Margot Robbie's Barbie character just stopped short of finding Jesus on her road to self-discovery - and I'm here for it

Woman Alive's editor-in-chief Tola-Doll Fisher shares her thoughts on the highly anticipated Barbie movie.

*SPOILER ALERT – do not read if you haven’t yet watched the film!*

I suspect my generation (millennials) were the last to grow up with Barbie dolls seen for what they are – dolls. Younger generations have (rightly) pointed out the problematic attributes of what Greta’s film calls, "Stereotypical Barbie", played excellently by Margot Robbie. Namely, the Aryan aesthetic, the impossible body standard and the obsession with pink (actually, the pink remains a staple because as Lizzo’s aptly titled song "Pink" goes: “We like other colours / But pink just looks so good on us!”). 

So, it seems surprising that in a world where we – publicly at least – champion a move away from stereotypical, that a film based on a skinny white doll with big boobs, blonde hair and blue eyes should be so greatly anticipated. But maybe we all just need a bit of light relief and that’s not something guaranteed from a film about someone who created a deadly atomic bomb that threatened to wipe out the earth (Oppenheimer).