As an avid fan of Barbie, I was absolutely delighted by Greta Gerwig’s 2023 film Barbie. The attention to detail in Barbieland, from the movement of the Barbie dolls in their DreamHouses to the costumes representing actual dolls, truly celebrates the joys of girlhood play. However, there is one small detail that has been bothering me. What about the Horse Girls?! [Ed. note: This post contains significant spoilers for 2023’s live-action Barbie.]
Early on in the movie, Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) discovers that while Barbies rule in Barbieland, the real world is dominated by patriarchy. Midway through the film, he brings this knowledge back to Barbieland and imposes a comically exaggerated macho regime, transforming Barbie’s DreamHouse into “Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House.” All the Barbies are stripped of their cool jobs and are made to focus solely on serving the Kens cold drinks. There are some amusing scenes where the Kens mansplain The Godfather and play the guitar towards their Barbie girlfriends instead of for them. It’s a brilliantly exaggerated depiction of the hyper-masculine world of Ken-dom, with one notable exception – the horses!
After seeing police officers on horseback in Venice Beach, Ken decides that horses symbolize masculinity. Consequently, the macho motif of Ken-dom involves horse-themed decor, hobby horses for each Ken, and endless videos of stallions and mustangs racing and rearing in the background. While cowboys may be associated with masculinity, Horse Girls have always been an integral part of childhood play for girls. It feels absurd that these animals are immediately labeled as symbols of masculinity. Where are the Equestrian Barbies in Barbieland? What about the unicorns and horses with flowing white manes and pink streaks, ready to trample the manly Ken herds with their sparkly hooves? Justice for the Horse Girls!
It’s not as if Ken has any particular history with horses as a doll. There have been numerous Barbie horses, usually packaged with Barbie or her female friends. In the animated movies, Barbie has had various horses, from magical unicorns to regular horses. (Remember when her older sister was transformed into a pegasus in 2005’s Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus?) On the other hand, Ken dolls only get horses when their Barbie counterparts have them thematically. In 1982, there was a Horse Lovin’ Ken, but he was simply there to complete the Horse Lovin’ Barbie and Skipper dolls.
Of course, it’s worth noting that the term “Horse Girl” is not limited by gender. It’s more of a mindset, a passion for horses that doesn’t need to be gendered. Towards the end of Barbie, even Ken himself admits that he lost interest in the patriarchy when he realized it wasn’t all about horses. The fact that horses play such a central role in his understanding of masculinity indicates that he doesn’t truly comprehend patriarchy and that it was never going to solve his real issues.
The absence of Horse Girls in the original Barbieland doesn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the film, where Gerwig and the other filmmakers clearly celebrate femininity and the joys of girlhood. In fact, perhaps the seemingly out-of-place horse association in the movie hints at what the future holds for Barbieland. After all, when the movie concludes, Ken acknowledges that he needs to discover his own identity separate from Barbie. But the answer is right there: Ken is a Horse Girl. He simply needs to embrace that identity. Soon, hoards of plastic horses will arrive in Barbieland, allowing Kens and Barbies alike to let their inner Horse Girls roam freely into the sunset.