Off top, Barbie is one of the best movies ever. I laughed for the entire 2 hours and cried 4 times…both times I saw it. Not only is it an incredible movie exploring how masculinity and patriarchal societal concepts trap both men and women within gender prisons….but the soundtrack is fire. You have tracks from Lizzo, Billie Eilish (which will be reviewed in the future), Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa and HAIM just to name a few. Most importantly, the climax of the movie comes with an original track by Ryan Gosling, Ken himself!
The track fits the movie’s Barbieland…or Kendom depending on your point of view…vibe perfectly as it mirrors the late 80s / early 90s power ballad structure perfectly. You have keyboard and synth gently leading into lots of kick drum and shredding guitar. You hear that arrangement and you can feel the bleached denim pants and blown out hair. The power ballad vibe is taken all the way to 11 with a glittering syth bridge that feels straight out of a Whitesnake record. When the track reaches its crescendo there are hints of broadway theatricality as Gosling’s epic vocal is met with an emotional wall of sound.
Lyrically the song charts Ken’s character arc from an empty bleach blonde shell filled with surface level masculinity to a fully developed person. His references to feelings he can’t explain, blonde fragility and a reliance on being “a 10” to give himself worth illustrates his lack of an internal world. This lack of interiority is filled with stereotypical masculinity and patriarchal tropes, which doesn’t get Ken any closer to realising who he is and ultimately leaves him grasping for any meaning. However, at the end of the track he and the other Kens hold hands proclaiming that “I’m just Ken / And I’m Enough.” By the end of the track Ken comes full circle and realises that his enemy is not himself or Barbie, but the patriarchal construction of masculinity he thought he wanted. He doesn’t need those societal structures, because he is Ken and that’s enough.
I love how Barbie uses humour and common pop touch points to evaluate such a complex and loaded term as patriarchy. Both Ken’s and Barbie’s journey put patriarchal tropes and beliefs under a microscope and reveal them to be as useful as a freezer in a mini-fridge. So, put that manly hand in mine and yell to the heavens…I’M JUST KEN AND I’M ENOUGH!!!
Listen to I’m Just Ken
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