- Warning: Spoilers ahead for the new "Barbie" film, directed by Greta Gerwig.
- In the final shot of the film, Margot Robbie's Barbie declares, "I'm here to see my gynecologist."
At the very end of "Barbie," the new blockbuster directed by Greta Gerwig, our titular heroine is wearing a brown blazer, blue jeans, and Birkenstocks.
The toned-down outfit is a far cry from the pink dresses and cowboy hats that saturate the rest of the film — meant to symbolize Barbie's journey from a "perfect" doll to a woman.
In her real-world clothes, Barbie walks into an office, radiating excitement. You might assume she's there for a job interview. Instead, when the receptionist asks what brings her in, Barbie delivers the film's climactic final line: "I'm here to see my gynecologist." Cut to black.
It's a ridiculous, irreverent moment that's sure to shock any audience. "Barbie" is marketed as a big movie with big ideas about feminism, gender roles, and existential dread, so you don't expect it to end with a joke about Barbie maintaining her vaginal health. Speaking as someone who is chronically online, someone who devoured every crumb of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling's promo tour, even I didn't see the punchline coming.
My theater, full of women and girls, erupted in startled laughter. The collective delight made me tear up.
As Gerwig told USA Today, this effect was intentional: "I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional."
"When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn't even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden," she explained. "And then to see Margot as Barbie, with this big old smile on her face, saying what she says at the end with such happiness and joy — I was like, if I can give girls that feeling of, 'Barbie does it, too,' that's both funny and emotional."
Indeed, the line works on several levels. Paired with Robbie's over-the-top delivery, it pokes fun at the reality of being a woman — it's absurd, to be frank, and often invasive — without dismissing or minimizing our experiences. Unlike so many wisecracks about being a woman, it's not a quip at our expense. Gerwig is laughing with us, not at us.
Of course, women aren't the only people that go to the gynecologist, and not all women need to. But to use the film's own simplified binary, the final line is a gift for the Barbies, not the Kens.
Despite the bodily horror of womanhood — periods, pregnancy, pap smears — we find relief in community. Going to the gynecologist is one of those in-jokes that we share, the kind of thing you love to complain about. Commiserating eases the psychic pain.
The line is made even more potent in the context of Barbie's journey. Earlier in the film, she didn't even have genitals! She gave up her plastic life in Barbie Land, where every day is a perfect day, for something we take for granted: to have a body that swells and shrinks and bleeds. She has realized that change is what makes life worthwhile, that aging is a gift.
So if a trip to the gynecologist is the price she has to pay, she'll do it with a grin.