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This might be pretty unhinged, but I thought the crossover between Barbie and Formula 1 was so interesting it merited a bit of writing on the subject.
For a few years now, we’ve been seeing the yaas-ification and girl-ification of Formula 1, and indeed the expansion of the Formula 1 fandom. You can’t exactly call it a creation because no doubt the Formula 1 fandom existed well before the Drive To Survive effect, albeit in a vastly different form. But the form that the F1 fandom increasingly takes now is fascinating. The Tumblr girlies who stanned Harry Potter are now part of the F1 fandom, and that creates a fascinating form of interactive viewership. Not only are people (particularly women) watching races, they’re getting involved in so many ways outside of that. Creating brunch menus, organising watch parties, fan art, posters, merchandise, social media accounts, influencing, the list goes on. There is now so many more ways to participate in the F1 fandom than there has ever been. Including memes!
Now, to be perfectly honest, when I think of F1 memes, I think of r/formuladank, of Instagram and twitter F1 meme pages, all ostensibly male-dominated spaces. But the Tumblr girlies!! They (we) are doing god’s work in meme creation. And that’s where Barbie comes in. We all know (hopefully) of the Barbie Poster Memes: a three-quarter shot of a character, superimposed over a glittery background, with white text discussing the Barbie-ness or Ken-factor of said character. The specific subset of Formula 1 drivers (characters) made in this format is so interesting! To me, it’s one of the best examples of the girlification of the Formula 1 fandom.
No doubt Barbie is for the girlies, and this meme subset shows that Formula 1 is for the girlies as well. Inserted below is a series of F1 Barbie Poster memes that I think exemplify the girlification of the F1 fandom.
Apologies for the poor formatting, but there's some really interesting memes in there. These are pretty much a random subset of memes found on Tumblr (all credit of course to creators). Something particularly interesting was the use of "Barbie" or "Ken" to refer to the 'characters'. 4 of the examples refer to the driver as Kens, while 6 refer to drivers as Barbies (and Susie Wolff, counted separately, is a Barbie).
The two examples I think exemplify this meme subset the best are the Charles Leclerc ("This Barbie has won 5 Grand Prix") and Pierre Gasly ("This Barbie is a Monza Grand Prix winner"). The background glitter and text colour match the colour of the driver's clothing. In addition, the demand gaze chosen by the creator quite literally demands the attention of the viewer. In fact, six of the eleven memes use a demand gaze photo of the driver, while the remaining five are either wearing sunglasses ("This Barbie is Ferrari's last world champion", "This Barbie doesn't need an introduction"), or are looking away from the viewer ("This Barbie is on vacation", "This Ken is blushing"), or both ("You guessed it! He's a Ken").
In essence, the Barbie Movie Poster meme as seen in the Formula 1 fandom exemplifies the girlification, yaasification, and overall feminization of the Formula 1 fandom. The use of color-matching and demand-gaze photos in said memes serve to draw the viewer in and create a personal connection, a key feature of fandom.