Opinion
Had Barbie aged like the rest of us, here’s what she’d look like today
Briony Dow
National Ageing Research Institute directorLike most of Australia (and the world), last weekend I went to the movies. After enjoying the entertaining and surprising 90 minutes that is Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, there was one particular scene that stuck with me as I left the cinema.
When Barbie enters the real world, while sitting at a bus stop for the very first time in her perfect life she encounters an older woman. Her immediate, earnest response? “You’re so beautiful,” Barbie tells the older woman.
Had Barbie aged like the rest of us, today she would be 83 years old, giving her another 2.4 years to reach the average life expectancy for females in Australia.Credit: iStock
Having been frozen at the age of 19, Barbie has no context for what it means to age — no knowledge of the prejudices and stigmas that come with ageing in the real world. What Barbie captures in this moment is the oft-overlooked truth of the beauty in ageing.
In reality — or the real real world — the experience of growing older as a woman can mean being faced with ageist stereotypes and ways of thinking within our communities which can lead to a range of health impacts, both mental and physical.
Last year at the National Ageing Research Institute, we released the What Do Older People Want From Their Healthcare? report, which showed that older people still feel the impacts of ageism in their daily lives. Research published in 2016 found, in Australia, experiences of ageism are decreasing less for women than for men.
For example, women’s appearances continue to be more harshly scrutinised in employment settings. Older women of my acquaintance tell me that it is bad enough to be over 50, but if you are over 50 and overweight, forget your chances of getting a job.
Being forced out of the workforce and into early retirement has myriad flow-on effects, including lower incomes, assets, superannuation and poorer health, putting women at greater risk of elder abuse and homelessness.
Women aged over 55 are the fastest-growing group of Australians facing homelessness. In August 2020, the Housing for the Aged Action Group estimated that more than 240,000 women were at risk. And for women with disabilities, First Nations women and other women of colour, these risks are exacerbated.
Had Barbie aged like the rest of us, today she would be 83 years old, giving her another 2.4 years to reach the average life expectancy for women in Australia. She is likely to have had a fall or two (especially given her preference for stilettos), but unlikely to be living in aged care, as less than 10 per cent of people in her age group live in residential care. She is very likely to have caring responsibilities of her own, perhaps for her husband and grandchildren.
She may also be a musician, a dancer, an artist or writer – an ordinary woman. As Gloria, the working mother in the Barbie movie, asks: “Why can’t we just have an ‘ordinary woman’ Barbie?”
Later, I discovered that when it came time to edit the film, Gerwig faced pressure to cut that very scene that stuck with me. This does not surprise me but rather rings true to the many ways older women are overlooked and rendered invisible in our society.
But Gerwig was adamant it remain and the moment made the final cut. Her reasoning was quite simple: “It’s the heart of the movie.” Barbie, in a single scene, celebrates the wonder that is ageing and growing older – something not everyone is lucky enough to experience. (Not even the ever-aspirational Barbie.)
The older woman’s reply to Barbie’s compliment?
“I know it.”
An unwavering assuredness in her own place and value in the world. She knows it and the rest of us should know it too.
Professor Briony Dow is director of the National Ageing Research Institute.
The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.