Whether you’ve seen the “Barbie” movie or not, the mania this blockbuster has created is hard to escape.
For one thing, my granddaughters who once considered Barbies too “little girl” to play with are now demanding the dolls for Christmas, their birthdays or any time in between. And there’s no question the world is more pink these days, with the fashion and interior design world along with just about every other business jumping on the pop culture bandwagon.
For example, many restaurants and bars are offering cocktails that pay homage to the movie, including Obscurity Brewing in Elburn, where there is a sparkling vodka, tangy lemonade and strawberry pink soda ale cocktail named the our favorite plastic doll.
Did I mention it includes edible glitter?
And not to forget “Just Ken,” the brewery also offers a blend of creamy Rumchata, sweet Buttershots and a hint of blue curacao – for a limited time only of course because even Barbie-mania can’t last forever.
Yet the movie’s message of empowerment and purpose has found its way into our beloved institutions.
When East Aurora School District 131 kicked off its new year recently, about 20 of the executive cabinet joined “Ph.D Barbie,” aka Superintendent Jennifer Norrell, as she stepped out on stage in traditional cap and gown.
They included “Pageant Barbie,” also known as Associate Superintendent Jalitza Martinez, a former Miss Puerto Rico Aurora and Chicago, whose crown and sash prove beauty and brains can indeed coexist; and “Astronaut Barbie,” who otherwise goes by Assistant Superintendent Lisa Dallacqua, rocking a pink spacesuit which represented the power of STEAM learning.
There was also “Math Barbie,” “Duo Language Barbie,” “CFO Ken” and “IT Ken,” and even the teachers union leadership was represented with, among others, “Stay Focused Barbie” and “I’ve Never Done That Before Barbie.”
You get the idea.
Norrell admitted she cried when she saw the movie, especially at actor America Ferrera’s powerful soliloquy about how hard it is for women to be everything to everyone. “This is my everyday existence,” said the superintendent of a district with nearly 13,000 students and a woman who raised her 18-year-old daughter mostly as a single mom.
Still, the idea to incorporate “Barbie” into the new year kickoff came from a man: Assistant Superintendent Steve Megazzini, who dressed like “Beach Ken,” complete with matching ’80s swim shorts and sleeveless windbreaker, to act as emcee along with administrative assistant Lisa Morales, who came out pretty in pink in an electric Jeep as only “Truly Barbie” can.
The empowerment theme of the summer blockbuster, Norrell said, fit so perfectly into the “College and Career For All” mission the district has adopted for this school year. And the worldwide Barbie Dream Gap Project launched by Mattel, she added, fits right in with the district’s goal of challenging stereotypes and undoing societal biases that keep so many young people from reaching their full potential.
By leveraging this idea that is now so closely tied to pop culture, Norrell insisted, “We can make sure our message resonates and transcends the entire year.”
Geneva resident Becky Nicol has a similar but even more deeply-rooted message she’s taken from the movie.
Nicol, who played with Barbies like a gajillion other mothers and grandmas of today, also has a mom who sewed clothes for Barbie that not only stayed in their home but were packaged and sold by Chicagoland Sears stores during Christmas seasons in the 1960s and ’70s.
As an adult, Nicol became journalism program coordinator and adjunct instructor at Harper College in Palatine, where she taught history of media that included the impact of movies in our lives.
If you think you know where this is going – a teacher using the mega-hit movie as the subject of a college classroom lesson – you would be wrong.
That’s because in her second career, Nicol was ordained as a Methodist minister. Although she retired from Geneva United Methodist Church two years ago after serving as associate pastor and communications director, she’s still connected to this church at 211 Hamilton St.
And at the 9 a.m. service on Sunday, the Rev. Nicol will be at the pulpit preaching on just how this summer’s blockbuster relates to theology.
The idea a film starring a plastic doll with freakishly impossible measurements can help connect us to our faith is intriguing but not all that far-fetched. As Nicol points out, stories, ideas and phrases from the Bible are very much a part of our modern conversations, books, music and films.
And in fact, Greta Gerwig, the brilliant director and co-writer of “Barbie,” has stated in interviews that the movie retells the story of creation from Genesis, and that her Catholic schooling was an influence in how she went about making it.
If you’ve not seen the movie, this may all sound weird. But to give you a hint of where Nicol is going with this on Sunday morning, Barbie came before Ken in the ever-so-perfect Barbie Land Garden of Eden, and then things got really complicated when Barbie enters the real world that ends up corrupting so much of what her creator had in mind.
Nicol told me she also plans to expound upon other not-so-subtle questions raised in this movie, including patriarchy, the role of women and their relationships to men and how the real world compares to our ideals and finding our purpose in life.
There’s a lot of serious stuff packed into this two-hour movie that’s also quite cheeky and hilarious. But the reverend hopes to break much of it down to levels that make sense in our own everyday lives.
Nicol told me she had this sermon in mind even before seeing the movie with her grown daughter. (Sidenote: The movie is PG-13 but I can personally attest after taking my fourth-grade granddaughter that the adult stuff goes right over the heads of kids.)
The movie, she pointed out, actually takes the story of creation and flips it. But in doing so it also points to how we often misunderstand the Good Book – not to mention the complex women who played such a pivotal role in it.
In her sermon – which can be livestreamed on the UMC Geneva website and Facebook – Nicol not only plans to look into Genesis but delve into how faith can answer the many questions we have about everything from feminism to purpose in life.
“The Bible is not archaic,” she insists. “It was created to speak to people throughout history and how you live your life today.”
By the way, when Nicol stands in front of the congregation on Sunday morning, she won’t be wearing pink, as she will also be distributing communion.
Here in the Real World, after all, some things remain even more sacred than Barbie.
dcrosby@tribpub.com
