"These methods are hardly Bolshevik. He is no Ken-in."

August 7, 2023 10:20 AM

Sir Lawrence Freedman, professor emeritus of war studies at King's College London and prolific writer on strategy, turns his analytical gaze to the Barbie movie and Ken's strategic dilemmas.
posted by Jakob (22 comments total)

It turns out that the Kens do not understand the warrior role very well, and neither faction have a clear battle plan, leading to confused skirmishing. Eventually the battle dissolves into a dance routine. While this is not a known technique employed by international organizations in the pursuit of conflct resolution, given the success rate of their normal techniques it might be worth a try.

:)
posted by praemunire at 10:28 AM on August 7, 2023 [25 favorites]

He wrote this whole thing in order to say "he is no Ken-in". He did, don't deny it. Anyone would.
posted by Frowner at 10:33 AM on August 7, 2023 [26 favorites]

> While this is not a known technique employed by international organizations in the pursuit of conflct resolution, given the success rate of their normal techniques it might be worth a try.

𝕝𝕖𝕥 𝕚𝕥 𝕓𝕖 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕟 that all future geopolitical conflicts shall be resolved by all involved parties beaching each other off

𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕓𝕠𝕞𝕓𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕔 𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕟𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕕𝕒𝕪
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 10:50 AM on August 7, 2023 [27 favorites]

I love that he was encouraged to cover this film after his serious analysis of Oppenheimer.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:18 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

(There’s a Ladybird book on nuclear deterrence!?!)
posted by clew at 11:25 AM on August 7, 2023

Brilliant writing.
posted by seawallrunner at 11:31 AM on August 7, 2023

That was fun. Thanks, OP!
posted by Bella Donna at 11:49 AM on August 7, 2023

I was going to quote the dance off but but was beat to it. This is great
posted by CostcoCultist at 11:49 AM on August 7, 2023

I have not (yet) seen Barbie, but that was a great read and now I want to see it even more!
posted by supermedusa at 12:06 PM on August 7, 2023

Even the civil war among the Kens is a lacklustre affair. KB leads a group on paddle ships while the rival Ken is carried into battle on the shoulders of his group who are riding stick horses.

The article title is My Kendom for a Horse. Respect.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:29 PM on August 7, 2023 [8 favorites]

Wish I could find a non-paywalled version of his Oppenheimer article; the first paragraphs look good. The Barbie article is great!
posted by TedW at 1:01 PM on August 7, 2023

I think this person in the comments made a good point:

------------
Only point of challenge is that the Barbies have empathy. They understand the Kens intellectually (!) but seem to have no sense of how they feel, let alone any compassion for them. Their attitude seems to be ‘suck it up, losers’, with a promise for limited progress towards a more equal society.

-------------

Stereotypical Barbie has empathy for her Ken so I'm not in 100% agreement, but the rest of the Barbies? Not sure... Then again, they just squashed a revolt, so maybe the Barbies will have more empathy later when they find the Kens able to act accordingly.
posted by The_Vegetables at 4:06 PM on August 7, 2023

they just squashed a revolt

You can't have empathy for the desire to degrade you! Barbieland and Kendom aren't really symmetrical situations.
posted by praemunire at 4:29 PM on August 7, 2023 [6 favorites]

You can't have empathy for the desire to degrade you! Barbieland and Kendom aren't really symmetrical situations.

Not empathy for Kendom - for Kens as individuals, as "Kenough".
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:16 AM on August 8, 2023

it's predictable but still painfully stupid that the virgin shapiro and the other usual suspects are in a tizzy about the movie being, like, an eeeevil man-hating woke virus or whatever, given that much of the runtime — if anything, too much — was devoted to following dudes as they work through their psychodramas and figure out how to be grownup-ass men.

i didn't realize it until i typed it out just now but i think that might actually be the crux of it: the sad angryboys get extra, extra angry when exposed to the suggestion that they should try being grownup men instead of just sad angryboys.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 3:33 PM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

There's really no point in this movie wherein the Ken become grownup men. They remain Barbie accessories even at the end of the movie, although the Barbies agree that maybe they deserve a bit more attention, perhaps like stray cats you might invite indoors more often.

There is no point in which the Kens learn anything -- their attempt at patriarchy is circumvented by their childish melee during which Barbies vote in the election the Kens themselves proposed. Per the linked essay, possibly the first election ever held. The Kens are defeated without learning any lessons; they simply have their uprising subdued.
posted by hippybear at 3:50 PM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

kenough is kenough. and i'll beach off anyone who says otherwise
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 5:04 PM on August 8, 2023

Per the linked essay, possibly the first election ever held.

The title 'President' implies that other elections have been held in the past, doesn't it? That they have a Supreme Court and lower appellate courts that maybe a Ken will be allowed to join implies that the Barbies have crime and civil disputes. That they have construction crews implies that infrastructure in Barbieworld either degrades or grows or both. That they included a pregnant Barbie implies that at least one Barbie somehow became pregnant, which implies sexual organs.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:31 AM on August 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

There was no King Friday XII.
posted by praemunire at 7:56 AM on August 9, 2023

> The Kens are defeated without learning any lessons; they simply have their uprising subdued.

i dunno i kinda feel like the kens honestly did realize at the end that they exist even when barbie isn't paying attention to them / that they might have self-directed and self-defined goals other than "get barbie's attention because that's the only way i really exist" on the one hand and "overthrow the barbies and establish a masculinist kendom" on the other. that breakthrough is, as i see it, actually more significant than their "revolution," which just temporarily flipped a binary instead of actually undoing it.

and, like, i think they actually for reals internalized the "i'm kenough even without barbie" message a little bit? and after the end credits maybe they might go out there and at least tentatively start learning who they are outside of the context of their relationship with barbie? both the version of the relationship where they were a pile of dudes helplessly simping for the barbies and the version of the relationship where they were a pile of dudes gleefully oppressing the barbies?

i dunno, my view of this is sufficiently divergent from some other peoples' views that i might use it as an excuse to watch the movie again.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 11:25 AM on August 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

There was no King Friday XII.

How dare you send me down such a rabbit hole. Like Homer Simpson, discovering that King Friday's father was King Thursday XII pushed something far more important out of my brain.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:47 PM on August 9, 2023

If they started the names for each roman numeral dynasty with Sunday, that's an extraordinarily long puppet reign!
posted by tavella at 10:50 PM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]