To many, Barbie is a fun, very pink movie about a doll suffering a bout of existential dread. To others, it’s a public menace. Those others, by the way, are mostly conservatives. First Ted Cruz got very angry — and remains very angry — about [drum roll] its depiction of a map. Now Fox News has followed his lead, albeit for a different, also dumb reason.
Fox News' Harris Faulkner: "While everything may seem pink and perfect on the surface, the film ["Barbie"] is getting slammed for empowering women while emasculating men." pic.twitter.com/KcsnsjpsNm
— The Recount (@therecount) July 19, 2023
On Wednesday, the day before moviegoers could start doing those “Barbenheimer” double features, the panel on Outnumbered ganged up on Greta Gerwig’s follow-up to Little Women. Why? Because of its allegedly “toxic femininity.”
“While everything may seem pink and perfect on the surface, the film is getting slammed for empowering women while emasculating men,” fumed Harris Faulkner at the top of the segment.
During the discussion, the panel’s lone man, British conservative writer Douglas Murray, seized upon the film’s depiction of feminism and how Ryan Gosling’s Ken is emasculated — or as Matt Gaetz’s wife memorably put it, has “disappointingly low T.”
“Toxic femininity exists as well. There are brands of masculinity that can be toxic and there are brands of femininity that can be toxic,” Murray said. “Men are always told to damp it down, feminized, become less masculine/ What’s the worst thing to be? An alpha male. Well, there are forms of femininity that people should think about as well, including women who are vile to other women.”
Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall argued that women “don’t need to put men down to lift yourself up as a woman. But I would like, as a feminist, women to empower each other and not rip each other down.”
Tudor Dixon started out on an up note before pouncing. “Obviously, I haven’t seen this movie yet, But I will tell you that in the Barbie that I’ve seen, Barbie in the Dreamhouse, Ken is extraordinarily helpful to Barbie. And I wish Ken would come to my house,” she said. “He’s obviously smart, he’s handsome, he’s built… why do we have to attack Ken? Can more men be like Ken?”
The right may be furious at Barbie now, but just wait till more of them see it — and just wait until they see Oppenheimer, about a guy with communist leanings whose career is cruelly destroyed by petty Republicans.
(Via Mediaite)