“Cabrini” in the Age of “Barbie”

Many people are familiar with the opening words of Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”  The words have been repeated time and again: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .”

Many may not realize, however, that the sentence these words are from is actually 119 words long.  The sentence is a veritable pot-pourri of paradoxes.  Many also think Dickens’ paradoxes are applicable to the times we are living in now. They are also applicable to the tale of two kinds of feminism depicted in the movies “Barbie” and “Cabrini.”

The point of this piece is not to review or rehash the many angles of debate regarding the value or depth of “Barbie.” The sides of that battle have long been drawn and will certainly not be changed by any article.

I wish simply to point out that “Cabrini” and “Barbie” are two films which project two very different views of feminism.  Those divergent views in turn reflect the battle between wisdom and foolishness, belief and incredulity, hope and despair, and light and darkness.

Cabrini’s Wisdom,  Belief,  Hope, and Light

“Cabrini” depicts the early struggles, values, and efforts of St. Francis Cabrini, the legendary cleric who became the first U.S. Citizen to be canonized a saint by the Catholic Church.  The movie “Cabrini” depicts Mother Cabrini, as she was known, as a woman with inner strength.  She was a woman faith, determined, dedicated, and passionate about helping the most needy and vulnerable in society: immigrant children.

The film is an accurate portrayal of how Cabrini overcame numerous challenges.  She was an immigrant woman in early 20th century, working around the corruption, discrimination, and political machinery as rampant in her time as it is today.

The film also vividly portrays the power and determination of this frail dynamo.  She transcended the social, religious and secular forces aligned against her to achieve her dream of helping the poor achieve dignity, respect, and hope.

Three Quotes

Three quotes in the film powerfully portray Cabrini’s femininity of light, wisdom, belief, purpose, and constructive change.

In one scene, Cabrini states, “We can serve our weakness or we can serve our purpose.  Not both.”  This quote reminds us that true power and identity focuses on having a genuine plan to improve society and the lives of others, to make a real and profound difference based on uplifting others.

In another scene, Cabrini says, “It takes a lot of courage to be who we’re meant to be.”  This second quote reminds us that we all have a sacred, profound purpose and mission in this world.  This mission should be based on true love of others and unselfish sacrifice of self in the service of others.  Simply put, Mother Cabrini reminds us that true work is sacrificing ourselves and our present in the service of others and the future of others.

The final powerful quote from “Cabrini” is Mother Cabrini’s poignant response to the Mayor’s comment, “It’s a shame that you’re a woman, mother.  You would have made an excellent man.”  Cabrini responds with “Oh no, Mr. Mayor, men could never do what we do.”

This last quote reminds us that the feminism of Cabrini honors and focuses on women’s unique wisdom and power to combine and fulfill roles of family, nurturers, workers, leaders, and examples of how belief and hope can bring light to those who need it the most.  The feminism of Cabrini is a positive feminism founded in uplifting the marginalized to achieve an equality based on unselfish sacrifice and service.

Barbie’s Foolishness, Incredulity, Despair, and Darkness

In contrast to Cabrini’s positive feminism, “Barbie” pretends to empower women while hiding its supposedly powerful message behind superficial, silly, and trivial stereotypes.

On one hand, the film wants to uplift women by degrading and ridiculing men. Men are portrayed as foolish and incompetent, as well as the seeming cause of everything that is wrong in the world. On the other hand, Ken comes off as more charming than foolish, more beguiling than a real threat, and more trivial than menacing.

“Barbie” takes the easy, yet contradictory path of supposedly empowering women by portraying men as superficial, silly idiots and warning the viewer that men are dangerous.

However, the feminism of “Barbie” is wrapped in foolishness. It presents men as foolish and women as foolish for allowing these seemingly useless and incompetent morons to direct the ship of society toward oblivion.  It is based on incredulity because it is founded on not believing that women can be equal to men without playing by men’s rules or mocking their every move.

Barbie’s feminism is a feminism of despair because at every turn it portrays women’s only response to perceived gender inequalities as a frantic struggle, a literal gender street fight.  But we all know that responses based on emotional despair are rarely the most logical, purposeful, or practical.

Ultimately, the feminism of Barbie is one of darkness in that it does not offer a true hope for a future of loving equality, peaceful cooperation, much less mutual purpose in making society a better place.

Conclusion

The films “Cabrini” and “Barbie” present us with a unique and powerful demonstration of two very different types of feminism.  “Cabrini” shows us a woman who overcomes the chains of poverty, oppression, stereotypes.  She also overcomes political, social, and religious corruption.  And she also overcomes health issues to selflessly sacrifice her time and efforts for others.

Her strength subverts weakness in the service of purpose. It also subverts despair in the service of hope, fear in the service of faith, and selfishness in the service of others.  It is a feminism of truth, love, sacrifice, and dedication to others based on faith.

“Barbie,” on the other hand, gives us a feminism laced with bitterness, resentment, revenge, and ridiculing men.  It offers empty swipes of what women can achieve without really telling us exactly what they can achieve. It also fails to show how women can help make society a better place other than by pushing men to the margins.  The feminism of Barbie is one of pretense, superficiality, appearance over substance, frantic and muddled despair over purposeful ambition.

The greatest irony of all is that in a society so enamored with so-called inclusion, Barbie’s feminism is all about avenging the exclusion of women in the past by excluding men in the present.  Cabrini’s feminism, however, is all about overturning the exclusion of the past with inclusion in the present.  Two very different definitions – a tale of two films.