On “Why Barbie and Ken Need Each Other”
 
Why Barbie and Ken need each other? That's the title of an article in the New York Times, and that's the question I had before I read it. After all, why?
As the movie begins, Barbie appears as the blonde, "stereotypical Barbie," as some might describe her, with her blonde hair and perfect body, embodying an idealized image of the individual. However, underneath her seemingly flawless life, thoughts of death emerge. At the beginning of this story, the event that really motivates the main character to take action is the intrusion of the concept of death into her perfect world. This is why Barbie feels the need to go to the "real world" and this is the reason for her decision.
Barbie's confusion mirrors what we often encounter in real life. Many of us stubbornly live in a conceptual world rather than a realm of reality. For example, we insist on taking photos using filters that require our bodies to match the proportions of our toys, and get upset about any real-life factors that make us different from our photos. This is precisely because we are constantly living in a realm of falsehood, channeling reality to cause us stress and anxiety.
What surprised me about the movie was the way Ken was portrayed; both his look, and the way the movie's narrative for this task, are tightly aligned with traditionally feminine gender performances: jealousy can easily spark same-sex rivalry; the finger of blame is always pointed at the same sex, not the opposite; war is triggered by uncontrollable emotions, not rational calculations of interest. Whether male or female, the image presented is not black and white, not strictly installed into the so-called gender image.
There have been a number of comments stating that the Barbie movie is a feminist movie. I partially agree. A woman's power lies not in appropriating the world in the same way as a man, but in seeing the world through a different lens. This is also how we see Barbie, because Barbie is portrayed in how we see her. Barbie is a mirror that allows us to see ourselves and the reality of how complicated the world is, in other words, how elusive people and society are. Perhaps Barbie and Ken, see themselves in each other.