Conservatives aren’t playing with Barbie, with many on the right slamming the colorful blockbuster as a “woke ... flaming garbage heap.”
The likes of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Sen. Ted Cruz, and the wife of US Rep. Matt Gaetz are among those who have taken to the streets — also known as social media and Fox News — to denounce Greta Gerwig’s film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
Dubbed a “flaming garbage heap of a film,” Shapiro tweeted that the flick is “one of the most woke movies I have ever seen.”
Speaking on Fox News, 52-year-old Cruz admitted to not having seen the movie, but still dismissed it as essentially Chinese propaganda. The Texas senator pointed to the film’s inclusion of the “nine-dash line” — in favour of China’s territorial claims of the South China Sea — as evidence of Barbie attempting “to kiss up to the Chinese communist party ... to make money selling the movie in China.”
The “offending” map move rendered the film banned in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Ginger Gaetz, the wife of Matt Gaetz, took to Twitter to bemoan, in part, the “disappointingly low T from Ken,” referring to his level of testosterone.
Jack Posobiec, senior editor at HumanEvents.com, said the “horror show” film was not only “man-hating” but a “woke propaganda fest.”
Fox News helped spur the call to #BoycottBarbie after promoting a review by Christian site MovieGuide, which says the film is “pushing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender character stories,” per Rolling Stone.
However, that boycott hasn’t seemed to gain much traction. At the time of publication, Barbie holds a 90% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also been crowned the winner of box office previews for this summer and year to date. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service