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A week ago, I wrote a post about the nascent anti-Barbie movie crusade, and I noted that it seemed oddly muted. Well, what a difference a week makes: with the movie actually out this weekend, the anti-Barbie forces have turned up the volume, denouncing the movie as “woke” feminazi garbage that pushes a not-very-secret LGBTQ agenda.
As is regularly the case with boycotts of movies, the boycotters and boycott organizers haven’t seen the film and basically don’t know anything about it. But that doesn’t stop them from tagging it as everything from a misandrist nightmare to a literally demonic attempt by leftists and alleged perverts to groom young girls.
So let’s take a look at some of the anti-Barbie propaganda.
Every single one of these tweets made me want to see the movie more. And I’m not the only one: the film is on track to take in as much as $150 million over its first weekend.
But my favorite anti-Barbie tweet has to be this one:
Remember that time seven years ago when the internet’s biggest doofuses ganged up on a Ghostbusters movie because all the main characters were women, and this was somehow destroying their childhood or something? Valliant Renegade remembers. And so do I. And so will you if you click here. Ah, memories!
Oh, and if all the chatter about doll-smashing in the tweets above has you curious, here’s the relevant clip from the film.
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Sure. Because a movie about two dolls/people who are avowedly boyfriend and girlfriend isn’t at all heteronormative.
I hope all their female children and grandchildren hate them for ever, or at least roll their eyes a LOT and go to the movie anyway.
Movies based on toys are super serial, you guys!
That trailer shows Barbie’s original outfit, and the little girls seem to be from that era as well.
Also, anyone who thinks the CCP is “woke” is too young or deliberately ignorant to remember all the girl babies who were never born (or worse, straight-up abandoned or murdered) under their regime. And how they still think being LGBTQ is wrong, even without being Bible thumpers.
I dunno, it looks cute and pink to me, good cast, good director, some catchy songs, and Will Ferrell chewing scenery as one would expect. I can’t afford tickets but I will watch it on home video or cable,
Meanwhile, the *real* far-left wing is boo-hooing over how it’s not feminist enough, and lamenting over how far Gerwig and Baumbach have sold out.
“Don’t watch the Barbie movie as a believer.”
“DO NOT TA K E YOUR CHILD TO THE NEW BARBIE FILM!”
“if you have young daughters, do NOT take them to see the new Barbie movie.”
Etc, etc. I’m not copy and pasting all of the examples, I just wanted to point out that all works for me. I’m not a believer and nobody says anything about not taking your sister to it. I think I’m good here. Only a few say nobody should see it and I follow the majority like a good sheep
Edit: Hot damn. I just decided to click on the doll smashing trailer and never expected that homage! That was actually hilarious to me
You mean…this is a narrative where you have to watch your gender exist only as an accessory and Het Token for the protagonist? What on earth must that be like!
This quote by Wentworth Miller seems warranted:
http://web.archive.org/web/20230722022759
I’m confused. Why does one of the tweets mention abortion? Does Barbie have an abortion in the movie?
Also, now I really, really want to watch it!
@happy cat:
I’m confused. Why does one of the tweets mention abortion? Does Barbie have an abortion in the movie?
I think that’s how they decided to construe the rejection of the baby dolls in the prologue.
I had no desire to see this as I’m not into kids movies, but the collective whinging and vitriol has changed my mind. Sounds interesting.
The amount of nut jobs crying about grooming girls that routinely promote girls as fertile and banning abortions and contraception and downplaying rape while touring traditional religious values are the biggest groomers of children I see.
“Every other character…must tolerate manboy antics, grin and bear insults/humiliations and/or {whatever} while keeping fingers crossed these jackass princes step into their kings and save {whatever} from certain destruction.”
Quick translation: “Laugh at my jokes, untermenschen, or die.“
(I suppose I use this maybe too much, but it’s so appropriate.)
The trailer is a comic parody of the opening scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Predictably, not a single one of the RW rageheads got the joke or the reference. Cultural illiteracy in action.
