Vantage | Is the Oscar snub for Barbie about women or money?

It is that time of the year again when everyone is talking about the Oscars. The nominations are in for this prestigious award. But all that people are talking about are those who are not nominated. It is being called the Great Oscar Snub, and it is about the Barbie movie.

One of the biggest hits of 2023, Barbie earned over a billion dollars at the box office, and it had two women at its helm: Greta Gerwig as the director and Margot Robbie as the lead actor.

Yet, both of them haven’t been nominated for the respective categories. But Ryan Gosling from Barbie has been nominated for best supporting actor.

So the movie is about dismantling patriarchy, yet a man is nominated for an Oscar. Is the Oscar snub just another snub for women? Or has it got to do with its dislike for commercial successes?

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“Doesn’t matter what I do; I will always be number two.” Those are lyrics from the song “I’m Just Ken” a song that Ryan Gosling sang in Barbie, that rings true today. The Oscar nominations are in, and Barbie has been given the big snub.

Let’s look at some facts about the movie first: Barbie was released on July 21, 2023. It has since become a pop-culture phenomenon. The wave of pink took over the world and also the box office, raking in more than $1 billion. What is more, it was helmed by a female director, Greta Gerwig. The lead actor was Margot Robbie. But Barbie wasn’t just a movie about dolls.

It was about dismantling patriarchy. It was about women and celebrating them. But that did not seem enough for the Academy Awards.

Barbie got eight Oscar nominations. There was the best picture, the best supporting actor (female), the best supporting actor (male), the best producer, etc. Yet, no nominations for best director or best actor came for Barbie. Even Ryan Gosling raised this.

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Ryan Gosling has released a statement about his disappointment that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig didn’t get #Oscar nominations.

“There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig & Margot Robbie… No recognition would be possible for anyone on… pic.twitter.com/m3IAqcm3tX

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 23, 2024

He said, “There’s no Ken without Barbie.” And there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie. The nomination news led to an uproar on social media.

Celebrities call it a snub. Fans slammed the Academy Awards. Some called it “the literal plot of Barbie.” But there was another side too.

People argued that it is in line with the choices the Academy Awards make. And other women had been nominated.

Historically, the Academy Awards have never liked commercial successes. The Jaws did not get an Oscar nomination, nor did Leonardo DiCaprio for Titanic. So it wasn’t a surprise that Barbie was snubbed. Many expected it, plus, the Oscars rarely nominate comedic performances. So maybe that is why Margot Robbie missed out.

But the point here is that Barbie isn’t just a commercial success; it was much more than that; it was a billion-dollar movie, but it was also a cultural statement. It was a movie about a doll, but it also had a social message. That made it a one-of-a-kind phenomenon, and the Academy Awards could have recognised that.

After all, sexism in Hollywood is not new. In 2017, out of the top 250 films, 88 per cent had no female directors. As much as 83 per cent had no female writers, and around 96 per cent had no female cinematographers.

In the top movies of 2018, women protagonists were four times more likely than men to be shown naked.

As many as 94 per cent of women in Hollywood experience sexual harassment or assault. Plus, the Academy Awards don’t have a great track record either. They may have snubbed commercial successes, but they have snubbed women too.

In 1977, Lina Wertmuller became the first woman to be nominated for best director. It was 48 years after the Academy Awards started. Even then, she did not win. The first win for a female director came in 2010. It was Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker.” Only three women in Oscar history have won the award for best director. Kathryn Bigelow, Chloé Zhao, and Jane Campion.

So the Oscars may not have liked Barbie. Many academy members called it a “movie about a toy”. But what they got wrong here is the optics. The Oscars had an opportunity here. To correct historic wrongs. To give commercially successful movies a chance. But it looks like they missed the cue here. So while Barbie was ready to party, the Oscars cancelled it.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._

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