Broadcaster Megyn Kelly slammed Barbie as an attempt to ‘rehab Barbie’s image’ in a shocking rant about the film and the patriarchy.
The critically acclaimed Greta Gerwig-directed film has become a huge cultural phenomenon, grossing $356 million worldwide on it's opening weekend.
Starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, the film follows the doll’s existential crisis which forces her to embark on a journey from Barbieworld to the real world, which leads to unexpected consequences when Ken returns to Barbieworld high on patriarchal power. After years of feeling unseen and forgotten, Ken transforms Barbieworld into a horse-themed haven called Kendom.
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Although Barbie has won the hearts of millions, it’s also now at the center of a culture war as conservative political commentators criticize it for being too ‘woke’.
Sky News contributor Megyn Kelly has now shared her two cents about the movie, mocking it as an ‘atonement tour’ for the Mattel doll, who hit toy store shelves for the first time in 1959.
Speaking to Sky News Australia’s Paul Murray, Kelly said that while she hasn’t watched the film ‘yet’, she said she doesn’t ‘have much of an opinion yet’.
Despite this, Kelly continued: “But I can say this: from where I stand, it looks like the atonement tour.
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“Barbie’s atoning for her 40 years of being so disproportionately voluptuous that no woman in the world could live up to this or have a figure that way."
The former Fox News personality said the film serves to rehabilitate Barbie’s image as a whole.
Kelly acknowledged the ‘fine’ representation with ‘all the diverse Barbies and the disabled Barbies’ but said the movie attacks the patriarchy.
“This is like they've been on the tour of trying to rehab Barbie’s image and this is the ultimate exercise in that,” Kelly complained.
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“Where she realised that outside of Barbie world she's not the one in control, she's got to deal in the real world where the men are in charge - the patriarchy reigns!
“Sure, tell that to any white guy trying to apply to college across the United States or Australia or anyplace else right now. They don't feel like they're in charge anymore.
“They actually feel like they need to hide their race and their gender if they want to get accepted into any MBA program, or bank on Wall Street, or you could go down the list.”
“It may still have the capital P patriarchy in the view of Barbie. But for those of us living in the real world already, Barbie, the patriarchy has been long gone. And it's a really tough time, actually, to be a guy.”
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Barbie director and co-writer Greta Gerwig is aware of the people criticizing her film for being ‘woke’.
She responded to the complaints in a recent interview with the New York Times, saying: “Certainly, there’s a lot of passion. My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men.
“I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.”
Topics: Film and TV, Barbie