In this Part 2 of 2 episode, Jenna from The Way Witch and I discuss Umbra Barbie: How Barbieworld forces Empathy-Challenged Non-Collaborative Behavior.
Sections:
0:00 Intro Credits
1:06 Thanking Patrons
1:54 Content Warnings: Swearing (check your audience!); Mention of the supremacist cis hetero capitalist patriarchal empire we all live in a.k.a. the kyriarchy; the weirdness of “owning” small people as a white woman; Arts and Craft to make anatomically accurate dolls; play therapy to catalyze intimate partner violence and “drama” (a la real housewives?); Implicit and explicit systemic oppression of divergent people and Madness/Serious Mental Illness (Major Depression, BPD, SUD and ED, specifically); and mention of the movie’s cartoonish depictions of infanticide of babydolls in the first scenes.
2:34 Co-host intro: Jenna, The Way Witch
2:56 Grounding Prayer
3:40 Elec-Ture
6:08 The Human Being / Human Winner Masc(uline) Monomyth... so unsatisfying.
11:52 Human Giver Syndrome and The Mad (wo)Man in the Beach
21:52 Mad Kenough is not enough!
28:09 The Umbra perpetuates itself: How Barbieworld won't let St Barbie be loving to Ken or acknowledge group effort
35:09 Side Note: How much does RH hate being a mother, and some Surprise! DARVO bullshit at the end of the movie
37:26 Thesis: Mad Ken is an avatar for the experience of women within patriarchy, but he is judged by the diegetic co-residents of Barbieworld and the Real World, and by the non-diegetic audience and critics, according to masc/ableist standards for behavior, and he is abandoned according to ECNC behaviors, required to heal himself without support, and told this is a triumph and exciting, in order to maintain Hollywood’s access to Mattel’s brand material.
Audio quality note: I added the addendum about music and fantasy of retribution when I was scanning the audio at 1.5 speed, so I accidentally recorded my aside at 1.5 speed and didn't catch that it was then slowed down when I rendered the MP3. When I get my mental ducks in a row, I will re-record that and re-upload it.
45:38 bonus critiques of white feminism
54:20 Unplanned Extra Thesis: The power of Decoding - we are hungry for revolution and we will find in emergent revelations
1:05:03 Outro Credits
First, you can hop over to the webpage for Umbra Barbie Part 1 for the slides.
Witch, Please! Book 1 Episode 1: monomyths
Joseph Campbell's annoying response to his student Maureen Murdock, and her new model.
Why, yes, I am a self-initiated acolyte of Emily Nagoski PhD and Amelia Nagoski DMA
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA (discussed in Episode 05: Collaboration Part 2)
🎧Buy Burnout on Libro.fm
📚Buy Burnout on Bookshop.org
There is also a workbook! You could get the audiobook and the workbook and go through them both!
📔Buy The Burnout Workbook: Advice and Exercises to Help You Unlock the Stress Cycle on Bookshop.org
Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections by Emily Nagoski
🎧 Buy Come Together on Libro.fm
📚 Buy Come Together on Bookshop.org
Also, please enjoy their podcast episodes from 2020 that had accompanied the release of Burnout: Feminist Survival Project Podcast. Content Warning that they are recording episodes as the pandemic and 2020 election come about, which brings up a lot of stuff.
Especially the episodes about trauma and magic and about the Mad Woman in the Attic (podcast does a better job explaining than the book). There are many that I refer back to often but these are relevant here.
Elsewhere in the interview, [Rob] Thomas [of Matchbox 20] described writing the song, which was penned “overnight” with producer Matt Serletic. The musician wrote it about an ex-girlfriend, but is aware that the lyrics seem “problematic” in retrospect.
↑↑ Link to a Rolling Stones summary of a USA Today interview about Push and Barbie that solidified my decoding:
“I wrote that song about someone I had been with who I felt was manipulating me and taking advantage of me,” he said. “The ‘90s was a time of manufactured angst, and nobody wanted to be a victim in a song. So in a weird twist of different times, there’s something very problematic about ‘Push,’ if it wasn’t for the innocence of how it was written. But everything about it was about emotional manipulation. It was just about this idea that it’s so much easier to find someone you can take advantage of than it is to actually put work into a relationship.”
(with sidenote compersion delight after reading the USA Today source for the Rolling Stone's summary, about how Greta Gerwig listened to this song on repeat as a teen and Rob Stone has a huge crush on Greta Gerwig 🥰🤩🥰🤩🥰)
I learned about Mad Studies through psychiatric continuing education but this episode of, you guessed it, Witch, Please! did a great job of explaining it!
And, their episode about the way capitalism and the publishing company creates and controls The Author.
This is Under the Umbra: Using Empathy and Collaboration to Navigate a World of Shadows. In each episode, Electra and the co-hosts explore ways to think about and plan for difficult relationships with people and systems in a way that stays grounded in values and centers community. I invite you to try out focusing on Empathy and Collaboration as a realistic and compassionate model for interpersonal interactions. If you find yourself Under the Umbra, let’s find our way back to the light. Find the show's home at Under The Umbra . Info Support the show via Patreon.com This show is brought to you by Bridge to Becoming, LLC. Music is by SoulProdMusic and used with permission. Under the Umbra Podcast logo is by Lo Carter. Subtitle was crafted by Vera Alcorn.