Do you have Barbie fever? Symptoms include a sudden desire to go rollerblading, a new appreciation for fuchsia, and an overwhelming urge to see Barbie, the star-studded, big-budget, hot-pink summer blockbuster.
Even if you’re immune to Barbie, you can’t ignore it. The movie, directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie (who also served as producer) as well as Canadian dreamboat Ryan Gosling as her boytoy, Ken, has been inescapable ever since the first trailer was released in December: a brief homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey but with Barbie as the monolith. Since then, Barbie has been everywhere: she’s in Vogue, all over social media (thanks to the official Barbie Selfie Generator), even being used in insurance ads. The simultaneous release of Oppenheimer, a sombre biopic about the creator of the atomic bomb, has given rise to a bizarro crossover genre called Barbenheimer, a term which yields more than 2,700 results on Etsy. If you’re experiencing Barbie fatigue, good news: there are Barbie-branded multivitamins to keep your energy up.
