I Took My Daughter To Watch The Barbie Movie, Here's What We Honestly Thought Of It

This article contains Barbie movie spoilers.

Smart Parenting's Perspective article series is our editorial team's take on the parenting and family issues today's Filipino families are facing. Through these opinion pieces, we as the country's leading parenting media brand hope to spark conversations and help fellow parents achieve our shared goal: to raise happy, healthy families.

Full disclosure: I'm a full on Barbie girl. I don't quite know if I loved her or I was made to love her by virtue of Barbie being the toy I was always gifted but so much of my childhood was Barbie. So whether I would or wouldn't watch the Barbie movie was never a question. The question was, "Who's going to watch with me?"

I took my 10 year old daughter and asked my childhood best friend to be my Barbie crew and it never dawned on me to check the family review or rating of the movie. I assumed there would be no issues for kids. It was only in the morning of our movie day when an officemate asked why the movie was receiving negative reviews from families.

At that point, I had already bought two tickets tantamount to four whole frozen chickens also known as eight homemade dinners for my family so this budgetarian momma was not going to waste that. I panic-Googled, a skill every parent has mastered, but also thought: what could be in a Barbie movie that my child would not have seen in a superhero movie or something on Netflix? (I think the issue on geography overshadowed any thoughts on family friendly, at least for Pinoy viewers. Thankfully, we figured out where the lines fell on that.)

Is Barbie okay for kids below 13 years old?

Barbie is rated PG-13, which means anyone below 13 years old must be accompanied by an adult. I can't pinpoint exactly the reasons the movie would be rated as such, but as Insider points out, the movie had swear words, mild violence (but is often used for laughs), and heavy themes (like death and gender inequality) that parents may want to discuss with their own kids.

Taking my daughter to see the movie was my way of fostering our bond as mother and daughter, trying to create little things and simple moments that can strengthen our relationship. I always try to find any excuse I can to have one-on-one time with each of my three kids and so Barbie just seemed like the perfect activity for us to enjoy. 

But even if I took just my daughter, I would not say it's a movie for little girls. It's for everyone, regardless of what you're "packing in your shorts", as Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) puts it. And that's thanks to the genius of Greta Gerwig. May we also remember that many of the movie's characters carry "smooth blobs", so no, I can't say gender matters when one is considering viewership.

Barbie moments that tugged on my mom heart

Of course, like most parents, I took on a slightly different perspective while watching Barbie. Here are the moments from Barbie that tugged on my mama heart. 

1. Mom never gets to do anything fun.

The movie gave many of us aha moments, like healing one's inner child, to harnessing your Kenergy, to being given permission to be ordinary. But for a mother like me I knew, once Barbie (Margot Robbie) arrived on earth, that the storyline involving her humans would be for me.

Gloria's (America Ferrera) monologue on womanhood has been praised endlessly, reposted in articles and social media, and will be quoted for years to come. That's for sure. But what spoke to me was her character: a mom who suddenly felt alone when her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) became a teen, stuck in the no-longer romantic and unglamorous daily grind of adulthood and parenthood.

When Gloria agreed to go to Barbie Land because she never does anything fun, I had to keep myself from saying "Holla!" No wonder I can't stop piercing my ears, three kids later.

I appreciated that the movie touched on the generation gap: Barbie was the toy of my generation. But she isn't for my child's. My daughter had one or two and I would not describe it as used and abused. We've put superhero-themed toys in her birthday wish list, not Barbie.

Barbie wasn't an impossible standard of beauty for me, like Sasha disses. Sure, she's "perfect" and I grew up during the heyday of the glossy magazine but Barbie gave me dreams of one day, being a kick ass woman. And this movie reminded me, moms definitely kick (and wipe a baby's) ass.

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2. It's not just motherhood that's hard, it's womanhood.

"It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong," Gloria begins her monologue.

She ends all the contradictories with, "I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don’t even know."

'We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they have come.' -Ruth Handler, Barbie (2023)

I, along with many other Filipinas, am realizing how unfair it was to be raised with only the dalagang Pilipina ideal. And it's not something I can entirely pass on to my daughter. I was glad she heard Gloria rant about the challenges of a woman in our society because even if I'm breaking ceilings for her, I know she will still inevitably face gender inequality. It's not something I would shield her from and opt out of watching the movie, even if she was younger than she is now.

What I hope she knows is I will always be in her corner, pushing the barriers for women. And when it's her turn to push more than I, I hope that she picks it up from a spot much further from where I, and where her grandmothers started.

In reality: All the double entendres flew past her head. She retold the story of Barbie coming to earth to her brothers like it was any other tale.

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3. It's a relay race. I'm glad the one who came before me ran well.

Ruth Handler's (Rhea Perlman) wise words to Barbie was the cherry on the cake. “We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they have come.” It made me grateful for my mom, who modeled the beauty and dignity of being a working mother amid all its challenges and judgment.

I tried very hard not to shed a tear, lest my daughter notice how moved I was, so that she could enjoy the movie the way a 10-year-old would. 

Even without Barbie's more philosophical assertions, I cannot deny how much fun the movie is and that alone is worth the watch. It's a visual spectacle with a great soundtrack. And it does pack a punch where it matters.

Right now, it's a fun date movie for my daughter and I. Hopefuly it will be one of those core memories she can look back on when she is older. But maybe when she's older and when the timing is right, it can serve as a manifesto. One that will be a guiding light when she faces her own questions of womanhood. And I hope that as she searches for answers she remembers, "Mama took me to see Barbie."

Here's why this parent doesn't want to instill a sense of utang na loob to her children when it comes to parenting.

Ronna Capili Bonifacio is the editor-in-chief of Smart Parenting. She has three kids and Barbie dolls that still remain inside their boxes to this day.