Final yr, well being consultants predicted the ‘mic drop’ joke within the closing scene of the blockbuster Barbie film would have a critical real-world influence, prompting viewers to hunt reproductive healthcare they may’ve wanted, delay, or maybe by no means considered.
Now it appears they had been proper, with a brand new examine discovering a spike in associated internet searches following the movie’s launch.
For many who have not seen the film, Eva Sénéchal, a psychology researcher at McGill College in Montreal, and her colleagues, who carried out the brand new evaluation of web search traits, clarify how the ultimate line within the Barbie movie could have achieved extra than simply make audiences chortle.
“In the film’s final scene, after deciding to leave Barbieland for the real world, Barbie enthusiastically tells a receptionist, “I am right here to see my gynecologist,” a joke that could be based either on her supposed lack of genitals or her evident excitement for care many women find unpleasant.” Sénéchal and colleagues write of their paper.
“We hypothesized that this final line may have spurred public interest in gynecologic care.”
The researchers charted weekly web searches within the US following Barbie’s launch, in search of 34 phrases starting from questions on what gynecologists do to extra basic searches of “gynecologist near me”, “make a doctor’s appointment”, and “pap smear”.
There was a constructive spike in searches relating particularly to gynecologists, with questions akin to “Why see a gynecologist?” and “Do I need a gynecologist?” greater than doubling within the three months following the movie’s launch in July 2023 in comparison with the yr prior.
Nevertheless, trying up details about gynecologists is just step one in searching for that type of specialist healthcare. The examine did not take a look at different information that will have captured whether or not movie-watchers had been prompted to make or attend appointments, however traits in different search phrases counsel not.
“There were no changes in searches for gynecologist appointments, suggesting that searches for information about gynecologists did not translate to searches for new gynecologic care,” Sénéchal and colleagues write.
“Therefore, it remains unclear whether a ‘Barbie effect’ in awareness would translate to improved measurable health outcomes.”
But it surely’s not out of the query; it has occurred earlier than.
In 2013, when actress Angelina Jolie went public together with her resolution to bear a double mastectomy after testing constructive for an inherited breast most cancers gene, referrals for genetic counseling and testing within the UK greater than doubled – a development dubbed the ‘Angelina Jolie impact‘.
The Barbie movie might have additionally had a wider influence on physique picture, identical to the dolls themselves. Analysis reveals that Barbie dolls, which historically have represented excessive and unrealistic physique shapes, can affect younger women’ concepts about physique picture and consuming habits, though the outcomes are a combined bag.
“We know that children learn by observing, absorbing, and imitating the things they see around them, and that their early ideas about weight and appearance are shaped by their family, their peers, and the media,” Zali Yager, a physique picture researcher, wrote for Girls’s Well being Agenda after seeing the movie in July 2023.
But it surely’s troublesome to tease aside the affect of these three components – one’s household, pals and (social) media – on an individual’s notion of themselves, or their healthcare-seeking behaviors, within the case of this new evaluation.
“There’s so much of the context that we are missing in these studies,” medical well being psychologist Jennifer Webb, of the College of North Carolina at Charlotte, informed Nature in a July 2023 interview, referring to the combined outcomes of analysis research on Barbie’s affect on physique picture and shallowness amongst younger women.
“We don’t know about the other aspects of the children’s social environment, whether in the immediate home environment, at school or other activities.”
The identical is true of Sénéchal and colleagues’ new evaluation: Traits in web searches give us solely a snapshot of individuals’s lives, and inform us nothing about who these nameless individuals are, their age or their well being.
Though we do not have the information to indicate it, some individuals might need been impressed to hunt out reproductive healthcare for themselves as a result of watching Barbie attend her first gynecologist appointment “normalizes the experience,” doctor and well being coverage researcher Leana Wen informed CNN final yr.
“It solidifies the understanding that reproductive health is an integral part of overall health.”
The analysis has been printed in JAMA Community Open.
