Barbie had a huge opening weekend, and beat Oppenheimer, which made me so happy! Since we were at San Diego Comic-Con last week, we haven’t had a chance to see Barbie yet, but we’re planning on doing so next weekend. We had some friends at the Con who did see it over the weekend. When we asked them if it was okay for kids, they all said that the more adult themes would probably go over their heads. Turns out we aren’t the only parents wondering about the PG-13 rating, and the whole “adult themes going over younger kids’ heads” seems to be the general consensus.
What are parents thinking?
It turns out lots of parents are on the fence like I am. Those with preschoolers and kindergarteners assume most of it will go over their heads, like I do. “I am not planning to take my 6-year-old Barbie lover to see it before I can assess,” Laura Rihn of Pittsburgh says. “It doesn’t seem like a kid movie.” She herself will be in the theater, though. “I’m excited for it and plan to see it. If I feel like the adult stuff will go over her head, I’d be fine with her watching it at home.”For parents of kids just a few years shy of that magical age of 13, I found a lot planned to see it and don’t rely much on the rating system when choosing content. “I am letting my 9- and 10-year-olds see it,” says Becca Miller in Baltimore. “But I think the rating system is generally super-outdated and they get exposed to far worse in public school.”
In New York City, LaToya Jordan has no qualms about taking her 11-year-old daughter, for the same reasons as Miller. “PG-13 means nothing to me as far as a rating goes and I don’t pay attention to that. We’re New Yorkers; she sees R-rated stuff just walking down the street. But seriously, we watched the trailer together and it looks cute. She’ll probably whisper questions to me regarding anything that comes up that might be too adult and over her head.”
What do the experts say?
Common Sense Media’s executive editor Danny Brogan says the film has received its PG-13 rating due to “suggestive references and brief language,” and gave a few examples without spoiling the whole film.“One scene shows Ken asking Barbie if he can stay over as they’re ‘girlfriend and boyfriend.’ When Barbie asks ‘to do what?’ Ken pauses before saying ‘I’m actually not sure.’ It’s a funny line and kudos to Mattel for letting director Greta Gerwig have some fun with the brand,” says Brogan.
Chances are, the bedroom humor would go right over my 5-year-old’s head, but my 4th and 6th graders will definitely catch the reference. Barbie also slaps a man in the face when he touches her butt (a lesson I am fine with all of my kids learning, to be honest).
According to Brogan, there are also a few stronger words such as “bitch” and “crap,” as well as a bleeped-out “motherf***er” to be aware of, but nothing overtly graphic.
We haven’t decided if we’re going to take our kids to see Barbie yet. We’re pretty lenient when it comes to movies. Our 9- and 5-year-olds have seen both Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 (we sometimes use this website for guidance). Honestly, my older son gets more scared of scenes where someone is going to get “in trouble” (he’s a rule follower) than if they’re going to, say, get eaten by a dinosaur while on a toilet bowl. We also keep an open dialogue with them in general, hoping that as they get older, they’ll never be too uncomfortable to ask questions about something they don’t understand. We hope that if they’re exposed to something new while they’re with us, they’ll feel safe asking us questions about it, and that will continue as they grow and are exposed to new things while they aren’t with us.
Anyway, when it comes to Barbie, our indecisiveness is more along the lines of, “How many times do we want to miss the movie for a bathroom break” rather than “Do we want to explain what the patriarchy is.” I will explain the patriarchy all day long, but maybe I can do it after we stream it at home when we can pause for potty breaks? At the end of the day, it’s up to parents to decide what they want their child to watch, but from what I’ve read/been told, I don’t think Barbie is one of those PG-13 movies that you need to keep your child away from. Since I have a few days to finalize my decision, I’d love to know what those of you with children who have seen it think!
In the Netherlands the age rating is 9+ to put this into perspective. My kids are now all teenagers, but I would have no issue whatsoever taking a fourth grader to this film.
Yes! Took my 9 yr old yesterday and we both enjoyed the movie.
That is great perspective, thank you!
My 10 year old wants to see it, and the PG-13 was making me unsure. (She is very sensitive to any kind of violence and scary stuff.)
