Barbie has taken the world by storm, as a see of people dressed in pink scream “Hi Barbie” at each other every chance they get. Now, with its release on Max, we’re getting an ASL version of the hit Greta Gerwig film that includes Deaf actress Leila Hanaumi!
In the ASL version, Hanaumi translates the film into ASL, bringing our favorite Barbies, Kens, Sashas, and Glorias to life! One of the words she had to create for the movie? “Kenough,” of course. While throughout the runtime of Barbie, not once does Ryan Gosling’s Ken (or any Ken for that matter) say that he is “Kenough”, the word is shown on Ken’s shirt at the end of the film. It became such a staple because of the film that it is one of the most iconic bits of clothing from the film.
So, Hanaumi created her own sign for the film. According to IndieWire, she created the new sign for “Kenough” by using the ASL sign for “enough” (which includes using the fist of one hand and brushing the palm of your other hand on top of it), but instead of using her flat palm, she used her other hand to make the letter “k.” The inclusion of Hanaumi is to help bring nuance and and context into the film that the use of just captions often leaves out.
“As a deaf person, it still isn’t as natural. It still isn’t a natural language,” Hanaumi said. “Ninety percent of Deaf kids are born to hearing parents and many of them never have access to sign language at all. That is language deprivation, and it’s a serious issue in our community. Being able to provide ASL access is a way to just level the playing field and allow a Deaf viewer to access the movie with cultural conceptions that we are able to understand in a more natural way.”
The inclusion of Barbie
One of the things that made Barbie special was that it included a lot of different walks of life in its Barbie Land. It was a dream world where no one was judged based on their needs. Having a version of the movie that includes an ASL version with a Deaf actress bringing the film to those who need it is a beautiful way to tell this story and one that would make the Barbies in Barbie Land proud.
The creation of the “Kenough” sign is just one of the cool things that exists when we make moves to be more inclusive in how we tell stories. Instead of just including captions and moving on, we can have things like Hanaumi figuring out exactly what “Kenough” would look like in ASL!
Bringing Barbie to an audience that may not have had the same experience with it, especially a younger one, is incredibly special and it is wonderful knowing that Hanaumi brought “Kenough” to life.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
