FLME 100: Intro to Film and Media Arts: Exploring Barbie

This research, using an extensive sample of mass-produced dressing-up costumes aimed at pre-school and infant school girls, examines the breadth (and narrowness) of imaginative roles available on the high street. Utilising object-based methods of analysis alongside theories of performativity, childhood, consumption and gender acquisition, this article explores how gender is produced on the body through the performance of clothing. Despite the designation of imagination and play as 'natural' states of a 'natural' child, the penetration of the commercial dressing-up costume market into these realms promotes a legitimation of stereotypical gender and creates restrictions on the possible imaginative identities available for girls. Tackling issues of 'knowingness' and agency, this article argues that the extent to which young children can imaginatively and playfully engage with material culture is necessarily limited by the reinforcement of cultural scripts and brand narratives literally woven into the fabric of the clothes that they are given.

The article discusses the cultural significance of Barbie, particularly in Greta Gerwig's recent film adaptation, highlighting how it addresses themes of feminist ideologies past and present, consumerism, and the evolving role of women in society. Topics include Barbie's symbolic flexibility, the film's exploration of feminist contradictions and its portrayal of feminism in Barbieland, and the ideological interpretations it has elicited.

"Reinventing Barbie" was a workshop for middle-school girls to discuss, critique, and reflect on the construction of female bodies and feminine identities in popular culture by remaking Barbie dolls. The workshop was designed to foster conversations with and among girls about what it means to be embodied as female in American culture. The girls reconstructed Barbies based on their reflections, and then they came together to discuss their dolls as expressions of their visions for transforming the feminine. The article analyzes the collaborative process of the workshop, which was grounded in women's studies scholarship and developed by an interdisciplinary group of feminist academics.

What Is Greta Gerwig Trying to Tell Us? From Barnard to Barbie, the director has always been interested in female ambition, including her own Since most of us have seenLady Bird, I guess we're meant to applythe Greta Gerwig Cinematic Universeshorthand here.) The setup: Barbie returnsto Barbie Land a broken doll. Look past the muddled feminism andthe pro forma blockbuster car-chase sceneand Barbie still feels laden with Gerwig'smain considerations. [Extracted from the article]

Product placement in film and television is examined as a growing force in transmitting brand messages to hard-to-reach consumers-especially teens and young adults who use new technologies to tune out commercials. Although many scholars have scrutinized product placement's cognitive effects on mass media audiences - and critiqued impacts of consumer culture - few have examined how marketers apply classical conditioning theory. Interviews were conducted with global brand managers who have placed their brands in blockbuster films and highly rated television programs in recent years. Initial findings suggest that marketers predict increased attention to product placement and a redefinition of advertising space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses business strategy lessons from the popular "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" films in 2023. Topics covered include the "Barbie" film's display of the importance of identifying opportunities to reinvigorate an established brand for new audiences while maintaining core values, and the "Oppenheimer" film's depiction of navigating moral dilemmas and the significance of collaboration in achieving ambitious goals. Also noted are both films' demonstration of calculated risk taking.

Product placements now saturate motion pictures and television, but the practice began long before E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial followed a trail of Reese's Pieces out of the woods. Using internal documents from motion picture studios, advertising agencies, television networks, and public relations firms, this study traces the development of product placement from its beginnings in the Lumiere films of the 1890s through the 1982 success of E.T. and Reese's Pieces. The developmental differences between product placement in motion pictures and television, and the repercussions of those differences on current practice, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]