Just like Barbie, Karen also has a famous male counterpart in her life — her brother, Richard, who is actually portrayed by a Ken doll in “Superstar.” After Ken goes to the real world and learns about the patriarchy, he too seeks to control Barbie and flip the scales of power in Barbieland after being outshined by Barbie for so long. Like Ken, Karen’s older brother took a reluctant backseat to Karen’s shining stardom, even though he was the first musician in the family. His attempts to control Karen, albeit well-intentioned, contributed to her mental decline.
Even though both Ken and Richard represent oppressive forces for Barbie and Karen, they aren’t straightforward villains. Richard struggles with addiction to quaaludes during most of Karen’s illness and generally tries his best to look out for her. His addiction sadly makes him look hypocritical when he tries to confront his sister about her health problems.
“I love the part in ‘Superstar’ when Karen turns around and she says, ‘I am sick, Richard,'” Haynes recalled, “and he says, ‘What do you mean sick, mentally?’ And he looks so much sicker than she does.”
While Ken’s intentions aren’t quite so pure, his motivations for trying to oppress Barbie are even more understandable than Richard’s. He and his fellow Kens had been put down and pushed around for years, which complicates the feminist message of the movie a bit. “Barbie” suggests that “any kind of hierarchical power structure that moves in any direction isn’t so great,” Gerwig clarified to Rolling Stone.
These two wildly different “Barbie” movies deliver a nuanced feminist message about bodily autonomy while questioning the human relationship to dolls in general. Instead of simply criticizing Barbie for negatively shaping women’s beauty ideals, “Superstar” and “Barbie” alike both ask — why does a plastic doll have that kind of power?