But if the “adult stuff” content is similar to what we’ve seen in the previews, she should be fine. I do agree completely with Rosie that it is all about communication, and we talk openly about sex/sexuality/etc. at an age-appropriate level, and she knows she can ask me anything (and is still at an age where she is willing to do so! I suspect that might change once she’s a teen) but I’m definitely in the better-to-be-exposed-to-stuff-like-this (nothing too too racy of course!) – and-talk-about-it-openly-and-safely camp than the keep-them-away-from-this-content-to-avoid-having-to-talk-about-it camp, because I think that’s what leads to playground misinformation taking root before you have a chance to frame things appropriately as the parent. Or worse, they just stay naively uninformed which can be very bad.
(LOL when she saw the roller blading scene she missed that the jerk slapped Barbie’s butt, so she asked me what happened to make her punch him. When I told her, I also pointed out it is totally appropriate to defend yourself against unwanted touches, and she gave me a “duh of course it is” look, so good for her!)
ETA: Just want to acknowledge that a 10-year-old viewing this content is very different from a 5-year-old, and each child is different in terms of what is appropriate for their readiness level, so I’m not making any kind of blanket all-parents-should-take-their-kids-to-see-this-movie-to-have-these-discussions statement or anything like that! We all know our individual kiddos best, of course!
My 12 year old son still asks me the most brutally honest questions about gender and sexuality- we can both hold out hope it doesn’t change! [Part of the reason is because there’s no shame, no laughter, nada-ask a frank question, get a factual and complete answer with context] He didn’t want to see this, so he saw MI3 and Spiderman with his dad and buds and I saw this with mom friends and their daughters. It was a blast.
I think it’s fine for pre-teens, but younger children will get bored. When you take the discussions off male/female power issues, there will be some stretches of the film that are hilarious for adults, but boring for young children.
That said, there are two scenes in the film geared just for adults that would make me question taking younger kids. I’ll just spoil the first one, and you can assume the second one is at that same level.
Barbie, in the real world, tells construction workers that she doesn’t actually have a vagina, in her response to catcalls.
It’s a film that is more for people who have a longer history with Barbie, and know of the social issues she stirred up. Pre-teens will catch some of the double entendre and find it funny, and find the speeches a little dull.
Saw it last night and concur completely with this assessment. That scene also has Barbie tell the construction workers that Ken doesn’t have a penis. Other than being left with potentially explaining some anatomical terms to your child, there’s nothing else I would worry about. But Melissa is right – it’s not a kids’ movie imo. It’s not like Toy Story which is deliberately working on two levels for the adults and for the kids and I do think the story line is kind of boring in long stretches for children who won’t be picking up on the sarcasm.
Children should all know the anatomical names for those body parts anyway. Child / body safety experts strongly advise it. All the parents at our schools are taught to teach them the proper names young for a variety of reasons, including that it has long been a tactic of predators to exploit childrens’ lack of knowledge about their bodies and their parents’ usage of nicknames and euphemisms. The current advice is to always use the proper body part names when talking genitals with kids and to normalise talking about body parts and not make it an ‘embarrassing’ topic. You point out all out just the same you would nose and ears, you don’t giggle or get embarrassed, you don’t sexualise anything. You teach them that certain body parts are just for them (using the proper terms for them) and not to touch others’ either. Along with phrases like ‘from my head to my toes, I say what goes’.
Today I launched a leadership development programme and my icebreaker at the moment is to get people to give a 3 word summary of the last film they saw (like Netflix does on screen). My words for barbie were “not for kids”. Not because I think it’s too scary, etc. but just that it’s not aimed at them and as has been said already, younger kids will get bored in some parts of it.
We made worse jokes than that when we were 9.
I know I would have laughed so much at this at that age
Even my media/culture savvy 15 year old didn’t completely “get” Barbie. She actually liked Oppenheimer better! On the other hand, as a GenXer, I was cackling away.
Greta is 39 about to be 40… it would make sense that her films would appeal most to gen x, xennials, and millennials.
