If this summer’s blockbuster based on a doll that promised “girls can do anything” has one defining message, it’s that actually it’s “literally impossible” to be the one thing every girl grows up to be: a woman.
“It is literally impossible to be a woman,” America Ferrera’s human character preaches to the Barbies in a monologue the L.A. Times thought was so “powerful,” the paper reprinted it in its entirety.
(For one character — the Gender Dysphoria Barbie played by male actor Hari Nef — Ferrera’s words are true: No amount of garish makeup or over-the-top dresses makes him “one of the girls.” But that’s not the monologue’s intended point.)
Ferrera’s character inspires the Barbies to take back their world from the patriarchy (yes, really) with her riveting list of complaints about how being a woman is “too hard.”
“You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough,” she says to Margot Robbie’s despairing titular character. “Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong.”
Every woman has wrestled with the insecurities of being “good enough” at some point in her life. But is that really the legacy of womanhood? Being a woman is wonderful — something to celebrate, not complain about.
Ferrera continues, frustrated that women “have to be thin, but not too thin,” “have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean,” have “to love being a mother” and also “have to be
