Barbie’s friend Midge: What does she tell us about feminism?

I’ve only just recently been to see the Barbie movie. It was fun, pink, sparkly, with a beautifully realised portrayal of Barbie Land, and excellent music. My daughter and I watched it in a middle of the day, middle of the week sitting and had the luxury of having the entire cinema to ourselves with the exception of one other woman. Very handy when you might end up singing along!

Over the days since I saw it I keep going back to a question that has been itching the inside of my brain. And that question is what to make of Midge.

For those of you who may not have seen the movie, it portrays a range of Barbies and Kens, with accessories, houses, cars, and scenes that depict actual toys sold by Mattel. Two other dolls also appear. There is Allan, a less-than-cool Ken look-alike, who at one point attempts (unsuccessfully) to leave Barbie Land to make a new life for himself. He gets a moment of protagonism in the film when the Real World mother and daughter need defending against some Kens.

And then there’s Midge

Midge was introduced by Mattel to soften Barbie’s sexy image, but didn’t sell well. In the early 2000s Midge was reintroduced as a pregnant doll (you could pop off her abdominal wall and remove the fetus from inside), and it is this Midge we see rendered in the movie by Emerald Fennel. She is dressed true to the original doll in a frumpy high-waisted purple frock with a bow and is clearly approaching her due date. I can’t remember her having any dialog – but I may have missed it.

Midge’s appearances are brief and she’s never allowed to shine in the way the Barbies do. During the Dance the Night Away scene, the attention is on the Barbies being awesome. We see a wheel chair using Barbie, plus-sized Barbies, Barbies with all different skin colours, and a trans-Barbie, united in the choreographed scene. Yet we see only a very brief shot of Midge, now in a shimmery gold dress yet somehow still frumpy looking, alone and off to one side dancing awkwardly by herself.

The Barbies are Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, Lawyers, Writers, Doctors, and Builders. Midge – well she’s just pregnant. She seems to have no role other than to hold a fetus under her skin. Towards the climax of the movie, the Mattel CEO walks past Midge and turns to another Mattel executive saying “Didn’t we discontinue her?” dismissively.

The Barbie movie and feminism

There’s been much discussion about the Barbie movie as a feminist project. It explore some of the issues around patriarchy in a fresh way with an audience that may not have given feminism much thought. I’ve also seen criticism by mainstream feminists of the messages in the movie. I’m yet to see (and I spent a bit of time searching while I was writing this) any feminist discussion about what the Barbie movie says about Director Greta Gerwig’s take on where pregnancy and birth fit into her feminist world view.

Early feminist priorities were about equality and removing differences between men and women. The right to vote, own property, open a bank account, be employed and paid equally for that work were battles fought, and largely yet incompletely won. Pregnancy, birth, and lactation are an uncomfortable fit. They are bodily experiences clearly marking women as different from men, and with different needs. The reproductive aspects of women’s lives simply don’t work into a “women are equal to men” narrative.

A solution proposed by radical second-wave feminist Shulamith Firestone in the 1970s was to eliminate pregnancy entirely, replacing it with “ectogenesis” – using mechanical uteruses to gestate the next generation. While this would indeed liberate women from reproductive work, it dismisses the experiences of many women who value their capacity to give birth. Failing to incorporate reproduction into feminism seems to parallel the suggestion we discontinue pregnant Midge from the vision of what women can do.

Fitting birth back into feminism

Should Gerwig have taken a different approach to her portrayal of Midge? No – it’s her movie and she can do what ever she wants with it. Her take on it does indeed reflect the challenge of expanding feminism to encompass women’s pregnant, birthing, and lactating bodies.

I do believe there is room in feminism to fit the reproductive aspects of women’s lives in. For example, Karleen Gribble and co authors (2023) have done a great job in their recent discussion paper about breastfeeding, suggesting how measures designed to achieve gender equality should be assessed against their impact on women’s ability to breastfeed. Alecia Staines runs a podcast called Birth: The forgotten feminist issue and tackles birth related issues through a feminist lens. Let’s work towards a future where women who choose reproduction aren’t relegated to the sidelines, merely valued for their baby-making, with no real purpose other than this, and at risk of being “discontinued” when their task is done.

Sign Up for the BirthSmallTalk Newsletter and Stay Informed!

Want to stay up-to-date with the latest research and course offers? Our monthly newsletter is here to keep you in the loop.

By subscribing to the newsletter, you’ll gain exclusive access to:

Exciting Announcements: Be the first to know about upcoming courses. Stay ahead of the curve and grab your spot before anyone else!
Exclusive Offers and Discounts: As a valued subscriber, you’ll receive special discounts and offers on courses. Don’t miss the chance to save money while investing in your professional growth.

Join the growing community of birth folks by signing up for the newsletter today!

Subscribe to the newsletter

Reference

Gribble, K. D., Bewley, S., Bartick, M. C., Mathisen, R., Walker, S., Gamble, J., Bergman, N. J., Gupta, A., Hocking, J. J., & Dahlen, H. G. (2022). Effective Communication About Pregnancy, Birth, Lactation, Breastfeeding and Newborn Care: The Importance of Sexed Language. Frontiers in Public Health, 3, 818856. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2022.818856 