Proceedings of the International Conference Entitled Language, Literary, and Cultural Studies (ICONLATERALS 2024)

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Consumerism On Popular Literature: A Postmodernism Analysis of Baudrillard in the Film Barbie (2023)

Authors
Sandra Damar Siswanti1, *
1Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
*Corresponding author. Email: sandradamarsiswanti@mail.ugm.ac.id
Corresponding Author
Sandra Damar Siswanti
Available Online 15 May 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-404-4_4How to use a DOI?
Keywords
postmodernism; consumerism; popular literature
Abstract

The world of Barbie has long been associated with consumerism. From the vast array of colorful clothing and accessories to the emphasis on physical appearance, the franchise has often mirrored and even shaped societal values around consumption. However, Barbie film 2023 by Greta Gerwig offers a potential opportunity to see a more critical perspective on this consumerist culture. The study aims to analyze the construction consumerist world that reinforces a patriarchal and toxic beauty standard for women in Barbie 2023 by Greta Gerwing. The theory used to analyze the consumerism in Barbie is Baudrillard’s theory about consumerism. The result shows that Barbie movie presents a mixed message, it empowers with its strong female lead, defying stereotypes and encouraging girls to dream big. However, it gets tangled in the consumerist web it critiques. The “Barbiecore” trend, fueled by media and social media, creates pressure to conform to unrealistic beauty standards and a materialistic lifestyle. Barbie Land itself is a hyperreal utopia, highlighting the manufactured nature of beauty ideals. Even the Barbie Dreamhouse reflects the commodification of desires, conditioning children to associate happiness with owning things. Ultimately, “Barbie” exposes the complexities of consumerism’s influence. True empowerment requires promoting self-acceptance and critical thinking alongside positive role models, a challenge the film leaves us to consider.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the International Conference Entitled Language, Literary, and Cultural Studies (ICONLATERALS 2024)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
15 May 2025
ISBN
978-2-38476-404-4
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-404-4_4How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sandra Damar Siswanti
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/05/15
TI  - Consumerism On Popular Literature: A Postmodernism Analysis of Baudrillard in the Film Barbie (2023)
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference Entitled Language, Literary, and Cultural Studies (ICONLATERALS 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 39
EP  - 48
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-404-4_4
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-404-4_4
ID  - Siswanti2025
ER  -