dire times when media literacy and critical thought are as bad as this. How do you take the important feminist themes reflected in Barbie and in real life and conflate them to such a degree as this? We have to be able to discern our agenda and ideologies from reason.
There’s no denying that women have it tough when it comes to their talent being acknowledged by The Academy, especially in the directing category, which is not divided into male and female. Only eight women have been nominated for Best Director over the course of the Oscars’ near 96-year history, with three wins. Gerwig has only directed three films and all three of them have been nominated for an Oscar (she is one of those eight women, for Lady Bird). Now that is an achievement! It’s debatable whether or not Gerwig is deserving of a Best Director nomination for Barbie, but the category this year was competitive and there are only five spots. Many female directors missed out, including Celine Song for Past Lives (a fellow Best Picture nominee), but fortunately Justine Triet was nominated for Anatomy of a Fall.
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There is no secret anti-feminist agenda that caused Robbie and Gerwig to not be nominated. The reason Robbie wasn’t nominated for Best Actress is that her performance was not better than the other nominees—and it’s not even Robbie’s best performance. Robbie gave a great performance as Barbie—one that’s filled with heart and humour in addition to some slapstick acting related to Barbie being a plastic doll who becomes human. It certainly showcases more of Robbie’s talent, but it’s Margot Robbie. We’ve seen her deliver some absolutely insane performances, ones that were better than this.
Robbie has previously received a Best Actress nomination for I, Tonya, which is arguably a career-best performance, and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for the abomination that is Bombshell. It was a surprise that she was never nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Wolf of Wall Street; a breakout role that told us to keep a close eye on this gorgeous and talented woman. We’ve also already seen a different side to Robbie through her playing Harley Quinn in three different films, not to mention the surprise of her role as Nellie LaRoy in Babylon, where Robbie played an actress so talented and erratic it was mesmerising to see Robbie pull it off—and yet that film was snubbed into oblivion at last year’s Oscars because it was remarkably divisive.
Gosling’s Ken was different. He did slapstick too, but he had more jokes than Barbie and his role was more showy and melodramatic. This man had multiple epic dance numbers for God’s sake! While Gosling has received previous Best Actor nominations for Half Nelson and La La Land, those were more serious roles. Sure, we have seen comedic roles from Gosling before, but Barbie showcased a different side to his talents altogether—much like La La Land did at the same, which got The Academy’s attention.
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Barbie touches upon the difficulties women experience while living under a patriarchal society, but there’s a lot of humour found in the way Gerwig’s script explores this and reverses it to create a matriarchal world. We’ve all joked about these scenarios, but we’ve seldom seen them reflected, so of course we’re drawn to Gosling’s over-the-top performance and Ken’s experiences. It’s satirical so everything seems silly and absurd, which is part of the fun but also part of the film’s commentary. It’s funny that Ken doesn’t have a house and that Barbie doesn’t care where he goes. It wouldn’t be funny if the roles were reversed, but this is also just a simple reflection of how girls play with Barbie dolls in real life. Barbie has her Dream House and Ken is just… over there until he’s needed. It’s interesting to watch how Ken responds to this world.
People complained that Ken’s character and Gosling’s performance got more praise than Barbie and Robbie when the film was released. It’s stereotypical for a man to have a more entertaining and funny role and for a woman to have a more heartfelt one. God forbid the former win over the audience more, even if they found the latter touching. The same comments were made when people were obsessing over Gosling’s interviews during Barbie’s press tour—the ones where he was funny, fully immersed into the lore of Ken and bowing down to Barbie. We, the audience, are the ones who put Gosling in the spotlight. Today’s feminism seems to want to control behaviours even like these. Push down your real feelings and interests, don’t watch videos of Ryan Gosling and like his performance as Ken more than Barbie’s in the damn Barbie movie! But it’s simply not anti-feminist to enjoy Gosling. It was silly commentary then and it’s silly commentary now.
It’s fine to be disappointed and even upset that Robbie did not get a Best Actress nomination and Gerwig did not get a Best Director one, but let’s not act like it’s an affront against feminism. And anyway, Robbie got equal, if not more, attention than Gosling. She is a gorgeous woman who was absolutely everywhere on social media after every event promoting the fuck out of Barbie in her Barbie-inspired outfits, which we were also obsessed with. The attention and appreciation these outfits got on the film’s press tour has resulted in a photo book, showcasing Robbie channelling Barbie outfits styled by Andrew Mukamal and shot by fashion photographer Craig McDean.
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It’s arguable whether Barbie even deserves a Best Picture nomination in the first place. The best thing about it is the art direction, but the nomination is due to the impact the film had on its audience—which is fine, it happens, impact is always part of this. I liked Barbie a lot and I enjoyed watching it, but what lets it down is the delivery, exploration, and integration of its feminist themes—many work, many don’t. Gloria’s monologue hugely resonated with girls and women everywhere, but it didn’t feel natural to me, instead coming across as forced and unearned. A lot of lines of dialogue felt this way, as though the Barbies had memorised the English language phonetically but weren’t privy to what they were talking about. It all felt written to serve an agenda… because it was. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but there is when the themes and messages don’t feel fully integrated in the film or the film’s world. Then again, Barbie’s whole thing is to wink at you while Helen Mirren’s narrator breaks the fourth wall to remind you that you’re watching a film.
In fact, Ferrera’s Best Supporting Actress nomination is probably the most shocking thing out of Barbie’s Oscar nominations, and that isn’t a slight against Ferrera because she was great. It was a delight to see her in this role, but it’s clear that her nomination is because of her overly-praised feminist monologue. Meanwhile, Ferrera’s character Gloria, who is depressed and borderline suicidal, never seems to get satisfactory closure of her own, a lack of character development in favour of focusing on the film’s feminist themes and the existentialism experienced by Barbie.
It’s completely fine to love Barbie and want those missing nominations, but a lot of it feels performative. You can be sad that Robbie wasn’t nominated for Best Actress. It doesn’t have to be part of some big feminist issue for you to feel that way or for it to matter. Of the Best Picture nominees this year, Barbie, Past Lives, and Anatomy of a Fall were directed by women. That’s three out of 10, which is a new record—as in, that’s never happened before. If you truly care about women in the film industry, then sing the praises of the current nominees and wonder where the hell Celine Song’s Best Director nomination went. Seriously, did those ballots get lost in the post?
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