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Boy mom Shakira felt Barbie was 'emasculating' to her sons, and fans are stumped
Shakira, did you even watch Barbie?
Shakira is finding herself in the midst of a surprising controversy after coming clean regarding her thoughts about the Barbie movie.
The singer has been promoting her first album in seven years, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry), supposedly filled with songs to empower women. But apparently, women can only be empowered so much before it’s time to settle back down into those handy gender roles.
During a recent conversation with Allure, the topic of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie came up. For the handful of people who may not have seen it yet, the film tackles the idea of the patriarchy in a fairly basic way that really shouldn’t have been upsetting to anyone unless they are firm believers in upholding the patriarchy and male dominance.
And that’s probably why Shakira’s reaction was so surprising to some of her fans.
“My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating,” she admitted. “And I agree, to a certain extent.”
She went on to explain that she wants her sons (who are 11 and 9) “to feel powerful too [while] respecting women.”
“I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide,” she said. “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.”
Her comments left a lot of folks scratching their heads, wondering if she actually watched Barbie at all.
Nobody has to like Barbie. Not every movie is going to resonate with every person. But being this far off base about the takeaway from the film is cringeworthy at best — and a wild thing to say when you’re trying to sell an album promoting female empowerment.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
