The Barbenheimer Event — Nicole Sallak Anderson

A few days ago, my husband and I decided to partake in the pop culture event of Barbenheimer. We put on our black and pink and spent the day in the movie theater, first watching Oppenheimer, then taking a break to eat, followed by Barbie. Even on a Wednesday afternoon, the theaters were packed, which of itself is a phenomenon.

I’ve been thinking a lot about each because both movies hit me hard and probably not for the reasons one would think. I’m not going to give a review, per se, and while I think one of these is a much better movie than the other, I loved both equally, and that in itself might be quite unusual.

There are debates online about how Barbie hates on men or Oppenheimer is a man-o-sphere movie that leaves out the Japanese, but to get embroiled in such moral posturing is to miss out on the messages both have to offer, not merely about our world, but about the way in which we see ourselves as individuals. As Kitty Oppenheimer says to her husband in one scene, “The world is changing. Reforming. This is your moment.”

She might as well have been saying this to each one of us.

My Own Barbie World

I want to share with you my playroom growing up. Imagine the fourth bedroom in the house, one wall covered in shelves filled with toys of all types, the opposite…