Every moment in Barbie that made my eyes cry

I like being a woman and I like women. I really couldn't imagine my life any other way, and I'm grateful every day that the gender I was assigned at birth is the one I feel in every fiber of my being. My wife is transgender and listening to her talk about how womanhood makes her happy to be alive is one of my favorite moments from our marriage. I perpetually exist in a state of the Soarse Ronan "Women -" meme from Gerwig's "Little Women", but being a woman is hard.

It's exhausting. It's painful. We have to navigate a minefield of constantly conflicting norms and expectations that are so terrible that it's amazing any of us make it through the day. So when Barbie finally felt like she had been defeated by the newly emboldened Kens and gave up, I felt it in my bones.

Barbie has been a significant presence in my life for as long as I can remember, but I don't know if I ever sat down and wondered how Barbie felt about all of this. Yes, sure, she's a toy, but she's also one of the most important women in my life. Seeing Barbie break down and cry about the weight of patriarchy being just too much to handle and feeling guilty that her mere existence could have made things worse for other women gave me the space to feel those feelings for myself.

Barbie has always been an extension of those who play with her, whether it's our fictional imaginations or a vehicle for our own feelings. Experiencing this the other way around for the first time in my life was something I wasn't prepared for and required me to cover my mouth so as not to disturb the rest of the theater with my sobbing.