Barbie’s Provocative Pink Commentary

Alexis Azria
4 min readAug 1, 2023

How hard is it to be a woman? To be a mom? And teach our daughters that they can be anything in a society that penalizes us for our gender or our choices?

It’s challenging, and America Ferrara’s speech in Barbie details the societal expectations for women. How they should behave, look, and feel in a certain way so they don’t upset other people.

Just read the entire monologue below:

“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong.

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass. You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you

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Alexis Azria

Writer and curious creator. Passionate about work, life & social issues. Visit alexisazria.com