Agree on the boredom comment. I don’t see anything wrong at all with the content, but maybe those under 10 or so would just be bored. There were some 5-7 yo’s on the theater I was in and they ended up playing on their parents phone (quietly, but still….sigh).
I agree with the idea that younger kids might get bored. My 6 year old wants to see it and I have no problem with the content but I do think the movie won’t interest her much ( beyond the music montages).
My 7 year old daughter just asked me last night if we could see Barbie. I automatically said no because of the PG-13 rating, but this story may make me rethink that. I’m curious to see what others say.
Full disclosure I’m not American, so there’s a lack of pearl clutching about the very very mild double entendres or Barbie saying vagina, but I do think she would potentially be bored. While the superficial plot that kids are most likely to latch onto is “Barbie needs to save Barbieland from being turned into Kenland”, I don’t personally think it’s strong or fast moving enough to be enjoyed on that basis alone.
It relies heavily on the plot around Barbie learning the Real World functions under a patriarchy and examining her purpose in life. I found it hilarious and funny, but it was much more existential than I expected, and quite melancholy in parts. I love the idea of it being an easily digestible introduction to learning about patriarchy for 10+ boys and girls but I think a 7 year old would potentially be bored. But maybe I’m underestimating 7 year olds! And it’s visually spectacular the entire way through so that could certainly hold some kid’s attentions throughout I’m sure.
Like you say SAS a lot of mild double entendres that will go right over younger children heads. I think this is perfectly fine for any age though a lot of kids won’t get some of the larger themes. Otherwise it’s more a question of attention span. If your kid can’t sit through a 90 minute movie without disrupting others, please don’t take them.
I took my 7yo and her 8yo BFF, they both loved it the whole way through. BFF’s mum and I are both pretty normal, frank people so both our kids were unfazed at hearing ‘vagina’ and ‘penis’, in fact my daughter only got uppity about one bit where someone doesn’t watch the road while driving and that there was A Swear, even though it was bleeped. They didn’t get bored, they loved the whole thing although there were definitely things that went over their heads.
As others say, the more suggestive stuff would go over a young child’s head. But I think there’s also a fair bit that a young child would just find boring. The emotional core of the movie is really about adult women’s experience. And there are a couple sections where the dialogue uses vocabulary that is quite advanced – I’m sure there are a few adults who didn’t know what all the words meant. (These are just a few lines out of the whole script, but if your kid is curious and wants things explained all the time, it could be annoying.)
My kid also gets more scared at characters getting in trouble and behaving badly!
I took my 11 year old granddaughter and it was fine.
I don’t know why so many parents in general are up in arms over the PG13 rating. I think people automatically hear “Barbie” and think kids. But this movie was never marketed to kids or made for kids. I saw on Facebook that some parents were complaining they took their younger kids to see it and were upset about some of the language and themes in the movie. Ummm…:first of all as a parent it’s your job to research a film before you take your kids to see it. What is appropriate is left up to individual parents. Second, upset about language I’m sure kids hear worse everyday at school. And third I’m so sick of hearing about this movie in general and all the Barbie themed products and whatnot. Ok rant over lol
Excellent point on the research part. This is mildly reminiscent of a similar flap surrounding the Deadpool movies. Ill advised parents taking their young kids to see it because they heard it was a funny super hero movie and assumed it was appropriate despite an R rating
I saw it with my (adult) daughter yesterday. I’d say 10 and up for sure.
I cried (well leaked tears at least) several times mostly at the mother daughter stuff and we laughed a lot! Very enjoyable and visually stunning.
I never had a Barbie, my sister did, but I had Tammy and her little sister Pepper. Pepper had a treehouse.
When I was raising my daughter, we were all pretty anti Barbie but she got some as gifts anyway. Her Barbie had adventures with my son’s Ghostbusters guys and the pound puppies! Those were the days 💗
Took my almost 6 year old to it this weekend. Aside from a couple dance numbers, poor kid was so bored. It’s fun and flashy, but the plot itself and the very pro woman message (which I am not bashing!) was over her head. So mainly it’s boring for little kids is all I’m saying. That ending though, omg I howled.
