The movie "Barbie" resonates with real issues and concerns that we can encounter in everyday life with boys.
1. "Barbie has a great day every day, but Ken only has a great day if Barbie creates attention."
The first has to do with overestimating a woman's attention to a man's sense of self-worth, even an existential sense of identity. Barbie's gaze and attention are everything to Ken, and when she's not looking or paying attention, it's as if he's alone in the universe.
Men often experience a greater degree of rejection and isolation in a relationship as a result of a perceived lack of attention or affection from their partner.
When men have frequent sex, for example, there is an exhilarating sense of self, masculine assurance, and a general feeling that things are "going right." However, when this active romantic attention wanes, it can often feel like an existential collapse—where feelings of attractiveness, value, and overall self-worth can disappear.
The film beautifully thematizes this dynamic by showing Ken's shift to a desire for male dominance and "patriarchal" expression; if he can't have Barbie's attention and respectful gaze.
2. Sexualization of fear and existential loneliness.
The second case of male psychology that the film presents well concerns the relationship between shame or existential loneliness and the conversion to sex-as-soothing. In the final parts of the movie (spoiler alert!), Barbie decides to take a break from "Barbie and Ken" and he is left lonely and lost. When she approaches him for comfort and conversation, Kenny quickly interprets it as an advance and tries to kiss and hug her (which she rejects).
Here we see loneliness and existential angst transformed into a sexual plea - for sex to solve these bad feelings.
The cheap solution to this male fear (therapeutically) might be for Barbie to simply give in to his need for a hug and assuage his feelings of rejection and shame through some kind of sorry kiss. However, from a couples therapy approach, the clinical "solution" of this need for love and sex is carefully addressed in the film. Barbie does not outright deny or abandon Ken, but rather supports him through his difficult feelings so that he can manage and deal with them on his own.
