Feeling Barbie: mothers, daughters, and white feminist genealogies

In Greta Gerwig's record-breaking blockbuster Barbie , feminism is popular and popular culture is feminist: the film engenders a plethora of commentary on the (feminist) present. It deploys a narrative of feminist generations as Barbie's quest for true womanhood (a vagina!) is set in motion by a mother–daughter conflict. Our contribution critiques Barbie 's intergenerational feminist nostalgia and its sentimentalising of white feminism. We show how, despite its nods to diversity and inclusivity, Barbie reinforces Anglo feminist genealogies with a penchant for girlhood play, for biologist notions of womanhood, and for mainstream, neoliberal feminist ideas and contemporary popular feminism. The doll thus becomes a vehicle for pop culture empowerment that bolsters the heteronormative American family and the romance of matrilineal feminist relations.