Overlooking the obvious …
Little girls? The ranters obviously don’t know or care that the movie is rated PG-13. It’s aimed at twentysomethings who want a new spin on an aspect of their childhoods.
bekabot
Indeed.
Carstonio
Exactly!
Plus toys get broken by kids all the time, sometimes on purpose, it’s no big deal, or was that just where I lived? I didn’t go in for dismembering my few dolls (I wasn’t particulaly in to dolls) though I do remember trimming the hair of one, but I had at least one friend whose dolls regularly got dismembered and then put back together, sometimes.
Trans person: exists briefly in a supporting role
Bigots: this movie was made to promote transgenderism!
Once again, we see that they view simply being reminded “that people different from you exist” as an attack on their entire world.
Semi-related: it’s not as high-profile because Warner Bros. is terrible at marketing, but the wonderful new cartoon My Adventures with Superman is making assholes’ heads explode.
@Nequam I look for your gif every time. You use it exactly enough.
Apparently Ben Shappero was forced to go see it by His Producers .
@Allandrel I’m a longtime Superman fan and I loved the first episode of the new animated series. I don’t have cable or satellite, and I’m waiting until the season is almost finished before I buy a Max subscription to watch the other episodes.
Speaking of movies, if any of y’all are interested I’m going to be seeing “Oppenheimer” soon and will be sharing my review after I’ve seen it.
I suspect some of the backlash is rooted in box office envy. Barbie‘s opening weekend was respectably higher than Oppenheimer. How dare a girly movie do better than a Serious Film About a Man?
One review I read — by someone who’s actually seen the whole movie — says Ken gets to move beyond himbo sidekick. So the blond menz are fine.
@FM Ox: Considering the “babies” (dolls) are demonstrably already born and are wearing cute clothes, they weren’t aborted. Not Even Wrong as the saying goes. So it would be fictional infanticide of fake babies. Also a joke, which the RW doesn’t get.
I LOL all by myself the first time I saw that trailer. The RW whiners probably didn’t get the reference, and if they did, they’d hate it, what with evolution and space aliens.
@Nequam: I too love when that GIF appears. Keep using it.
@Vicky P: A serious Manly movie about a womanizing dude who created the ultimate weapon during the sacred WWII (U!S!A!), along with a lot of other dudes, under military supervision, with hardly any female characters! It must be superior! (Fun fact: one of my mom’s old boyfriends trained the bomber pilots. He told her, “It’s beyond top secret, but it’s going to end the war FAST.”)
I too am a Superman fan from way back. I missed the first episode of the new show, but have seen all the others. It is charming. And it’s not like Jimmy hasn’t been Black before, though IIRC the MAGAs hated “Supergirl” too.
I didn’t really play with Barbie. After the right wing reaction, I totally wanna see the movie.
I overheard a snippet of conversation yesterday at my regular coffee shop that went something like “if conservatives are shouting that the Barbie movie has a trans agenda, then you know it’s going to be good.”
Some commenters have made it very clear that they think there’s a conspiracy to push the Barbie movie as a way to cover up the release of Sound Of Freedom, a wankfest for Qanon types.
I suspect some of the backlash is rooted in box office envy…
Another driving force to this backlash may be a sudden need to distract attention from all the recent debunking of “Sound of Freedom” — both the story itself and all the mass-buyout of tickets to make it look more popular than it really is. I mean, SoF is a major attempt to reclaim moral high ground the far right have lost on the issue of child-sex-abuse; so they SHOULD be talking about that movie instead, right? That may have been their original plan, but suddenly they’re finding it’s not working, so they gotta pivot to screaming about “Barbie” instead.
And they sure as hell can’t scream about “Oppenheimer” — that shit’s way over their heads, and it’s just another chapter of US history where their side ended up being proven dead wrong.
This review from a site called “Worth It or Woke” (seriously) has made me want to see the movie it’s reviewing more than any other movie review I’ve ever read in my life.
Barbie – Red-Pilled Movie Reviews (worthitorwoke.com)