we all knew barbie was going to be funny. we all knew it’d have something to say about the “female coming-of-age,” as all of greta gerwig’s movies have thus far. and we all knew margot robbie and ryan gosling would turn in note-perfect performances as barbie and ken. and they did.

what i didn’t know was how much barbie would mean - not truly, not fully. how much it would mean to me, to the women sitting to my left…