Being Human

Letter from the Editor as published in the September 2023 issue

Like thousands and thousands of others, I went to see the Barbie movie with my family. If I had to break it down into one word, that word would be joy. My daughter, who is rather stoic and rarely shows emotion (aside from her wild sense of humour), sat beside me. Every time I looked at her, her face was plastered in a beaming smile. Forget box office success—that smile said everything.

Yes, it is a movie about being a woman and femininity and feminism and autonomy and self-confidence and self-discovery and sisterhood. But it is also a message about being human and being a creator.

Let’s break down my favourite scene: Margot Robbie, dressed ridiculously in a hot pink cowgirl outfit, sits on a bench with tears on her cheeks. An elderly woman also sits there. They share a profound moment of role-reversal as Barbie (objectively gorgeous and young) gazes at the woman (old, wrinkled, tired) and says, “You’re so beautiful.”

That’s when I cried. Not the wailing reaction you’ve probably seen on TikTok or Instagram, but a welling in my eyes that told me this moment was the heart of the movie.

In recognizing the greatness (the talent, the beauty) in others, we open the door to discovering our own.

“I don’t want to be the thing that was created, I want to be the one with the ideas.” I’m paraphrasing because Google hasn’t quite caught up with all the great Barbie quotes.

I have always believed we were created to create. Unlike Barbie, who was created to inspire and yet had no autonomy, we are placed on this earth to add to its beauty and wonder with our own creations. Through art we can bring messages and experiences that allow my resigned daughter to wear a goofy grin in a theatre full of people wearing pink and yelling “Amen!” at the screen when America Ferrera delivers her rousing speech. By lifting one another up, we perpetuate the lesson that creating for the joy of it is one of the benchmarks of being human.

When Margot Robbie tells that woman she is beautiful, the woman doesn’t shy away or reject it. She receives it with a sly wit that moved me deeply: “I know it.”

How often do we shrug off the compliments of others, or think we don’t deserve them? That woman had earned every grey hair, every line in her face, every year that brought an ache to her bones; and yet, she received a compliment from someone who—as society tells us—she should have been jealous of.

And she wasn’t. What freedom there is in that!

The mission of Blank Spaces is, at its core, to lift up the voices of the underrepresented and to see the deserving creators who are turned away by the big industry gatekeepers. Essentially, we are providing a launch pad for those writers and artists who have discovered their mystical “humanness” and are ready to unleash their ideas on the world. The Blank Spaces community is not a collection of Barbies, it is a collection of artistic souls with important things to say, spirits with no shortage of creative ideas that are constantly making this world a better place.

Dear creative, I see you. I love what you’re doing. And I think you’re beautiful.

Alanna Rusnak

     Editor in Chief, Blank Spaces