Birkenstocks Hold a Surprising Meaning in the Barbie Movie—Grab Your Own ASAP
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The year’s most highly-anticipated movie of the year officially hit theaters today. While buzz surrounding the Barbie movie has been at the center of social media since the trailers debut, nothing quite beats the Internet’s reactions to the film post-release. Namely, people have had a lot to say about the appearance of Birkenstocks.
The shoe has long been a topic of conversation in the fashion world. Dubbed the shoe of “hipsters” and “crunchy granola” folks, fun has been poked at the shoe design far longer than you might think—just take a look at this 2006 article in The New York Times titled Thank You For Insulting Our Sandals.
Therefore, it’s not totally surprising people had something to say about this very purposeful placement in the most popular movie of 2023. Greta Gerwig knew what she was doing when she used the shoe to make a larger point about Barbie’s seemingly existential crisis, though.
You don’t have to have seen the movie yet to grasp the reasoning (no spoilers here.) Kate Mckinnon’s character holds a Birkenstock (namely, the Arizona Sandal) in one hand and a pink stiletto in the other during one of the trailers, in which she asks Barbie to choose between them (and roughly, between the world as she’s known it and the other “real” world, less traveled.) While I’ve yet to see the full film, talk is ablaze of how this relates to feminism, objectification and the long-standing dilemma of choosing between comfort and glamour.
As I have garnered from those who have been able to secure seats to see the Barbie movie, all is well that ends well. Barbie seems to merge both ideas into one cutesy pair of pink Birkenstocks, proving you can have the best of both worlds.
We’re expecting Birkenstocks to fly off the shelves from here on out, so here’s some places you can grab your own before they’re OOS for the foreseeable future, including some pink pairs.
Oita Sandal
Arizona Canvas Slide Sandal
