Rosh Hashanah Message: Katie Gaffin

One of the main messages in The Barbie Movie is that so many contradictions and impossible standards are expected of women that even Barbie, a literal doll, cannot measure up to them. Seeing Barbie, “The Perfect Woman,” sob because she feels worthless and not enough was an unbelievably emotional experience. It gave us permission to breathe and acknowledge how hard it is to exist in a world that teaches you to hate yourself. We aren’t wrong or broken for not meeting impossible expectations; we’re allowed to exist imperfectly. Not as what other people think we should be, but purely for what makes us happy.

When making your resolutions and intentions for 5784, ask yourself, are you reaching for the stars that will make you happy, or the stars someone said would finally make you perfect? As I decide what I want for the new year, I’ll be keeping this Barbie quote in mind, and I hope you do too. “We have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong… I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don’t even know.”

Katie Gaffin is the Events and Public Relations Coordinator for the Atlanta Jewish Times.