I’m so glad Barbie hasn’t been woke-washed: Why intelligent women are yearning to be ultra-girly like everyone’s favourite doll, says SAMANTHA BRICK

• Samantha Brick explains why she’s overjoyed Barbie hasn’t been made ‘woke’
• Read more: And the Oscar goes to… Ken?! Ryan Gosling sparks best actor buzz

Step into the wonderland that is my office and it’ll take you all of one second to guess that my favourite colour is pink. Yes I am writing this from a rose coloured up-cycled shabby chic desk. Overhead is a pink lampshade. To my right is a rose quartz crystal – for the woo-woo uninitiated it’s baby pink and promotes unconditional love. The colour makes me happy and given I spend rather a lot of time here that’s no bad thing.

Even though I’m 52 pink is a colour I’ve always loved. It screams Girly, Feminine, Other. Three words that can also describe Barbie. Yes she is stick thin, big boobed and blonde. So what? She was and always will be a gloriously plastic and frothily fun toy that millions of girls of all ages and generations gravitate towards because we get to live out our very best lives through her.

That’s why, having seen the trailer, I am even more #TeamBarbie.

Let’s be clear this isn’t one of those worthy films usually made by overweight middle-aged blokes who wang on about their art.

Barbie is to millennials and Gen Z-ers – lucky things! – what Legally Blonde was for Gen X-ers such as yours truly.

Samantha Brick explains why she’s overjoyed Barbie hasn’t been made ‘woke’ – as she says the franchise is all about ‘escapism, fun and happiness’ 

Meanwhile she also said she feels pleased the aesthetically pleasing leads – Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling – haven’t been cast by a box ticking exercise

It amazes me in this day and age that we still need to challenge the stereotype that a woman who wears pink is obviously one lipstick short of a makeup bag.

The Barbie philosophy is about escapism, fun and happiness. Something in short supply in the world of 2023.

Little wonder then that TikTok has a Barbie filter (try it!) and dozens of Barbie hashtags. I’m not the only one spending hours watching the Barbie dance tutorials either. This summer ‘Barbie’ isn’t about putting dodgy ultra-processed foods on an outdoor griddle it’s about shimmying into something pink, adding an extra slash of sparkly gloss and embracing your inner feminine icon.

Don’t believe me? On TikTok the Barbie hashtag has had 43.6 billion views, Barbie challenge 948.5milion views. The Barbie Movie 2.1billion views. Like me, millions of young women subscribe to the positive and upbeat vibe that is Barbie’s World. Women of all ages, shapes and ethnicities are having fun embracing their inner Barbie.

Unsurprisingly the challenge is simple – involving oodles of pink, bucket loads of glitter, tubes of lippy and a lot of ultra-feminine clothes.

Yes they can indulge in this on their socials but can they do it in real life? I don’t think so.

They’d get shot down by the wokerati.

We live in a grindingly dull age of wokeness. No one gets to be their authentic selves for fear of being cancelled.

I, of course, have been that outlier, that woman who has always worn what she bl**dy well likes. For decades I was that friend at the wedding or that boss in the office dressed in a Pepto-Bismol pink dress or suited in hot fuchsia. I know people tittered behind my back but did I care? Nope.

‘God I looked great that day’: Samantha revealed for her first wedding she got married in a pink sheath floor length dress and called herself a ‘walking-talking Barbie’ 

Samantha said she feels ‘thankful’ the upcoming Barbie film has embraced the true girliness and fun of the franchise and hasn’t been woke washed 

It can only explain why for my first wedding I got married in a pink sheath floor length dress – god I looked great on the day. Hair blonde and just the right side of frou frou. I was a walking-talking Barbie bride for the day.

As for the film of course it took a female combo to get Barbie onto our big screens – luuvie’s favourite feminist director Greta Gerwig and the genius Margot Robbie. It’s no surprise to me that during the making of the film there was reputed to be a worldwide shortage of pink paint. Because their mantra was clearly go pink or go home.

Thankfully it hasn’t been woke washed and the aesthetically pleasing leads – Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling – haven’t been cast by a box ticking exercise.

Yet I have no doubt the usual suspects are getting ready to rip Barbie to shreds.

We all know the tub-thumping body positive movement types who will moan that Barbie is – gasp! – tall, blonde and thin.

Of course those same killjoys will honk on about how being fluffy and pink is demeaning – but demeaning to who exactly?

If they are looking for a radical feminist manifesto that they are in the wrong movie screening.

Yes she has distorted body measurements. Guilty she represents a glorious hyper-femininity. Did anyone bring the flipside of this argument up with all those yawningly boring superhero films and how far removed the main characters are from most Dad-bod sporting blokes? No – because it’s fantasy. While Barbie is frothy fantasy for us girls.

On my Twitter timeline women are already discussing what they’re going to wear to see the film.

These are smart women who will no doubt have to – yet again! – sweetly punch through the misconception that women are thickos when they love anything girly.

Barbie definitely isn’t a kid’s film. It’s a nostalgic bathe in a time of our lives when Barbie gave us permission to be whoever we wanted to be.

You see many of us women today buying our ticket to see the film are working in boardrooms, running companies, handling six figure budgets – but in our childhood we spent hours playing with our Barbie dolls. We want to remember that world we created. I have no shame in admitting I still played with mine into my teens.

The inevitable negative hoo-ha over the forthcoming days will be because there is nothing more threatening to a male-run world than overtly feminine women who love outrageously girly attire in bright colours. We’re not supposed to shine and if we do we’re definitely not supposed to have a brain. We’re not allowed to dress our figures the way we’d like to and if we do we’re labelled a bimbo. Isn’t it insane?

If God is a woman then of course Barbie the movie should sweep the Oscars. It goes without saying that ‘Barbie Bimbo’ Margot Robbie should absolutely collect her award in pink heels, a heart-attack inducing short dress and with streams of frothy blonde hair.

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