That is what I was thinking. I have a 7 year old son and I wouldn’t be upset if he somehow saw the Barbie movie, but I absolutely know he would be bored. It’s fun! And pink and sparkly and there are fun songs! I had enjoyed recognizing the Barbie and Kens (sorry Allan!) that I had when I was a kid.
I took my 6 and 11 year old girls to see it opening night and they both liked the movie overall. My 6 year old was definitely bored at times, but she had a good time and stayed pretty engaged the whole time.
There were kids 5-9 in my showing and most of them were getting bored. And since it isn’t a kids movie, it’s annoying listening to kids talk during a movie because they’re bored.
Saw it yesterday. It was fine. But for a movie that is so hard on men, the most entertaining character was Ryan Gosling’s Ken. Best part.
I was not buying in to him as Ken when I heard about it. I felt like Ken should have been played by a more square jawed actor. But I am all in on Ryan now! He was great.
Hard on men? I have seen a lot of right wing “men” whining about it online but it seems more to tell the truth about patriarchy. I don’t see that as being hard on men. It’s hard on women to live in the patriarchy.
@WiththeAmerican…yes exactly. Thank you.
“Hard on men” HAHAHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I agree, it was definitely hard on the patriarchy, not hard on men in general. And the whole one part dealt with the idea of toxic masculinity and all being tough on men too.
The line about staying the night was in the trailer. Didn’t that play on tv?
Did they not watch the trailer at all? Initially, I didn’t want to see it. Then I saw the line about staying the night and Barbie asking if anyone thought about dying and I realized it’s more for me than a kid.
FWIW we took our 8-year old son and 12-year old NB kid, and it was fine. 8-year old (who is a pretty stereotypical little boy) was bored, so my husband dealt with him. 12-year old enjoyed it but acknowledged some of it went over their head. They’re neurodivergent and thus fairly immature, but they are old enough to have a meaningful conversation about the movies themes and jokes.
My 11 year old daughter and none of her friends owned Barbies and she has only seen one once. They feel dated. I think she would be more baffled than anything.
What confused me about the movie was that I didn’t know Barbie had careers. I played with them in the early 80s and we had “Pretty and Pink” Barbie, “Happy Birthday” Barbie and “Angel Face” Barbie. I think I caught it after 70s feminism and before 90s feminism. So the idea of Barbie as a feminist career icon is foreign and the movie wouldn’t click with me, maybe?
But don’t you remember ballerina Barbie? She was an 80s doll. I mean, it’s a pretty specific and largely unattainable career goal, but it was one 😆
My daughter’s had the veterinarian Barbie, it was so fun with all the animals, and the teacher Barbie. I was big into Barbie as a child of the 70-80’s, my kids weren’t quite as much, but I was an only child, so imagination was my only friend at times. I had three girls, close together, so they played a lot of games etc… But I definitely bought several ‘career’ Barbie’s for them.
Have you ever been to a toy store Susie that has Barbie? There are all sorts of different career Barbies to choose from
A lot of that is addressed in the film. Margot’s character is actually “Stereotypical Barbie”. I’m an 80s kid and most of my Barbies were fashion ones, not the career ones, but I still enjoyed the heck out of the movie.
I’m curious did all of you only watch kiddy movies when you were growing up and had never seen an adult film before becoming a teenager?
I remember growing up in the 90s and watching everything the adults watched on TV, aside from porn, lol. My favorite TV show as a 10 year old was The X-Files.
It seems kinda absurd these days that people debate whether kids can watch a movie about Barbie finding feminism.
Is this just me? Is it a European thing?
Also, I don’t think there’s a better message you can give any small girl than Barbie finding self-empowerment and not needing Ken. People should be taking young girls especially to see it! Don’t wait for them to grow up until they hear this message, it’s too late once you’ve ingested patriarchical values and then have to work twice as hard to un-learn them as an adult…
No I grew up in the states and went to see ET, Return of the Jedi etc in the theater at around 8-9. When you watch these films now you realize that they are pretty sophisticated.
I saw return of the Jedi at a similar age and I had nightmares with Darth Vader in them for weeks!
