For some women in China, “Barbie” is more than just a movie — it’s also a litmus test for their partner’s views on feminism and patriarchy.
The movie has prompted intense social media discussion online, media outlets Sixth Tone and the China Project reported this week, prompting women to discuss their own dating experiences.
One user on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu — a photo-sharing site similar to Instagram that’s mostly used by Gen Z women — even shared a guide on Monday for how women can test their boyfriends based on their reaction to the film.
According to the guide, if a man shows hatred for “Barbie” and slams female directors after they leave the theatre, then this man is “stingy” and a “toxic chauvinist,” according to Insider’s translation of the post. Conversely, if a man understands even half of the movie’s themes, “then he is likely a normal guy with normal values and stable emotions,” the user wrote.
The fact that it’s mis-defined or used as a pejorative does not invalidate its definition nor mean it can’t be used as a descriptor of a film. It’s literally an adjective.
True but dictionaries (at least for English) are descriptivist, so they can only describe how a word is used. The definitions, especially the second one, are so broad due to how much the word is misused.
But your right that I probably shouldn’t have said it has no definition.
“aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”
Seems like a seller definition to me. I think it’s nice a dictionaries often provide samples for how the word should be used, but they always have the actual definition of it above that section.
