The fact that he chooses a song that isn’t really a love song goes back to what he said before he started - that he would sing “at her” instead of “to her.” He sings the song passionately, over and over, for four hours. That’s a mistake Ken would easily make based on everything else we see of his character, and perhaps he’s never really listened to the words at all. But leaving out the “she” changes the fundamental meaning of the song. The way Rob Thomas sings it, “She said” runs together a bit. Ken sings, “Said I don’t know if I’ve ever been good enough.” Yet the actual lyric that begins “Push” is “She said I don’t know if I’ve ever been good enough.” If you listen to the original version casually, you might mistake it the same way. He’s missing one key word and perhaps doesn’t fully even understand the song he’s singing. While the song’s real meaning is perfectly symbolic here, it’s also noteworthy that Ken sings the lyrics incorrectly. It’s most definitely not a relationship that has any clear communication, and it’s not one either of them has put any real work into. He turns into someone he isn’t, which on top of illustrating larger themes regarding gender roles, proves how troubled their relationship, or lack thereof, really is. Ken tags along to the “Real World” with Barbie even though she doesn’t want him to, and when he learns how much power men have in the real world, he becomes entirely focused on getting that power himself. It’s toxic behavior, and that behavior starts to go both ways. Pictures)īarbie also assumes he’ll be there when she wants him to be, and that he’ll go away when she doesn’t want him around. The narrator says that while every day is a good day for Barbie, Ken only has a good day if Barbie looks at him.
It’s how we’re introduced to Ken in the first place. The relationship we see between Barbie and Ken is certainly one where Ken has been taken advantage of by Barbie. It’s that idea that makes the song such a perfect one for Ken to sing. It was just about this idea that it’s so much easier to find someone you can take advantage of than it is to actually put work into a relationship.” “But everything about it was about emotional manipulation. So in a weird twist of different times, there’s something very problematic about ‘Push,’ if it wasn’t for the innocence of how it was written,” Thomas explained. The ‘90s was a time of manufactured angst, and nobody wanted to be a victim in a song. “I wrote that song about someone I had been with who I felt was manipulating me and taking advantage of me. Then in a recent interview with USA TODAY, Thomas reflected further on “Push” and the angst of the ’90s. The chorus is just the overall way I was looking at relationships at the time,” Thomas stated. “I was trying to make it a panoramic song. At first, a listener could easily interpret the ’90s hit as controversial, with the lyrics “I want to push you around” and “I want to take you for granted.”īut as the lead singer of Matchbox Twenty stated in an interview in 1998, the song is about more than one point of view. There are several layers to unpack when it comes to the use of this song in the film. Ken sings “Push” by Matchbox Twenty - Barbie “Push” is not only a funny choice it’s also poignant and symbolic. And it’s one that would carry an entirely different meaning if the Kens were singing any other song. What I’m describing here is one of the most pivotal moments in the Barbie movie. Then we cut to all of the Kens sitting around campfires on the beach, singing the same song in unison at their Barbies. So Barbie sits patiently, pretending to be in awe of Ken as he sings “Push” by Matchbox Twenty. Barbie is just playing along here, and all of the Barbies eventually do the same as part of their plan to distract the Kens and take back their power in Barbie Land.
Ryan Gosling’s Ken offers to “play guitar at” Margot Robbie’s Barbie in a cliché romantic gesture. On its surface, it’s a fairly simple, funny scene.
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