Gender Equality: Are you Ken-ough? How to use the Barbie movie across the curricula
Guest blog by Kat Cauchi, Community Engagement Manager, Former Teacher and Global Equality Collective expert.
Kat Cauchi is one of 400 Collective experts at the GEC. She speaks for and with us at events and helps add to our GEC Platform content. Her background in teaching and experience in communication means she’s well placed to advise on how to have difficult discussions. Here Kat shares her ideas for using ‘Barbie’ in six subjects across the curricula to start our young people off on the right track when it comes to gender equality and related themes.
I don’t know about you, but I absolutely adored the Barbie (2023) movie!
That’s not to say it was perfect. There are some fair arguments for areas where it could have been improved, such as a lack of representation of diverse ethnicities. However, I am most certainly overall a Barbie movie ‘fan girl’ and have a huge appreciation for the movie as a whole and many of its aspects. This may be partly due to the nostalgia of growing up with Barbies and tapping back into my childhood, but I really do think the buzz I got after watching it was for so much more than that!
One area where I think the movie struck gold was its messaging around the patriarchy and how the way society views and treats women can be incredibly damaging. I mean, if you have seen the film (spoiler alert!), you will know how the Barbie world hit a downfall after Ken visited the real world. I think it touched on issues around patriarchy and society’s expectations and stereotyping of women and men in a lot of clever ways that could be easily understood by (and have a positive impact on) young people.
I wanted to share a few ideas on how you could take that and weave it into six different secondary subjects - with a disclaimer that if you’re going to use any of them, it’s important to watch the film yourself first!
I am sure that, with careful consideration and taking account of the movie’s 12 rating, adaptations could also be made for primary pupils.
Using ‘Barbie’ in 6 subjects
1. English
Guided reading: Use sections of the script in your guided reading sessions. Explore themes, characters, sequences of events etc., just as you would for any other text. You could create extension activities such as getting pupils to act out the next scene or make voice/written notes of what would happen if X changed. For example, what would the script have been like if Barbie had never gone to the real world or if Ken hadn't gone with her?
Writing: Draft essays on topics such as:
How the patriarchy is represented and portrayed
Why the Kens changed after ‘Stereotypical Ken’s’ visit to the real world?
What is the film’s message?
Why did Gloria’s Barbie designs influence ‘Stereotypical Barbie’? etc.
There are lots of subjects students could explore. I think the best thing would be to give them examples but let them choose something themselves that they are really enthusiastic about.
Spoken language: You could have in-class debate sessions on topics such as:
Should Barbie or Ken be running things? What are the positives/negatives of both outcomes?
Was the take-back by Barbies lawful (according to our laws in the real world)? Should Barbie go to the real world or stay in Barbie land? Why?
Does the Barbie movie accurately represent society?
Would you rather live in the Barbie world or the real world?
There are all kinds of topics you could get students debating – ask them for ideas too.
2. History
You could explore women’s history from 1950 and how Barbie and other elements of popular culture and fashion relate to this.
3. Citizenship
Explore questions around societal structures, stereotypes etc,. (the Kens and the Barbies), the real world versus Barbie world – what can we learn from this? Look at what happened in different scenarios of the film – is it ethical? What was problematic? How does it relate to our society? What can we learn from this?
4. Music
Exploring (clean versions!) of music from the film – how does it link to the film’s messaging or a character’s emotions and actions? What elements in the music portray certain feelings or create particular atmospheres? Maybe students can write a song to add to the soundtrack or create their own version of a track from the film.
5. Art and Design/ Media and Film Studies
Exploring emotion, colour, scenery – what do the Barbie world and real world represent? How are the real world and Barbie world constructed artistically in the film, e.g. is the real world gloomy and the Barbie world soft and pink? Does the style of these change as the film progresses? How and why?
Look at aspects of the film such as the giant Barbie doll stepping onto the scene like a T-Rex, even though we know Barbies are much smaller than the girls who were looking at her. How do we create this perspective and what’s the purpose of doing it this way?
6. RSE
Ken and Barbie’s relationship – how this changed post-real world visit and why? Discuss signs of issues and indicators that you could be in an unhealthy relationship. Explore different kinds of healthy relationships and how healthy relationships should make us feel.
These are just a few ideas to get you started. I’d love to hear whether you use any in your lessons and how it went – and if you had any other ways you used the film with your students, too!
Additional resources from the GEC
Teach Gender Equality are a team of researchers and teachers who share a belief that children should be taught to achieve gender equality. The GEC are proud to be part of this group and strongly encourage you to review their free academically tested lesson plans. These are now available to share widely with teachers. Our CEO and founder, Nic Ponsford, a former award-winning English and Media AST and examiner, worked with them during this research phase of the project. Learn more and access free lesson plans.
Body Image Research and Report
In order to understand the increasing trend in body image issues, research was conducted in 2022 by Nic Ponsford, our CEO & Founder of the Global Equality Collective (GEC) and Collective expert, Tommy Hatto, Founder of THO. Find out more and access ‘Understanding the impact of body image in young people.’ Use this as the basis to explore ‘beauty’ standards from a global perspective and in terms of not just gender equality, but in terms of race and ethnicity and intersectionality as a whole.
Feelings Playbook
As parents of actual kids we know there’s no such thing as a gendered feeling and that these stereotypes are complete nonsense, but once you begin to notice it, the gendering of feelings is everywhere. Our GEC Feelings Playbook is a guide to help you be aware of the gendering of feelings and how to counter them. These can also be shared with your parents and carers as well as teaching and support staff so please do share the love!
GEC Platform
The GEC Platform gives you the tools you need to understand your gender equality through our unique award-winning and academically tested surveys and data reporting. Looking at the whole school community we can provide the insight you need to make informed decisions about (intersectional) gender equality in your unique setting. Hear more from our founder and access a virtual demo.
GEC Library
Members of the GEC can access 30 days worth of CPD for teacher training, support for staff, and lots more in our ‘Netflix’ style training library. Our Library in the GEC Platform includes intelligence on everything from the gender pay gap and flexible working to all things gender equality for your staff, students and families. Find out more.
Associated lesson resources
Common Sense Media (including trailer, images and children & parent reviews)
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