Barbie, the blockbuster movie putting cinemas in the pink

Weddings have a dress protocol, many workers have uniforms and some schools in Spain also use them. But cinemas don't normally have a dress code. Or at least they didn’t until 20 July; the day the Barbie film premiered in Spain. It quickly became ‘a thing’ for the audience to wear pink to go and see the film with groups of friends coordinating what they are going to wear before going to watch it.

Film experts, influencers and viewers largely agree on the new Barbie film: it’s better than expected and celebrities and influencers have sparked the pink craze. A group of five friends waiting to go in to watch the film at Vialia cinema in Malaga explained that they “agreed before coming”. And know they are not coming to see a film aimed at young children: “it is recommended for the over 13s,” Ana, Asela, Marta, Rocha and Martina explained as they wait in the queue.

You can tell who’s at the cinema to see Barbie by the pink queues waiting to buy tickets. In this long line is a grandfather and his granddaughter, both in pink. “I put on the polo shirt this morning by coincidence,” explained grandad, laughing.

Another family is dressed to match in pink Barbie hats, black T-shirts sporting the Barbie logo. “We have read the social media networks and we have very high expectations,” said one of them.

Lots of people waiting to see the film have done their research and know what to expect, they had read the reviews that were clear from the beginning that Barbie was going to be much more than a children’s film: “I am a fan of Margot Robbie and the director and I knew that the film was going further,” said one woman in her 50s who was there with a group of friends.

Raquel and María left the cinema saying the film didn’t quite meet their expectations, “We thought it would be more superficial,” they said. Instead, the film is a critique of today’s society. Two mothers who took their four young daughters to see the film agreed with Raquel and María: “They liked it even though they didn’t understand the context,” explained one of the mums, also dressed in pink, as are the four girls.

A group of eight friends left the cinema; three boys and five girls, of course, dressed in pink. “We all agreed to come in this colour,” they commented. “The film looks at patriarchy from the point of view of man and woman,” said Ángeles, who added that everyone should watch the film, but admitted that some of her cousins refuse to watch it.

In general, they thought it would be more focused on stereotypes and the boys admitted that they “laughed a lot” and that it met their expectations. Ángeles, Ciro, Sandra, Nadia and the rest of the group of 16-year-olds said that they will be going home having been made more aware of some of the problems problems facing today’s society.

Although the Barbie film does not have explicit LGBT references, the dolls have always played an important role for children in the LGBT collective: “Most gay kids liked to play with their friends' Barbies,” explained the drag queen Pink Chadora to SUR magazine SIX, who attended the premiere of this film along with the Barbie tikoker Claudia, better known as 'Chicle de Fresa' (Strawberry Bubblegum). Drag queen Hornella Góngora, who went to see the film with her partner said, “The first memory I have is stealing a doll from my sister and hiding it to play with her. Many of us have similar memories.”

A reflection for many people in the LGBT community is that adults can go freely to see the film with their dolls and dressed in pink. “I played with my friends' Barbies when I went to their houses. For many children of my generation they were a kind of object of desire, but we were embarrassed to ask for them for Christmas. You had to ask for a Scalextric,” said Pink Chadora. Chicle de Fresa, a Barbie collector, added that everyone she knows who collects Barbies is gay.

Barbie also has a relationship with the drag queen world. "With my drag act, I always do the same thing: the aesthetics of blonde, blue-eyed, not very bright...", revealed Pink Chadora, who uses this formula to approach the public, but then changes her persona, said, "Society understands that the more important your aesthetics, the less your intellectual capacity".

Hornella thinks that many drag performers, including herself, take all those elements that society accepts as exclusively feminine, represented by Barbie, to use them as a tool of vindication. "Femininity is not only a woman's thing, society marks many things as feminine when it isn’t the case. Underneath my wig there is a man but what they see is a woman", she said.

Pink Chadora makes a comparison between drag and Barbie: "She can be anything like we can, we are a fantasy and invented and we can do whatever we want. I define myself as Rural Barbie,” she said, referring to the different types of Barbie available on the market, which is a theme running through the film.

During the event there were so many drag queens that Strawberry Bubblegum said she wondered whether she was at a film premiere or at the final of Drag Race.