Calls for moviegoers to boycott the new Barbie movie appear to be growing amid criticism from Republicans including Senator Ted Cruz and Ginger Gaetz, wife of Representative Matt Gaetz.
The movie stars Margot Robbie in the title role and she’s joined by Ryan Gosling, who plays Barbie’s companion Ken. The movie was released in theatres on July 21.
Ted Cruz will speak about the movie during an appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime on Wednesday where he’ll discuss “what woke messaging” Barbie is “hiding”, according to a promo for the senator’s interview shared to Twitter by a researcher at Media Matters for America (MMFA), a watchdog group.
While Senator Cruz will discuss Barbie’s “woke messaging,” he’s already taken aim at the movie because of its inclusion of a world map showing an outline of land labeled “Asia.” There are eight dashes coming out of “Asia” drawn in the sea.
“There’s a scene in Barbie where there is this map of the world and it’s drawn, like, with crayon,” Cruz went on. “I mean, it’s really a very simple cartoon. And so they have this block-ish thing that is called Asia. And then they’ve drawn what are called the nine dashes, which is—this is Chinese Communist propaganda.”
“The Chinese are asserting sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea,” Cruz said. “And they don’t have any right to it under international law but they’re trying to take it away from their neighbors there—take away and claim China’s in charge of the entire sea and no one else, whether Vietnam or Singapore or other nations in that area.”
Matt Gaetz, a Republican who represents Florida’s 1st congressional district, attended the Barbie premiere at the British embassy in Washington, D.C. on Monday along with his wife, Ginger Gaetz, who later criticized the film.
“Thinking about watching the Barbie movie? I’d recommend sticking to getting outfit inspiration and skipping the theater,” she tweeted on Tuesday.
“The Barbie I grew up with was a representation of limitless possibilities, embracing diverse careers and feminine empowerment,” Ginger Gaetz said.
“The 2023 Barbie movie, unfortunately, neglects to address any notion of faith or family, and tries to normalize the idea that men and women can’t collaborate positively (yuck),” she added.
Thinking about watching the Barbie movie?
I’d recommend sticking to getting outfit inspiration and skipping the theater. Here’s why:
The Barbie I grew up with was a representation of limitless possibilities, embracing diverse careers and feminine empowerment.
The 2023 Barbie… pic.twitter.com/AsparSgvS4
— Ginger Gaetz (@LuckeyGinger) July 18, 2023
Ginger Gaetz responded to a tweet praising Gosling’s performance as Ken, saying: “He’s got major beta energy in this one.”
“Beta energy” is a slang insult used to describe a passive, subservient, or weak man.
For his part, Representative Gaetz responded to a tweet that appeared to criticize him for attending the movie.
“Glad to see @mattgaetz enjoying the Barbie premiere. The movie where ‘Doctor Barbie’ is played by a Trans actor. Wonder why we can’t win culture wars? Republicans love being included with the rich and famous too much,” tweeted user Just Mindy, in a reference to the transgender model and actor Hari Nef, who plays Doctor Barbie.
“If you let the trans stop you from seeing Margo Robbie……the terrorists win…..” Gaetz wrote.
Charlie Kirk, president of the conservative group Turning Point USA, has also floated the idea of boycotting the movie. On June 30, he called the film “trans propaganda that is in this hyper-feminine, ultra pink propaganda thing, but it’s really been taken over by the trans mafia,” per MMFA.
Warner Bros., the film’s distributors, issued a statement earlier this month defending the map.
“The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing,” Warner Bros. said. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any type of statement.”
However, authorities in Vietnam have banned Barbie in the country, citing “the illegal image of the ‘cow’s tongue line’ in the film”—a Vietnamese phrase for the nine-dash line.
That line is a marking used by China to indicate what Beijing considers to be its territorial claims in the South China Sea. China claims ownership over a significant portion of the territory, which is disputed by other nations in the region and not internationally recognized.
The Philippines, which has banned movies in the past for depicting the nine-dash line, has not banned Barbie as the country’s Movie and Television Review and Classification Board determined that the cartoon map was a “make-believe journey of Barbie from Barbie Land to the ‘real world'” which is an “integral part of the story.” The country has requested that the map be blurred.
