5 snouts up for greta gerwig and jon batiste as leaders of totally new realities

last time we talked about trouble at the border. when we cross the border, we enter a new reality. 

what will it take for you to be the leader of a totally different reality?

“we envision a world that works for everyone and for all of creation.”

centers for spiritual living, global vision

“what energy, space, and consciousness are you willing to be to create a reality totally beyond this reality with total ease?”  access consciousness 

together director and co-writer greta gerwig and producer and star margot robbie have created a totally new reality in the movie barbie. and the new york times, reviewing batiste’s new album world music radio,  calls musical genius jon batiste, the creator of a whole new musical genre called “himself.” what’s your new reality? what’s stopping you from creating it?

of course, it may seem folly to compare our own modest hopes and dreams with a billion-dollar hit about the world’s most famous doll living in a feminist utopia or the musical creation of a top grammy award-winning genius whose take on top 40 pop music, according to the nyt, combines “high-energy electronic dance beats…with reggae, afropop and old-fashioned piano torch ballads.”  but let’s do it anyway. because who knows what each of us, alone or collectively, could create if we allowed ourselves to?

how does what gerwig and robbie created in barbie represent a totally new reality? many many ways:

• first, the film itself represents a first: a billion-dollar blockbuster film produced, directed, starred in, and co-written by women.
• somewhat paradoxically, these women achieved that success by creating an alternate reality that skewers the existing reality, including:
  • mattel, the creator of the toy upon which the film was based,
  • corporate america, including 
    • all male ceos making decisions about toys for girls.
    • a woman inventing the best-selling toy of all time and then languishing in obscurity as a ghost in an 8th floor office
  • the insanity of a sex symbol with permanent high heels, perfect hair, and lack of genitals
  • the reality of the actual patriarchy in which we live, shown in sharp relief both by
    • the upside-down barbie universe in which all of the power of barbieland resides in the barbies and the kens are an afterthought–which seems impossible until
    • you see the current reality in which we actually live through ken and barbie’s eyes. including actual:
      • male presidents only for hundreds of years
      • almost entirely male supreme court and other courts until very recently
      • men dominating corporate boardrooms
      • men feeling free to leer, mock, grope and subjugate women
  • mocking men for things we never publicly mock men for, including:
    • their deep and abiding love of mansplaining
    • playing “guitar” at us
    • wanting us to be their longtime low-commitment girlfriends
    • beer, guns, and muscle culture
  • not a real barbie poster. created by someone from angry 1 star reviews from menthis movie wasn’t the first to portray a feminist utopia, but maybe it created the one that most challenges the existing reality. wonder woman 1984 portrays one. wakanda in black panther shows a black and somewhat feminist utopia . but barbie is the first mainstream hit i’ve ever seen that not only projected a female-dominant future but also used humor to eviscerate the patriarchy. this seems like new stuff for a hollywood mainstream blockbuster.

note: i couldn’t resist this fake barbie poster above created by some guy inspired by an angry 1-star review. he created several other such posters too. the angry reviews are an example of the kind of backlash that can pop up when we start to create a new reality. there’s a lot of that happening now.

and jon batiste?  well, what can i say about this genius? by all accounts, loving, warm, conscientious, and bringing genres and people together to reinvent everything. if you can get past the paywall, read the article in the new york times reviewing his new album world music radio.

i think there’s evidence that just listening to music we love, especially when it’s so fresh, creates new neural pathways that stimulate thoughts and impulses different from the ones we had yesterday. 

remember, greta gerwig was once just another girl growing up in sacramento, california, where i live. and jon batiste was once just another scion to a new orleans musical dynasty (who comes up with ideas like recording an entire album on a manhattan subway). who does that?  jon batiste does. 

what reality do you want to usher in?  what’s stopping you from taking one tiny step toward it today?