Activist Barbie and the Blurring Boundaries of Movements and Markets

The 2023 Barbie movie was widely received by the media as a feminist manifest, which positioned Barbie dolls as figures of emancipation. This paper explores this reception of the Barbie movie from the perspective of corporate activism. In doing so, we show how the Barbie movie 1) possesses the characteristics of corporate activism, and 2) mainstreams issues of female gender equality. More specifically, we show how the movie (a) appropriates social movement issues, and (b) mainstreams issues of female gender equality by invoking humour rather than appeal to a sense
of social justice through emotions like anger or indignation. On the basis of this, we discuss how this influences its potential as activism.