Editor’s note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show.” Follow him on Threads at www.threads.net/@deanobeidallah. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.
Voices on the right have been calling for a boycott of the new “Barbie” film because to them it’s everything from being “woke“ to somehow “brainwashing” young girls with “Chinese propaganda,” as GOP Sen. Ted Cruz put it. But they just learned they are no match for the Mattel doll. Barbie — metaphorically speaking — drove her pink Dreamcamper right over these critics, breaking box-office records.
Director Greta Gerwig’s movie — starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling — saw a stunning $155 million opening weekend. “Barbie” raked in the biggest opening weekend for 2023 so far, beating out the likes of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Barbie” also marked the biggest opening for a movie based on a toy, eclipsing “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” ($115.9 million), the publication noted.
Given these results, movie studios might want to beg GOP members of Congress, Fox News and others on the right to call for a boycott of their new films.
So, what triggered the right about “Barbie”? We saw a multipronged attack weeks before the film’s opening.
In early July, some Republican lawmakers declared a “war on … Barbie” — as Politico put it — over a childlike drawing of a world map they claimed was designed to appease China. Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who leads a select House panel focused on countering China’s influence, asserted the map — which he described as “cartoonish, crayon-scribbled” — appeared to support Beijing’s territorial claims to a contested portion of the South China Sea. Cruz also weighed in with the comments about Chinese propaganda.
In response, Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, denied any political message. Warner Bros., which like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, explained, “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.”
Fox News has repeated attacks on the film over everything from “wokeness” to inclusivity. One such segment amplified the call against “Barbie” coming from Movieguide, a Christian movie review site, that read, “Warning: Don’t take your daughter to Barbie.” The segment criticized the film for the inclusion of a transgender performer (actor Hari Nef) and for presenting “LGBTQ stories.”
Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy — with a chyron that read “Barbie gets woke makeover” — complained that “the left has given Barbie a complete feminist makeover,” dubbing the film as “just another indoctrination vehicle.” In another attack on the film, guests claimed the depiction of Ken somehow emasculated men.
But the right-wing “Barbie” outrage was not close to being done. Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative group Turning Point USA, called the film “trans propaganda” and “the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen” on his June 30 radio show before floating the idea of a boycott.
Not to be outdone, conservative pundit Ben Shapiro not only repeatedly slammed the film as “woke” — along with many expletives — but he also burned a Barbie doll in effigy. I’m not kidding — he literally lit a doll on fire.
Could there be something else angering these voices on the right beyond what they are telling us?
Well, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York believes so, explaining in a Friday post on Meta’s Threads: “Love how Republican Congressmen are just now hating on Barbie because she’s ‘too woke’ …like hello this was a doll made for little girls who was a DOCTOR and an ASTRONAUT before women in the US were even allowed to have credit cards without their husband’s permission.” She added, “Of course they’re mad! They want the old days back.”
The right’s call for a boycott and its onslaught of criticism obviously have failed to deter moviegoers, given the “Barbie” box-office bonanza. It appears these people have an inflated sense of their importance following their apparent success in targeting Bud Light a few months ago.
That controversy was sparked after Anheuser-Busch, the beer’s maker, sponsored two Instagram posts by Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer. Right-wing commentators and celebrities soon began to protest the beer. Since then, Bud Light sales have plummeted. (Of course, some of the sales loss could be tracked to those on the left upset about Bud Light’s attempt to back away so quickly from the controversy.)
As recently as two weeks ago Fox was touting “How ‘Barbie’ the movie got the ‘Bud Light treatment.’ ” However, “Barbie” didn’t get that treatment, and the movie blockbuster has made its right-wing critics look foolish.
True, conservatives’ call for a boycott could see some success with certain products, but generally only if the consumer base of such products skews right. “Barbie” obviously is not one of them. The right shouldn’t be surprised though. After all, we’re living in a Barbie world.