Lebanon wants to ban the Barbie movie for ‘promoting homosexuality’
Lebanon wants to ban the Barbie movie for allegedly 'promoting homosexuality'.
The Greta Gerwig film has seemingly taken over the world and painted it in pink.
It has been setting box office records ever since it premiered and has become a cinematic sensation.
However, not everywhere is soaking up the fantastic plastic universe.
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Lebanon could soon not show the film over fears it contradicts the country's religious values.
According to Reuters, the culture minister, Mohammad Mortada, believes Barbie promotes homosexuality and 'sexual transformation'.
He also said it 'contradicts values of faith and morality' by downplaying the importance of the family unit.
The promotion of homosexuality part is the one that's mildly confusing because there really isn't much going on in the 114 minute film that is actively gay.
While the 'beach you off' bit between the Kens could be construed as promoting LGBTQIA+ people, the rest of the movie leans pretty hard into heteronormativity, according to NBC.
But that hasn't stopped Mohammad Mortada calling on Lebanon’s general security agency to stop Barbie from being shown in cinemas.
Margot Robbie told Attitude that there was a concerted effort to make sure they cast people from a variety of backgrounds.
“We wanted Barbie Land to feel incredibly inclusive. And we wanted this film to feel like everyone was welcome," she said.
"So, it was so important that, kind of, every person that was, like, coming aboard the party would be able to represent someone else that could be watching this movie.”
The film has also been banned in Vietnam for a very different reason.
The country revealed the decision to not show Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling's big screen smash hit was because there's a scene that features a map showing the 'nine dash line'.
The 'nine dash line' is used on Chinese maps to show the territory they claim in the South China Sea.
There's a whole series of disputed islands in the waters and China has been creating artificial islands with military bases to assert their claims on the area.
In 2016 an international tribunal ruled against the extent of China's claims in the sea but the government in Beijing has not recognised the ruling and continues to assert it has a claim on essentially all of the disputed islands in the area.
The South China Sea is contested by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Phillippines, Malaysia and Brunei, so a map showing the 'nine dash line' would not likely go down well in Vietnam, who say China's claims in the region violate their sovereignty.
You might think that Barbie might have been able to spot this coming considering she's spent time as a diplomat and ambassador for UNICEF but apparently not.
Stewart Perrie