I Found Absolutely Nothing Sexual In Barbie Movie As Against Juhi Parmar

By Chirali Sharma

There are literally 2 movies that everyone is talking about these days and they are Barbie and Oppenheimer. Wanting to see the hype around both, I did manage to catch a viewing of the Barbie movie and it is certainly a fine movie in itself.

Does it have faults? Maybe, of course, it does it’s a movie. Did it land the punch on all aspects for me as a viewer? It was a good experience surely but as a viewer, there were certain areas that left me wanting.

But after watching the movie in its entirety, one thing that left me confused was all the people claiming that the Barbie movie was age-inappropriate or too sexual. Especially television actor Juhi Parmar, who went viral for leaving the movie barely 10–15 minutes into the movie, I was absolutely wondering exactly what movie did she even see in the first place.

Barbie, A Sexual Movie?

Juhi Parmar went viral last week when she posted a long Instagram post talking about how she walked out of the Barbie movie and calling it sexual, using inappropriate language and many other things.

Considering she didn’t even stay for the entire movie, it is really interesting how she made such a judgement call on the movie, especially since after having seen it, the first 10–15 minutes have practically nothing too racy or inappropriate in them at all.

Let me just recall what all happened around the first half hour of the movie and see all the oh-so-sexual things that my totally innocent and pure mind was exposed to.

Barbie’s introduction

The very first scene is a bunch of young girls playing with infant dolls, with a voiceover talking about how for a long time it was only such baby dolls that were available and how young girls could only play as mothers to them.

But then Barbie was introduced and then there is a spanning shot of Margot Robbie depicted as the first Barbie to come out in the black and white swimsuit and so much skin on display.

I’m probably going to have to sprinkle Gangajal on myself afterward to wash away these sinful scenes.

Barbie getting ready

Barbie is shown getting up in the morning… on her bed!!! And then waving to the other Barbies, getting ready for the day, taking a shower, another scandalous thing to be doing.

She is then seen getting her breakfast and oh my lord, so much impropriety.

Barbie driving and going about her day

After leaving her house, Barbie is shown driving around waving to the other Barbies and Kens and going about her day attending various events, lectures, political gatherings and more.

This is getting too sexual for me already. How am I supposed to look my mother in the face now?!

The scene at the beach

There is a scene at the beach, where Barbie is wearing a pink top and shorts combo, showing so much skin. I was clutching my pearls and gasping at the indignation of it all.

Of course, Ken walking around with his exposed chest, other Kens with their bare arms and equally short shorts had no inappropriateness to them.

The Dance Party

Afterward, there was a dance party scene where all the Barbies and Kens danced around and Barbie got her first non-Barbie-related thoughts.

After that, Ken claimed that he and Barbie were girlfriend and boyfriend and kind of leaned in for a kiss that Barbie did not take forward and instead went to have a slumber party with the other Barbies.

Could surely be this, how can Barbie have a boyfriend, she should focus on her studies and then suddenly get married out of the blue in a lavish wedding.

Barbie’s Weird Experiences

During the party, Barbie had weird thoughts like death and sadness and then had strange experiences like flat heels and her breakfast coming out burnt.

Oh, perhaps it was the shot of her thigh when she was at the Weird Barbie’s house to show she was getting cellulite that could be considered sexual. I mean, how dare female characters show they have thighs or anything of that sort, right?

Barbie Travelling To Real World

Barbie and Ken traveled to the real world, where she was groped and then punched the man who did that. She then got arrested for that, along with stealing clothes, and then getting arrested again.

I’m honestly wondering what Mrs. Parmar was talking about even because there is literally no sexual content of any kind in the movie, least of all in the first 10–15 mins.

Even for inappropriate language, there is only one curse word that comes all at the end of the movie and even that is bleeped out.

In regards to sexual content, there is absolutely none of it in the movie, there is no kiss, not even a proper hug, unless you count the female characters hugging each other as sexual too now?

I have no idea what movie the actor saw, or where because her post left me thinking that the movie was going to be really adult and full of such scenarios.

I’m also scratching my head at what really triggered her, was it perhaps a backshot of Margot Robbie walking in beach clothes that she considered to be sexual?

Or was it perhaps the shot of Barbie taking an imaginary shower, covered on all sides and literally only her head and a little bit of her shoulders peaking through that she thought was too inappropriate for kids?

I’m practically grasping at straws here trying to figure out what really put her off here, because, in the same vein, there are also back shots of the Kens too, are those considered sexual too?

Or in a mythological movie that has depictions of Indian gods, would a backshot of one of them walking somewhere be taken as sexual too now?

Surely one can pick up a lot of other issues with the movie certainly, like pacing, repetition, going easy on big corporations, and many more, but being sexual is not one of them.

Originally published at https://edtimes.in on August 2, 2023.