Yeah I don’t get the pearl clutching either. Kids should hear about the patriarchy, it’s reality. And as for the words used, I knew those words as a young kid because I was raised to use the proper terminology. Our bodies aren’t shameful.
It’s wild to me that American parents are fine with showing endless violence and shoot outs to their kids but words that refer to g*nitalia are the line.
still amazed that moviegoers (of all ages) are conditioned to gratuitous violence but so strenuously object to mild jokes about sex and reproduction.
Exactly I didn’t even realize Barbie had sexual content until I started reading the comments here.
It’s very minimal.
I just said the same should have read down further. It’s wild.
I saw it last night, our whole group loved it, and there were some kids under 13 there. I would definitely think 10 and under, they’re likely not going to be that into it.
It’s definitely not a kid’s movie. I took my 10-year-old on Saturday and she enjoyed it. But she also seemed a little bored and I don’t think she really understood some of it. But now she knows the word patriarchy and what that means. I think the marketing on this movie was particularly deceptive. Sounded like a fun summer movie and it…wasn’t? I liked it, tho.
I took my kids—8 and 10 yo’s and they were both very bored.
I saw it last night without my kids. I have a 9 and 6 year old and would not take the 6 year old. It’s not inappropriate (the parts that are would go over their heads), but she would not understand the movie at all and would be super bored. It’s not like shrek where it’s mostly a kids movie but there are fun parts for adults. Barbie is mostly an adult movie with adult concepts. My 9yo would be interested and would have a LOT of questions about the patriarchy, which we would gladly talk about.
My 15 year old loves it, my 11 year old (who has trouble sitting still due to adhd) didn’t. There is a LOT of talking in the movie and not a lot of action. The adults beside me in my packed theater left but I adored this movie! I think younger kids would get bored once the glitzy scenes finished.
I haven’t seen anybody mention this so I will: beat representation I have seen in a film in a long time. In the first 15 minutes we see an Asian man, a black woman, a woman of larger size and a woman doing a dance number in a wheelchair. Best thing ever.
I took my 8 year old daughter – we both loved it! We are pretty flexible on what she watches, she is an only child and mainly watches what we watch, listens to music we listen to, etc, with limits of course (I haven’t let her watch Stranger Things, for example).
Perhaps she is a bit more grown up in that regard, and she is fierce little feminist that threw out a package of space themed stickers we purchased for her because the astronauts were all boys! And this girl LOVES space.
That being said, the mildly suggestive stuff went over her head, she didn’t bat an eye at the proper names for body parts (she just said, of course they dont, they’re dolls), and she loved the girl power and how ‘lame’ the Ken’s were.
I loved the conversation it sparked! We also took her Granny along, and to be honest, she disliked it the most!
I wish there were more movies like this – much more intelligent than some of the animated crap that often ignores the fact that kids are actual people and capable of handling mental stimulation and being challenged.
I haven’t watched it yet, but here in Germany it is rated 6+….
I’ll go a step further and say I think this movie is GREAT for tweens, probably even INTENDED for tweens (considering one of the main protagonists, who is no shrinking lily, is a junior high-schooler and avowed Barbie-hater).
The only sexual innuendo in the movie pertain pretty directly to the fact that Ken and Barbie very famously have amorphous bulges and indentations where their private parts would be, and it would frankly be bizarre if the script had sidestepped the obvious. I won’t spoil the punchy ending, but the jokes ultimately have a point to them, I am pleased to report.
Really, the whole “is Barbie appropriate for kids” conversation seems like an artificially-generated moral panic. The movie is pretty tame contentwise. (As others have already said, young kids and those with shorter attention spans will not be as invested in Barbie’s journey: this will be like Lord of the Rings to them.)
A lot of the humor would go over a kid’s head, period. It’s really more art-house with a Barbie-Dream-House design. I think kids would just be bored.
It’s surprisingly more adult oriented than I expected. The kids in the theater didn’t seem to be as into it but the adults laughed their asses off.
In Germany, it’s rated 6+, so I would not worry at all (but then again, Americans are known to be way more prude ;-))