Why Are Some Men So Afraid of Unlocking Their Kenergy?

Let me preface this piece with a very special nod to Barbenheimer, the occurrence. It was exactly the canon affair we (most of us, at least) thought it was going to be. What was once a memefied internet phenomenon has become something truly beautiful. It felt like a cultural reset, a moment in modern pop culture hertofore unheard of (not counting the movies bred by marvelization or the more troubling trend of the theme parkification/blogification of film over the years; ugh, so reductive), where cinema as an exhibition cycle was had. It's been a while since we treated these spaces like pocket galas, joyous ephemeral experiences to indulge in, to be dressed for the occasion; evidenced by the currents of pink and black ensembles that flanked us in and outside the theaters and the discourse afterward; the power of this weekend was inescapable. Going to the theater, as an act, effectively became fucking cool again. That much I can be grateful for.

Funny, really. We collectively decided that both films were going to be good before they even premiered, and we weren't disappointed. They really were. Rare are the times two marquee films debut on the same day to rapturous applause. The banners, by themselves, were just delightful. Greta Gerwig versus Christopher Nolan. Margot Robbie versus Cillian Murphy. Ryan Gosling versus RDJ. One heavyweight ensemble versus another. Quandaries of the moral and social kind. Tragedy and comedy. The existential and the commercial. The personal and the historical. Humanity and masculinity as a farce. Rarer are the times both of them live up to the hype, even racking in the moolah at the worldwide box office. Even rarer is how closely the fates of these two films were intertwined, how each's campaigns fed off of the other, how they became synonymous at a particular juncture in time. Hence, this historic, delicious spectacle. And I'm glad to say I was there to witness it.

I've just about had Kenough of this right-wing puritanical copium perpetrated by the fragile male egos hurt in this post-Barbie movie world.

Let's talk Barbie. There were a lot of storylines, but I'm here to discuss this one in particular. It's about Ken's awakening, Kendom, and demise. While everyone else was cheering for the movie, there was this specific subset of viewers, or rather opportunistic voyeurs, who shat on the film for being, as they put it, "anti-man." The patriarchy is dying. The war on men is here. Nobody wants to be a real man anymore. The wokes are at it again. Ken was a simp. Yadah. Yadah. Yadah. Oh boo-fucking-hoo, dude. Sadly, this movie isn't about your kind of filth.

Photo by Yvonne Hemsey.

I want to start off by saying that the film did a hell of a job parodying masculinity. We see it in the portrayal of Ken's feelings of emasculation. Just great writing.

In the aftermath of the great Ken revolt, for instance, we see Kens running amok in Barbieland, dressed to the nines in just guy things: Peep the four watches on Gosling's wrists, the hypebeast-y sneakers, and the sunglasses best worn indoors for better cool guy effect; dudes driving big-ass trucks and SUVs that maketh the man.

And then there were the shots at film bros and the Godfather talk ("You've never seen The Godfather?! The peak of Coppolian cinematic genius?! Come on!) or horses made to frame John Wayne-laden cowboy-ish manhood in the most campy ways imaginable. Equally hilarious, too, was the manly serenades from Kens doing their best John Mayer impersonations. Men and their man caves (the mojo dojo casa house). Men and their non-commitment (long-term long-distance low commitment casual girlfriend). Truth was served in epic, cartoonish proportions.

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The whole sequence, really, from Ken's awakening to the Kendom's revolt and end, of course, felt very real, very coded in the sense that basically, the Kens were staging their version of the January 6  US Capitol insurrection, albeit in more colorful and primitive, less treason-charged ways. We have Gosling's Ken educating the other Kens on matters of the patriarchy after main Ken's trip to the real world. There, the Kendom took back control of their masculinity, so to speak. They took back control of what was rightfully theirs: their supposed birthright being males with male privileges. Ken is supposed to be the main character. Not Barbie. 

The only difference is that Ken's arc in the movie and the story of insecure men have two different endings. For Ken, he would come to realize that he was Kenough. Kenough, because he was self-empowered enough to see that he could exist freely without the need for bringing down or "simping" for Barbie. Meanwhile, the ones who think of this as a form of evil have far darker arcs to arrive at: from the closeted incel to the loud-mouth brute who hates that he doesn't have the capacity to hate or limit women as he pleases.

Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Ken's story reflects on the toxicity of "masculinity in crisis" (a term I abhor, but apparently is widely accepted as a thing). Gosling did such a nice job at playing Ken that it hid the more threatening undertones of the uprising. His version of the hollow man was so silly that it masked any of the would-be male aggression the angry man would have in that situation. This was supposed to be an opportunity for the modern man to open himself up to evolving notions of masculinity. But some dudes just couldn't help it. The only people who hate Kenergy are the ones who don't understand what it means to be a better man in the new world.

Obviously, all of this struck a nerve. The idea of Ken only existing for Barbie is ludicrous to them. But the thing is, that was exactly the point of this subplot in many ways. All these were made to call into question the fragility of the male ego and the centuries of male social, economic, and cultural domination. It says something about the dangers of radicalized men, equipped with half-assed ideologies, when they feel obsolete. They resort to microaggressions or, worst-case scenario, monkey revolts to reclaim some semblance of the unchecked power they once had over society.

Some men just couldn't comprehend the thought of them not being the center of the universe (the Ben Shapiro types). Or the fact that women aren't just decorations to their lives or creatures to be conquered. Or that being a good man means standing with women and shutting the fuck up. Now that's real Kenergy, right there.

I would like to stress that all this doesn't mean that being Kenough solves the whole male fragility debacle or even helps achieve gender equality, for that matter. It's just a subplot in the movie's unraveling. All I'm saying is that the Kendom sheds some light on these things. 

In the end, we have the Barbies overthrowing the Kens, giving them the same kind of crumbs that men in the real world offer women. Some (but not much) judgeships, some (but not much) somewhat influential positions, some (but not much) legroom, and some (again, but not much) token gains. It's not much. It never is. But I guess that's kind of the point. Some men just fear the thought of being treated the same way they've treated women all their lives.