Barbie lets America Ferrera be a geek we never see in movies

Every character in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie The film is perfect in every way. The dolls — Stereotypical Barbie, Beach Ken, and dorky Allan, among others — steal the spotlight, but Gerwig considers her human characters, the ones who give these toys ideas and conflicts, too. There’s the goofy Mattel CEO (Will Ferrell) and abrasive teenager Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt).

The one that really resonated with me was America Ferrera’s Gloria, the kind of dork we never see in movies.

[Ed. note: This post contains some slight spoilers for Barbie.]

Warner Bros. Pictures

Halfway through the movie, Gloria reveals herself as the one who played with the doll version of Margot Robbie’s Barbie — not her daughter, Sasha. Gloria, the woman with complex views on womenhood, is the person who gave Barbie thoughts of death and imagined how her dolls would cope with the complexity of life. Highlighting this facet of being a woman is already fascinating, but the facet of Gloria’s personality that really set her apart to me is that she is actually a super-duper huge geek — and isn’t ashamed of it in the slightest.

Yes, Gloria is a mother, but she’s also a Barbie nerd. She’s a Barbie expert and has even drawn her own Barbies. (This is how Stereotypical Barbie gets her existential crisis. Gloria goes into Barbieland and is completely enthralled by every detail. She loves the old dolls as well as the unique outfits. It’s a thoroughly refreshing portrayal of what it means to be nerdy — one that’s a long time coming.

We’ve come a long way from The Big Bang Theory, where a very common punchline would literally be “and then a girl walks into a comic book store.” But the typical notion of what constitutes a geeky pastime is still very much focused on the same sort of (stereotypically male-dominated) passions, like science fiction movies, superheroes, and video games.

I’m not saying that girls don’t enjoy these nerdy hobbies — they can, they should, and we should get those characters on screen, too. (Finally, a girl played Dungeons & Dragons in the last Stranger Things season!) When female characters in movies or TV were geeks for a while, it was usually because they had male-dominated hobbies. Which is FineThe results are not representative of all hobbies or how they’re enjoyed by people.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The world is evolving with characters such as Euphoria’s Kat, who writes smutty One Direction fanfiction, or the girls of Turning red, They squeal at boy bands and devour vampire novels. And they draw cringe-worthy fan art. Ferrera’s Gloria marks a refreshing take on the nerdy female character. She’s not a teenager, and not only is she a mother with hobbies and passions, they’re both intertwined with and extend beyond the complicated relationship she has with her daughter. And the thing she’s geeking out about (namely Barbie) is something that rarely, if ever, is seen through a nerdy lens.

Barbie is not a traditional geeky subject. It’s pink, sparkly and unabashedly feminine. But the dolls are big collectors’ items, like Legos or Gundam figures, and the toy line has a long and fascinating history. That’s not even mentioning the whole expansive world of lore across movies, TV, and more that could give the Transformers universe a run for its money. Being deeply invested in Barbie is actually a really geeky thing; Gerwig fully indulges in that passion, not just the toy’s legacy.

From a personal point of view, it’s just really nice to see an older woman be super passionate about her interests. Considering the toxic fandom viewpoint that women over 25 have aged out of hobbies, it’s validating to see an older woman — and at 39, America Ferrera isn’t even old — express geeky passion. And it’s especially validating when it’s a hobby that doesn’t traditionally fit into a geeky box. I spent a lot of my adolescence being told by gatekeeping dudes that my interests weren’t good enough while also simultaneously being shut out of the stuff that You can learn more about it here geeky enough because I didn’t do it the right way. As the biggest movie of the year is about a woman that obsesses over Barbie dolls I am able to smile and close my eye in contentment.

BarbieNow in theatres.