Shakira and her sons think Barbie is emasculating
Kaitlyn Huamani April 1, 2024
Shakiras hips
may not don’t
lie
,
and she
certainly
doesnt
hold back on the truth mince words
, either.
When asked about her thoughts on the record-smashing Barbie movie in a wide-ranging interview for Allure, the singer
got candid in voicing her criticism criticizedof how
the film
‘s
approach
es to
its feminist themes.
My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent, she said.
I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women, she continued. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide.
The
singer Grammy winner
, who shares her sons with her ex-husband
, former soccer star
continued clarifying her distaste for the film said men and women need to complement each other
.
I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity. I think that men have a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well. We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost.
When asked if women should have to do it all, Shakira replied, Why not share the load with people who deserve to carry it, who have a duty to carry it as well?
Shakira
spoke about discussed
feminism at length in the interview for Allures cover
story
, saying that her recent music is about a newborn woman and connecting with the woman inside of you. In what seems to be a departure from her comments about Barbie, she spoke about her music video for Puntera with Cardi B, in which they inhabit a planet where she says men are happy to be dominated by women.
The singer-songwriter, whose new album
,
,
was released in late March, is not the only public figure to criticize Barbie. Still, the films commercial success speaks to its wide reach and resonance.
In a February interview with The Times, director Greta Gerwig
spoke of how important it was for of revealed why she wanted
the struggle
s
of
the
Ken
sand the male characters
to be rounded out just as much as the Barbies
turmoilstruggleswere
.
We take his plight seriously. We take every part of what he goes through seriously, even to the point of he gets an anthem, and he is on his own journey of self-discovery. And I think one thing that Ryan [Gosling] brought to it was a degree of empathy, Gerwig said. Theres not a villain in the movie, and theres no one who is not deserving of our sympathy or our empathy.
In the same interview, Barbies star and producer
,
Margot Robbie
,
said
that
the overwhelmingly positive response to the film is gratifying.
We set out to make a film that would break through cultural norms, bring audiences together and entertain and engage them on a profoundly emotional level, Robbie said. To have been able to do that at this scale and magnitude and have this film resonate the way it did is truly beyond our wildest imaginations and our greatest reward.
