Ever since it was announced that Barbie and Oppenheimer will be coming out on the same day, these two films have taken over the world. The battle of ‘Barbenehimer’ is all anyone wants to talk about online, with people going all out, planning their cinema trips in colour coordinated outfits. Screenings for both the films have been sold out for weeks. Marketing for both films, especially Barbie, has been next level, and there is a sea of pink and black in every cinema you go to.
Naturally, its influence has also bled into industries beyond entertainment as brands and business sectors try to capitalise on this historic cinematic event. There are Barbie bath bombs, the pink Dream House inspired cinema experiences, drinks inspired by the films and so much more.
And the sex industry is no different. Ever since the films came out, there has been an uptick in Barbie and Oppenheimer-inspired sexual meetings and first encounters. Escorts are receiving requests about brand new kinks and fetishes — some old that went unexplored for the longest time, and some new that people are unlocking through the films.
Requests for blonde wigs, plaid dresses, foot fetishes, doll-ifications, extremely specific role plays, submissive partners, BDSM, cigarettes and more have gone up significantly since the release of these films.
Sophie Rhyder, who is a model at Live Jasmin, explained that when it comes to Barbie, she has often been asked to recreate the scene where Margot Robbie’s Barbie takes off her shoes and it is revealed that she is standing on her tiptoes, just like the doll. And that while the requests for Barbie are often ‘cute’, things with Oppenheimer get much more intense, as people are influenced by his personality.
“[In Oppenheimer], the main character is a strong, direct and confident man, therefore the members that have watched it told me they became influenced by his personality. When it comes to sex, they feel more dominant and powerful,” says Sophie.
“We had role plays where I had to be a submissive wife during World War II that was waiting for her husband to come back home, but she couldn’t be loyal and had stepped wrong. When the husband came back home and found out, he made sure she would never be unfaithful because he was going to show her what she has at home. There were hints of BDSM in this role play, but I definitely had to stay very submissive,” she explained.
Jay, a model at Kaufmich, added that they have received requests for Barbie where they had to “slip into the way that the Barbies in the movie behave.”
When it came to Oppenheimer, Jay said that they were asked to incorporate erotic readings into their play.
So how did Barbenheimer manage to infiltrate the sex industry?
“People are always discovering news kinks after watching a movie and experiencing sexual arousal from a particular stimulus for the first time due to the context of the movie or how the object was presented,” explains Isabelle Uren, a certified sex expert from Bedbible.com.
Barbie fever is worldwide, especially right now, and that excitement extends to the adult industry and in the world of fetishes. Overall, it lends itself to blending personal experiences, societal expectations, and the desire for experimentation.
“Barbie takes many things that people usually find sexually attractive and presents them in a more exaggerated manner, from her perfectly manicured feet to her unobtainable embodiment of beauty standards. These more extreme versions of sexual stimuli can be exciting, as they become a kind of super stimulus, giving us more of the thing we find arousing,” adds Uren.
“When things become more prevalent in our culture, it is often a form of permission to explore these types of kinks without as much fear of judgement. For those that enjoy it, there’s something freeing and surprising about it regarding their self-discovery.,” says clinical psychotherapist and C.E.O. of HolisticWisdom.com, Lisa Lawless, PhD.
“Sex workers have seen a rise in requests for Barbie role-play since the Barbie film’s release. Men, and to a certain extent, couples, seem to be clamouring for a ‘Barbie experience,’ but not in the way you might think. What is interesting is that their sessions rarely involve actual sexual activity. Instead, clients enjoy costume adornment, undressing, and engaging in playful fantasy scenarios with their real-life ‘Barbie doll’,” adds Dr Lawless.
In fact, the creator of the Barbie doll actually took inspiration from a character in a German comic strip. Bild Lilli was someone who wore revealing clothes and pursued rich men often by making suggestive comments. And the first Barbie doll had the same facial and body characteristics as Lilli. So it is not too far-fetched to see how it quickly translated into the sexual realm.
Why is this phenomenon taking place, especially now?
For a long time, talking about sex, let alone kinky sex was a taboo, but in recent years, we moved into a more sex positive society, and kinks have become a lot more mainstream. And while Barbie is not a new kink at all, it has certainly gained an insane amount of popularity since the film came out.
“For some, it can start in childhood with the awakening of sexual feelings where the Barbie dolls stimulate sexual arousal or associations. Because it was a part of their childhood, it represented societal ideals of beauty, femininity, and fantasy for many,” says Dr Lawless. “Thus, some may have stumbled upon unexpected emotional sparks through a sexual curiosity with Barbie dolls through the vivid hues of beauty, femininity, and fantasies they inspire.”
Another aspect of Barbie inspired roleplays is that it has allowed people to be more carefree in their sexual moments.
“I think Barbie roleplay in particular gives people a way to be more carefree in their sexual moments. It’s usually more serious, but when you’re in a Barbie mindset, everything becomes easier. It’s like seeing the world through the eyes of a child, but in a fully adult and consenting manner,” says Jay.
As for Oppenheimer, Sophie believes that there will be a huge increase in men wanting to wear a suit and a hat as foreplay (much like Oppenheimer in the film). She also thinks that the smoking fetish will see a rise as well. More specifically, men watching women smoke sensually as they explore their bodies.
Having more representations of kinks and fetishes in TV and movies has helped to normalise kinky sex, and social media spaces, such as KinkTok, have also given people a space to talk about their kinks and share tips and information, says Uren.
Now that kinks and fetishes are more prevalent in the media, people feel like it is safe to open up about their kinks, and it is also exposing more people to kinky sex and helping them discover new things they find arousing.
Anytime there is a new worldwide phenomenon, especially when accompanied by a visual media, it is bound to unlock some form of unexplored fetish or kink for someone.
Barbie dolls for the longest time have been a huge inspiration for the doll-ification and foot fetish kinks. So now that we have an entire movie that accentuates these aspects on real life people, especially on an actress as attractive as Margot Robbie, people are bound to start dipping their toes into these previously uncharted waters.
And because Oppenheimer shares its release date with Barbie, people are discovering some kinks here as well. From erotic readings to dominant/BDSM role plays, not to mention the R-rated sex scenes in the film, there is, surprisingly, quite a lot for people to unpack sexually.
I’m not saying that should be your main takeaway from a film about the guy who made the atomic bomb and probably changed the trajectory of humanity forever, but hey, at least you’re discovering something new (and hopefully getting a history lesson along the way).