Gender relationships in "Barbie Girl" by Aqua

The strong use of wording throughout the text demonstrates the superiority of men over women and develops the tone of the song. Confirmations from the lyrics would the word “beg”, and the sentence “do whatever you please”, expressing women as being the more docile partner in a sensual relationship, whereas men can have complete power and dominance over every aspect of the relationship. Also, other examples such as “dress me up”, “take your time”, and “I’m your dolly” uncovers that men seem to be receiving all the gratification in the relationship where he is controlling the woman. Ken desires Barbie and Barbie is being desired. Essentially, Barbie is a doll that is being controlled by whoever is playing with it, the same way the media is controlling and influencing a lot of people in the world.

The repetition used by Aqua emphasizes the supremacy of men, progressing the diction and tone. A line that has been repeated a lot throughout the song was “Come on Barbie, let’s go party” and even though it may be an ordinary invitation to go out, in context with the rest of the song it is additional acknowledgement of Ken’s control in the situation and explains how the man is supposed to take the woman out and she is expected to just go out with him. In addition, the word “Barbie” has been repeated so many times indicating this is all just a Barbie’s world and it’s unrealistic, also it support the idea of women’s fragility as well as powerlessness in the men’s hands. Yet another example of repetition used was the line “Life in Plastic, it’s fantastic”, this line refers back to the 90’s, the age of plastic surgery where woman would change their bodies to match the ideal one. Also, surgeons would get paid millions to add “plastic” parts to women to make them look like dolls people would buy off shelves in markets. Some women have no control of their lives because of the pressure it takes to be a perfect woman and meet the men’s standards. Aqua seems to intentionally draw an overly sexual perspective of Barbie and Ken dolls. This lures a lot of attention to the problems with the dolls and the way they signify the ideal female and male body.

The visual features in the video play an important role in the understanding of the sarcasm and satire. The music video is a parody of the stereotypes Barbie and Ken figures represent. The perfect male and female do not exist in reality. The two main Barbie and Ken doll actors in the video have flaws that the models on the shelves in stores do not. Ken is bald and Barbie has a tattoo on her arm and is a brunette. She also ignores Ken at one point and listens to her headphones instead. The actors are exaggerating their facial expressions while acting and singing highlighting the tone of sarcasm. Furthermore, the setting in the video is fake and made of plastic emphasizing the purpose of the song. The colors in the video are bright, however the dominant color is pink symbolizing girls and Barbie’s. There is a point towards the end of the video where the “ideal” Barbie and Ken show up contrasting the difference between the two versions of Barbie and Ken. The video and the song as a whole is pathos, it is a rhetorical strategy where the reasoning of the argument plays upon Aqua’s emotions. This is how Aqua feels about the attitude of girls within society.

For most girls, playing with Barbie is a part of their childhood, dressing them over and over again, putting their ridiculous shoes on, taking them out for a drive in her RV, arranging the furniture in her dream home. Barbie is a cultural reminiscence for girls and the way Aqua brings up the issue of how girls and women are desperately trying to resemble a plastic doll is brilliant as it captures audiences attention as they understand the message behind this song.

Aqua demonstrates human foolishness and gender bias through literary devices. The use of tone, diction, repetition, as well as visual features help audiences understand the true meaning of this song which is the unattainable expectation for girls to look perfect and to live in a perfect world as well as human silliness through their actions and the surrendering of women to men and their need to control. This song alters human perceptions on beauty in the real world and it especially alters teenage girls perception on their own appearance as they feel the need to resemble Barbie. A girl should not have to be pressured into looking like a Barbie and neither should she feel the need to be fake to look perfect, as everyone is perfectly imperfect in their own way.