It's time real women reclaimed Barbie!
Actress and comedian Amy Schumer was subjected to vile online body-shaming last week, after it was announced she is to play Barbie in Sony’s new movie. Here, Empire magazine’s editor-in-chief, Terri White, says casting Schumer is a masterstroke
LET’S JUST ADMIT that this year has been unrelentingly grim for feminism. Like watching a car crash in slow motion, except you’re the one poised to go through the windscreen. One of the big stories was the racist, misogynistic social media attacks on Lesley Jones after she was cast in the Ghostbusterss reboot – itself the horrific culmination of unhappiness at women taking on iconic (male) roles.
But 2016 ain’t going out like that. We’re just months away from a tough-as-tacks version of Wonder Woman and now Amy Schumer will play Barbie in a live-action movie. As you’d expect, not everyone is happy about this, including the website for the ‘common man’, Barstool Sports, which said, ‘Barbie is the definition of perfection. Mattel is completely ruining her image.’ Schumer responded to the negativity with, ‘I’m honoured to be considered to play an important, evolving icon… I want to thank them for making it so evident that I’m a great choice.’ You know what? She is.
Yes, the whip-smart, feminist, ribcracking, potty-mouthed possessor of boobs and hips is set to play a doll who, if brought to life, would be unableu to lift her head or stand on two legs,legs such are her unrealistic proportions. Thisth is nothing less than a revolutionary acta on the part of Schumer and those behindbeh the film.
She isn’t a size zero (butbu neither, let’s not get this twisted, is she plus-size),s she has the same lumps, divots and ripplesr as the rest of the post-pubescent population.p She’s also 35 – THIRTY FIVE – andan not just landing a great role but one historically historic defined by youth, as well as impossible beauty.b
This will, praise god, mosmost certainly not be the Barbie we know. Schuschumer will also work on the script (which hahas already had rewrites from Juno genius Diablodi Cody) and, just as she skewered tropes oof singledom and female promiscuity in Trainwreck,tr we’re sure to see a beautifully weirweird, completely relevant reimagining of this mmost clichéd of females (there’s literally nothingno in her head) who – gasp – may be dedesigned to appeal to women, rather than m men.
Instead of the sweet bimbo wew clutched in the playground, lasses yet to beb born could pick up a doll that is associatedass with intelligence, independence and verve.v And possibly even a sick and twistedtwiste sense of humour. See: revolutionary.