A scene in the movie Barbie is all too familiar to female physicians. Ken asks a female physician, “Can I talk to a doctor?” and she replies, “You are talking to a doctor.”

He ignores her, then requests her assistance with various menial tasks (“Can you get me a coffee … and I need a clicky pen”) before abruptly walking off in the direction of two short-haired, presumably male medical professionals, saying, “There he is! Doctor!”

Like many scenes in Barbie, the doctor scene made me feel like laughing and crying at the same time.

The disenfranchisement of the female doctor in Barbie contrasts sharply against the female-led alternate reality of the movie’s Barbie Land, a matriarchal society where the entire Supreme Court and the President are all female.