One Motive We All Wish to Dwell in Barbieland? No Weapons.
4 min read
The characters—and a number of the viewers—have been audibly relieved the Kens couldn’t inflict the horrors we see within the U.S. daily.
After watching Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, my daughters and I left the theater laughing and crying. However lingering in my thoughts was a scene that plagued me with reminders of how dystopic America has develop into in distinction to the dolls’ utopia. And it has to do with weapons.
Within the movie, when the CEO of Mattel, performed by Will Ferrell, enters Kendom (previously referred to as Barbieland), he and his company sidekicks stroll right into a brawl. The warfare between Kens is fierce, however essentially the most brutal violence is rendered with seashore balls, not bullets. “There are not any weapons in Barbieland,” as Ferrell mentioned.
The characters—and a number of the viewers, all of whom probably scanned the theater for exits earlier than sitting down (it’s the “actual world” of America, in spite of everything)—sighed deeply, relieved the Kens couldn’t inflict the horrors we see within the information daily.
The gun violence epidemic in our Actual World is complicated. Nonetheless, one side of why this preventable disaster continues to devastate our lives is the advertising and marketing machine behind the gun trade. For many years, the gun trade has marketed the lie that weapons make us safer when in actuality, research has lengthy proven that firearms make society much more harmful. Weapons at the moment are the primary killer of our children.
Very like the Kens used their newfound information of patriarchy—and sure, horses—to take over Barbieland, the gun trade makes use of masculinity as a automobile for gross sales. Gun producers, entrepreneurs and lobbyists have cultivated a collection of tropes to target key audiences, particularly white younger males searching for a way of belonging. They use commercials promising the success of combat-style fantasies, virility and energy.
Do you need to be “Good Man with a Gun Ken” or “Navy May Ken”?
The gun trade has perfected the components to prey on pure human developmental insecurities and fears to promote lethal merchandise with out contemplating the human toll. This isn’t a Mojo Dojo Casa Home they’re promoting to younger males. They’re promoting an epidemic.
These predatory practices include lethal penalties.
By tapping into navy fantasies and desires for validation, the gun trade has created its personal “Mass Shooter Ken.” This Ken comes along with his personal equipment like physique armor, a racist manifesto, and an AR-15, full with an illegally-secured stabilizing brace and ammunition. No background test wanted!
Very like when the Barbies broke free from the cognitive dissonance that enabled the Kendom’s patriarchy, we owe it to ourselves, our kids, and future generations to interrupt free from the myths the gun trade has touted for many years.
Step one is recognizing the massive, audacious, carnage-inducing lies the gun trade spent hundreds of thousands constructing. Ask any mother or father at Uvalde whether or not “ man with a gun stops a nasty man with a gun.” Ask your good friend or neighbor the final time they efficiently used a loaded firearm of their dwelling defensively and evaluate that with the eight kids a day killed or injured with an unsecured firearm in their very own dwelling. Simply educating your kids about weapons is not going to cease them from choosing one up. By stripping these deadly fallacies of their energy, we are able to begin to reshape America’s relationship with weapons.
Very like how the Kens degraded Barbieland, the gun trade tearing on the cloth of our nation; we are able to rebuild if we let ourselves out of the field they’ve compelled us into.
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