July 26, 2024 – The final scene in Barbiethe largest cinema blockbuster of last summer, lasts less than a minute. It's mainly a one-liner: Barbie walks right into a constructing, wide-eyed and beaming, and says to the receptionist, “I'm here to see my gynecologist.”
For many viewers, this sentence was the core of the film's message. But something else happened: Apparently, a surprising variety of viewers left the film with their curiosity aroused.
According to a new studypublished today within the magazine JAMA network openedThere was a 51% increase in online searches for “gynecologist” and “gynecology” within the week following publication Barbies theatrical release. There was also a 154% increase in searches for the definition of gynecologist and phrases like “Do I need a gynecologist?”
However, the precise reason for the search continues to be subject to speculation. numerous studies have shown that greater than half of girls of all ages feel anxiety, fear or embarrassment about their pelvic exams. And these emotions are in stark contrast to what they experience in Barbie.
Barbie hasn't exactly broken the glass ceiling of gynecology in Hollywood. Movies and TV shows have long featured scenes of girls making their first nervous visit to a gynecologist's office. But almost all the time they’re either played for “isn't that embarrassing?” laughs – as within the movie The first time and the sitcom I'm sorry. BarbieHowever, he took a special approach.
Eva Sénéchal, the study's lead creator and a doctoral student at McGill University in Montreal, suspects that the impact of the scene is that Barbie “takes the initiative and overcomes her fear of the unknown. While this scene doesn't necessarily make a visit to the gynecologist seem like a fun activity, it does underscore Barbie's excitement about regaining her power and, in this particular scenario, her body.”
According to Sénéchal, it's not concerning the indisputable fact that visiting the gynecologist is inherently a positive and life-affirming activity, “but rather about taking control of your own body and your own health. This helps to make this taboo subject a little less intimidating and opens the door to more discussion among young viewers or those who are unfamiliar with terms surrounding women's health.”
Greta Gerwig, BarbieThe director of The Gynecological Moment agrees that Barbie's gynecological moment was greater than just an easy laugh at her nonexistent genitals. “I remember growing up as a teenager and being ashamed of my body and being embarrassed in ways I couldn't even describe,” she told USA Today last summer.
(All the more significant since Gerwig and star Margot Robbie had to fight to keep the last line in the film.)
It was significant that Barbie faced this frightening latest world with “a big smile on her face,” Gerwig explained, “and that what she says at the end is said with such happiness and joy.” She wanted to depart young female viewers with the sensation that “Barbie does this too,” Gerwig said.
And that's exactly what she did, says Deborah Bartz, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. “As a gynecologist, I may be biased, but I think the final scene is perfect,” she says. “The film's writers knew their audience and they wrote for their audience. The adult women in the audience knew exactly what eager, naive Barbie was expecting when she went to her appointment.”
In fact, Bartz says, the positive impact may even extend beyond what the study suggests. Barbie's visit to the gynecologist was a shared popular culture moment for friends, moms, sisters and other women, a bridge to debate a subject that is never brought up on account of cultural stigma and shame.
“This is especially important because large segments of the population suffer from so many female-specific conditions – menstrual cycles and associated cyclical symptoms, pregnancy, infertility, miscarriages, contraception, menopause,” Bartz said. “A person's gynecological health is an experience that they share in their social network. But women often don't feel like they can share some of these personal medical experiences, at least not with others.”
That changes, nevertheless, after they see themselves, or at the very least the hurdles of their lives, on the massive (and sometimes small) screen. “We have a lot of women who feel very isolated and alone during times of miscarriage, infertility, abortion or diagnosis of a fetal abnormality,” Bartz said. “So when pop culture figures portrayed in movies and on television go through the same experiences, it can be very comforting and relatable.”
Even for ladies who’re well acquainted with what to anticipate in a gynecologist’s office, Bartz suspects that “the ultimate scene in Barbie is an ideal place to begin for the audience to say, 'Just wait, girl!'”