Free to wear pink

At first, I wasn’t going to write anything about Barbie.

In part, I felt everything that needed to be said about this movie phenomenon has been said more eloquently by people much smarter than I. In addition, my fellow freelance writers say the market is so inundated with hot takes on Barbie that you really can’t get anything published at this point unless you put it out yourself.

Now, lack of being able to sell an idea has never stopped me from running my mouth before, as loyal readers can well attest. But it was definitely a sobering take for a freelance writer: better have your hot take on the big new cultural phenomenon written before the movie comes out, or good luck placing it.

So I was content to let other people dissect the subtext that really isn’t sub at all in Greta Gerwig’s take on Barbie, with the promos that made us think would be just another fluffy toy movie aimed at kids with a few sly winks to the adults to keep us from going mad with boredom. Now, once I saw that Gerwig was the director, I knew it would be something more.

But not even I predicted it would become a bellwether moment at a time when we desperately need a new and invigorating take on feminism.

I saw Barbie the first time with my husband in a theater full of mostly perplexed adults, taking it in out of nostalgia or because their…