By Stevie Adams
This summer has been undoubtedly influenced by the Barbie film, with the hit movie breaking box office records including the highest ever opening weekend. It also took the music industry by storm with a highly successful soundtrack producing four songs reaching the UK top 10 by artists like Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj, including Number 1 smash hit ‘Dance the Night’ by Dua Lipa. Unarguably this film has had a huge impact, but it has not been without criticism with some people dubbing it ‘woke’ and ‘man-hating’.
Piers Morgan, best known for co-presenting Good Morning Britain, has famously bashed the Barbie movie stating ‘The longer Barbie goes on, the more preachy and irritating it gets.’ Piers Morgan has always been seen as a highly controversial character in British culture, with his unapologetic comments on high profile topics like Meghan Markle and mental health. The Barbie film is no different, which he slated as a ‘Feminist Utopia’ as he stated the message was clear, ‘the only solution to this dreadful patriarchal state of affairs is for women to rule the world’. However, this has caused Morgan to come under fire by social media users who claim that the broadcaster ‘didn’t understand a very easy to understand film.’
Piers Morgan is not the only celebrity criticising the film, with the American author Ben Shapiro, posting a YouTube video of him physically destroying Barbie and Ken dolls for 43 minutes whilst stating that the film was a ‘flaming garbage heap’ despite watching the film three times. This left some fans questioning whether he actually enjoyed it? The conservative commentator agreed with Morgan’s take on the film stating that it was an ‘appalling attack on males’ with many conservatives in America strongly backing him. Florida congressman Matt Gaetz was even accused of using the movie to be vocally transphobic and sexually objectifying the star of the movie, Margot Robbie.
However, it is not all negative, with Academy Award winning actress Whoopi Goldberg defending the movie and mocking Shapiro’s anger. ‘It’s a movie! It’s a movie about a doll!’ Goldberg declared, with her co-host of her talk show ‘View’ agreeing and slamming Shapiro and his fellow hates as feeling emasculated by the movie. Many on social media agreed that the only reason these men took offence was because its focus was empowering women in a completely nonsexual way. As Goldberg explained: ‘Barbie has no genitalia, so there’s no sex involved. Ken has no genitalia, so he can’t- it’s a doll movie!’ So maybe Shapiro, Morgan and others are perhaps uninterested in the film due to the lack of women shown in a sexualised way. Maybe they can only appreciate women as objects?
Another possible issue has been the branding of the film. Whilst some people have enjoyed the movie and supported the topics explored, it’s left them questioning whether the film should have been a Barbie movie. Many young kids went to see the film who may not have understood the adult themed jokes and complicated topics. When going into a Barbie film, you are expecting a brand that has typically capitalised on stereotypes of pink loving women and femininity, not a film fighting the patriarchy.
But with all of these varied reactions to the film and its exploration of being a woman in the patriarchy, it proves the need for Barbie, as it has put these topics as a focus in conversations. Love it or loathe it, it’s clear that Barbie has done its job of getting people talking.
