{"id":44352,"date":"2024-01-23T18:23:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T17:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1966197"},"modified":"2024-01-23T20:22:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T19:22:38","slug":"an-oscar-nod-for-ryan-gosling-and-not-margot-robbie-misses-the-point-of-barbie","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/an-oscar-nod-for-ryan-gosling-and-not-margot-robbie-misses-the-point-of-barbie\/","title":{"rendered":"An Oscar nod for Ryan Gosling and not Margot Robbie misses the point of Barbie"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Academy Award nominations were announced today, with one very controversial snub. <\/p>

By Chezelle Bingham\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 23 January 2024 at 17:23 PM<\/p>

\n\n

The 2024 Oscar nominees are finally here \u2013 and Annette Bening, Lily Gladstone, Sandra H\u00fcller, Carey Mulligan and Emma Stone are all up for Best Actress in a Motion Picture. A deserved line-up, to say the least.<\/p>\n

And yet, there is no sign of Margot Robbie.<\/p>\n

Margot Robbie, who is one of the most celebrated actresses of the decade; Margot Robbie, who the Academy already controversially snubbed last year for her magnificent performance in Babylon; Margot Robbie, whose display in Greta Gerwig\u2019s blockbuster Barbie<\/a> made every confused little girl, angsty teenager and tired woman around the world realise that the way they feel is okay.<\/p>\n

\u201cMargot Robbie doesn\u2019t deserve an Oscar for playing a plastic doll with big boobs,\u201d some people, including this year\u2019s Golden Globe host Jo Koy, are probably desperate<\/em> to argue, and perhaps I might be naive to argue back that Barbie was the most serious of contenders, especially when we compare it to the Oscar-baiting likes of Oppenheimer<\/a> or Bradley Cooper\u2019s Maestro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But if you scroll just that little further down the list of nominees, you\u2019ll realise that just beyond Robbie\u2019s omission is a second name \u2013 one that all fans of Barbie will recognise: Ryan Gosling.<\/p>

Ryan Gosling, who played Barbie\u2019s overbearing and occasionally villainous counterpart, Ken.<\/p>\n

If the Academy want to argue that Robbie was undeserving of an Oscar nod for reasons unbeknownst to me, then how can they argue that Gosling, who did little more than dress up in a faux fur coat, claim his job is \u201cbeach\u201d and sing a somewhat unnecessary, and more than a little bit lifeless, musical number, deserves the accolade instead?<\/p>\n

Now, I am by no means arguing that Margot Robbie should have 100 per cent, definitively won the Oscar \u2013 in fact, I think the wonderfully unique performance of Emma Stone in Poor Things and the tragic sincerity of Lily Gladstone\u2019s Mollie Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon are equally, if not more, fitting for the award \u2013 but by completely erasing Robbie\u2019s portrayal of Barbie and placing her male co-star in the limelight, it feels like something of a smack in the face, especially when we think back to the fundamental point of Barbie.<\/p>\n

\"Margot\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Margot Robbie in Barbie.<\/span><\/figcaption> Warner Bros Pictures<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

When Robbie\u2019s Barbie left her idyllic home in Barbieland and travelled to the real world, we saw the harsh realities of what it\u2019s like to be a woman in society. Barbie is groped. Barbie is harassed. Barbie becomes, like so many, the victim of misogyny.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real world is forever and irrevocably messed up,\u201d she tragically comes to learn, and by God, is she correct.<\/p>\n

This is only further highlighted when Ken discovers modern-day patriarchy. And while, yes, he does initially believe it to be a concept mostly concerning horses and guitars, upon his return to Barbieland, he establishes his own version of the ideology to some unfortunate consequences.<\/p>\n

He takes over Barbie\u2019s house. He takes over her job. He takes over her identity and, for a while, she becomes indoctrinated by his ideas.<\/p>\n

\"Ken\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie star in Barbie.<\/span><\/figcaption> Jaap Buitendijk\/Warner Bros<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

It\u2019s only later, after America Ferrera\u2019s Gloria gives an incredibly poignant speech to the now broken Barbie, and the rest of the plastic doll community manage to, for lack of a better word, \u2018overthrow\u2019 the Kens, that we are reminded that women can do exactly what men can do.<\/p>\n

Women can thrive. Women are important. Women don\u2019t deserve to be left in the cold. And yet, it appears that the Academy have, ironically, entirely missed that point.<\/p>\n

Just like how Ken usurped Barbie, the Academy has allowed Gosling to overthrow Robbie. But, unlike in Barbie, there\u2019s nobody to save the day this time, even if America Ferrera somehow manages to pick up that award for Best Supporting Actress over Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph.<\/p>\n

Margot Robbie deserved that Oscar nod, and it\u2019s a crying shame that the Academy have refused to acknowledge that.<\/p>