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cover of episode From Critics at Large: The Year of the Doll

From Critics at Large: The Year of the Doll

2023/12/26
logo of podcast The New Yorker Radio Hour

The New Yorker Radio Hour

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A
Alexandra Schwartz
N
Naomi Fry
V
Vincent Cunningham
三位主持人
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Vincent Cunningham:2023年是玩偶年,许多文化作品都展现了女性从被禁锢的状态中挣脱,走向自我发现的旅程。他认为《芭比》电影的流行并非源于其革命性的政治观点,而是因为它在两个层面都具有吸引力:既有精妙的叙事技巧,又反映了现代女性的困境。他特别指出,电影中America Ferrera的角色阐述了现代女性面临的矛盾困境:既要符合社会对女性的期待,又要争取自身的权利和独立。 Alex Schwartz:她认为《芭比》塑造了“玩偶”形象:一个美丽、生活优渥的白人女性,但她必须离开舒适区,了解现实世界中女性的困境。在讨论《悲惨世界》时,她指出电影探讨了“玩偶”的归属问题,以及女性的性自主如何成为其解放的途径。 Naomi Fry:她认为《悲惨世界》与《芭比》类似,都讲述了一个类似玩偶的女性角色进入现实世界,发现事情比想象中复杂的故事。她还分析了《普丽西拉》和《客人》这两部作品,指出它们都展现了女性在被禁锢的状态下挣扎求生的故事,以及她们最终获得自由或自我救赎的过程。她认为,2023年玩偶主题的流行可能与堕胎权被推翻后女性自主权受到冲击有关。她还探讨了“玩偶”主题作品中关于自主和个体性的观念,以及女性团结起来争取自身权利的重要性。她认为,这些作品以娱乐的方式探讨了关乎人们生活的重要议题。

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The episode explores how 2023 became 'the year of the doll,' tracing the trope from 'Barbie' to other cultural products, discussing how ideas about whiteness, beauty, and women's bodily autonomy inform these works.

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This bonus episode comes from The New Yorker’s Critics at Large) podcast.

In the highest-grossing movie of 2023, Barbie, a literal doll, leaves the comforts of Barbieland and ventures into real-world Los Angeles, where she discovers the myriad difficulties of modern womanhood. This arc from cosseted naïveté to feminist awakening is a narrative through line that connects some of the biggest cultural products of the year. In this episode, the staff writers Vinson Cunningham), Naomi Fry), and Alexandra Schwartz) discuss how 2023 became “the year of the doll,” tracing the trope from “Barbie” to Yorgos Lanthimos’s film “Poor Things,” whose protagonist finds self-determination through sexual agency, and beyond. In Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” a teen-age Priscilla Beaulieu lives under the thumb of Elvis at Graceland before finally breaking free, while in Emma Cline’s novel “The Guest),” the doll figure must fend for herself after the trappings of luxury fall away, revealing the precarity of her circumstances. The hosts explore how ideas about whiteness, beauty, and women’s bodily autonomy inform these works, and how the shock of political backsliding might explain why these stories struck a chord with audiences. “Most of us believed that the work of Roe v. Wade was done,” Cunningham says. “If that is a message that we could all grasp—that a step forward is not a permanent thing—I think that would be a positive thing.”