Girls Like Girl Stuff

How the success of 'Wicked' and 'Barbie' speak to Hollywood's horrible hubris and hopeful course correction

The numbers are in and the musical ‘Wicked’ is proving to be a bonafide hit. The Broadway-musical-turned-live-action-film is a reimagined prequel to the classic story ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and stars pop princess Ariana Grande and Broadway maven Cynthia Erivo. Despite a few press hiccups after some woke fuss from Erivo, the film is on its way to crossing the billion dollar mark, and has spawned a gigantic marketing campaign that includes dolls, costumes, make-up and more.

‘Wicked’ at Starbucks

‘Wicked’ bricks

The success of this film is reminiscent of another recent surprise blockbuster, ‘Barbie’. That movie came out of nowhere to capture the national psyche and the awards season. Many popular male conservative commentators excoriated the toy-based fantasy as hyper-feminist and woke. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro even went so far as to set a Barbie doll on fire while proclaiming his hatred for the movie. Shapiro, and others like him, could not understand the massive success of ‘Barbie’. Given the feminist themes throughout, there seemed to be an idea this movie would suffer the same fate as every other movie that puts message above story. It seemed like it should flop, but we all know how that turned out.

The ‘Barbie’ critics failed to see what the massive success of ‘Wicked’ has confirmed - girls will be girls and boys will be boys. In service of the Church of Woke, Hollywood has decided over the last decade to retrofit consumer tastes. Toxic masculinity and weak femininity were out. Girl bosses and boys in makeup were in.

From their carefully insulated bubbles, perched high on the hilltops of the Hollywood Hills and rooftops of New York City skyscrapers, the “tastemakers” decided the only reason girls didn’t go to superhero movies is because there aren’t enough tough girls in the movies. The only reason boys don’t flock to female superheroes is because they’ve never seen a cool, tough girl. All they would have to do is swap out the gender of our favorite characters and Bobs-your-uncle! Americans will swarm to the Girl Boss and never notice the difference!

Of course, Americans did notice the difference. They noticed the only heroic qualities given their leads was their gender. They noticed the stories that moved their souls and inspired their imaginations had been replaced with hollow morality tales, boosted by endless lecturing monologues and oppression fantasies. They noticed their male heroes becoming more vulnerable and their female heroes becoming more stoic and it was unappealing enough to keep the average movie-goer from rewarding the message brokers.

‘Barbie’ did have some modern feminist messaging in it, as I’m sure ‘Wicked’ does too, but what the Shapiro’s of the world don’t understand, and what Hollywood is hopefully beginning to rediscover, is these movies are successful because they are unapologetically gendered…unapologetically female.

In a world in which young women are having their trophies and awards robbed by men posing as women, and the sacredness and safety of women’s spaces is invaded daily; in a world in which a woman who expresses discomfort at sharing private spaces with biological males is labeled a bigot and told to shut up - to be offered a movie that is so blatantly and boldly girly feels like a splash of cold water to the face.

‘Barbie’ is for girls. It is about girls. It is about the things girls like. It is about the things girls think. Not boys who wish to be girls. Not boys who like other boys. Not even girls who like other girls. There are no surprises for us, no lectures about inclusivity, no men telling us what it means to be a woman. It’s girl stuff for girls, and Americans were so starved for it, the film was catapulted into the annals of history.

Likewise, ‘Oppenheimer’ (while widely adored) was particularly appealing to men. As it turns out, men think a lot about things like war and weapons and destroying humanity. They will pay money to be entertained with moving images of such things. No makeup needed. No drag queens necessary. That very nuanced movie traded on a very simple concept - story matters.

The success of ‘Wicked’ should drive this point home for Hollywood once and for all. Girls don’t need to see women on screen cosplaying as men. Men don’t need to see strong girl-bosses to cure them of their toxic masculinity and separate them from their wallets. What moves audiences are stories that appeal to them.

And yes, often there is crossover. Plenty of girls love Captain America, plenty of boys love Princess Leia. When a story is compelling, audiences don’t break along identity lines.

Hollywood has been infected with the virus of identity politics. They expect the rest of us to divide our hopes and dreams and loves into categories, the same way they do. The beauty of art is that it is transcendent. It may be birthed in category, but true art flourishes and blossoms. It bursts through boundaries and borders and builds a coalition of dreamers.

Entertainment consumers want to see things that interest them. They do not want to be told what should interest them, and that’s what Hollywood has been doing to us for the better part of a horrid decade in the arts now.

Movies like Wicked and Barbie should be harbingers of the direction Hollywood plans to take in the near future. If this past election cycle is any indication, now is as good a time as ever to shift gears and listen to the people.

The people have spoken and they don’t want pandering…they don’t want programming…they want unapologetic entertainment.

Before I let you go…if you are in the mood for pure, cheesy entertainment this Christmas season, subscribe to A Very Merry Podcast wherever you find your audio podcasts. My co-host and I break down the very best of the cheesy Hallmark season. It’s great fun. You don’t need to be a Hallmark fan to listen. You’ll have a blast just hearing us talk about these silly (but heartwarming) films.