Kate Phillips: Why the Barbie movie almost carries the perfect feminist message

My daughter has only ever owned one Barbie.

I bought it for her when she was four years old.

After taking it out of the box, she never played with it again.

When she was six, I bought her a Barbie DVD at her request.

The interest lasted longer this time.

She watched it on and off until she was seven, then never watched it again.

That was the last I heard of Barbie. Until now.

The hype — and marketing — surrounding the Barbie movie is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

And it’s caught the interest of millions of people, including my daughter.

All of a sudden she’s become interested in Barbie again.

She’s added pink to her mainly black wardrobe, and watched every trailer known to man and even re-watched her DVD.

Then on Monday, all of her dreams came true.

We were lucky enough to see the advanced screening of the movie.

There were hundreds of people dressed in pink as far as the eye could see.

And every influencer worth their likes was there.

It was a lot of fun!

But it was everything the movie was trying (or pretending) not to be.

The movie actually had a fiercely feminist message.

It addressed tough issues women deal with on a daily basis, in a way that could be understood by young girls.

Including my daughter, which I’m grateful for.

After all these years and all the hype, Barbie had delivered the goods.

I just wish it hadn’t been wrapped up in such a big hot pink bow.