Minor spoiler warning: As you can expect, the Barbie movie is a celebration of the doll and what it represents to young girls and women, being the first doll released that wasn’t centred around childcare or being a housewife. She didn’t have any familial obligations nor did she have a husband, and instead had thousands of jobs. From President Barbie to Ordinary Barbie, the Greta Gerwig film emulates this idea that the Mattel toys have been and continue to be a symbol of progression for women, so logically, it would make sense that Trans Barbie finds her rightful spot in the universe, right?
The answer is yes but Christian right-winged Americans of course have an issue with it. A faith-based film review site claims that the Barbie movie has forgotten its “core audience” and warns parents not to bring their daughters to watch it. Why all this outrage? Because transgender actress Hari Nef, who you might recognize from HBO’s The Idol, appears in the film as Doctor Barbie.
In addition to that straight up ignorant article, a petition has been started (the world needs to heal for real) on CitizenGO to boycott the Barbie movie. We’ll spare the spew of absolute bullsh*t the petition’s manifesto preaches, but it’s exactly the transphobic aggressions you’d expect from someone who refers to Barbie’s “gender ideology”. However, with a mere 6,690 signatures, this petition has nothing on Barbie’s $145 million budget or its $377 million opening weekend box office revenue. Let the numbers speak for themselves.
This isn’t the first time Barbie has pissed off those opposed to the ‘woke’, ‘gender ideology’ liberal agenda – conservatives love that word lol. In 2022, Mattel released the first-ever transgender Barbie with trans Emmy-winning actress Laverne Cox. If a minute-long clip of Hari Nef was enough to rile up conservatives this much, just imagine the fit they threw when the trans Barbie doll came out.
Sorry (not sorry) right-wing conservatives, but trans Barbie is here to stay. She’s a true and valid form of expression just as much as Astronaut Barbie, Christie Barbie, Air Force Pilot Barbie, Malibu Barbie, Earring Magic Barbie… They are all Barbie, and Barbie is all of us.
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