![]() Joe filling a market gap that allowed boys to play with dolls without risking their masculinity. Barbie is stereotyped and marketed as a “girl’s toy,” with Ken dolls and G.I. The gendering of this comparison will not come as a surprise to most readers. Instead, there is a deep abyss-an absence of the ability to imagine nuclear weapons and war. Neither fire nor radioactivity immediately come to mind. It suggests a black hole, a black box, a dark pit in public knowledge about nuclear weapons. Perhaps black better connotes the seriousness or morbidity of the Manhattan Project. It is notable that black seems to be universally associated with Oppenheimer, given that one could just as easily imagine a fiery red or radioactive green. Encountering the strange coupling of pink and black feels unsettling and out of place, and many people found humor in highlighting the paradoxical pairing.īarbenheimer car! /4tlVMePprX ![]() Many jokes juxtapose or merge the hot pink, associated with the Barbie brand, with black-the color that has come to represent Oppenheimer. The first point of comparison at the heart of Barbenheimer is color. ![]() They can reveal what is assumed, what is feared, and what is unknown.Ĭolor contrast. They are a rare window into the tone, mood, and narrative of nuclear weapons among the next generation. Though easily dismissed as frivolous, these memes should be read as deeply political. Where memes and TikToks played on points of radical difference-in color, schedule, and subject matter-there were underlying assumptions about nuclear weapons and war to be unpacked.īecause nuclear weapons and war are far removed from public scrutiny and debate, the public comes to learn about these weapons through film, television, and video games.īarbenheimer memes offer a unique insight into the popular imagination of nuclear weapons and war. To a scholar of popular culture and nuclear weapons, there are many interesting layers to the Barbenheimer phenomenon. In Japan, where Oppenheimer has not been released, the Barbenheimer mash-up has been criticized for making light of the weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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