Conservatives Are Praising 'Barbie' Despite Criticizing Its Liberal Agenda

Conservatives are praising the film “Barbie,” despite many criticizing the movie over its liberal agenda.

Conservative commentators delivered scathing rebukes of the Margot Robbie film, which is based on the iconic Mattel doll that was inspired by Ruth Handler. The doll bears the name “Barbie” because Handler’s daughter was named Barbara.

But surprisingly, at least for me, the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles praised the film, saying that his colleague, Ben Shapiro, “got it all wrong” when it comes to “Barbie.”

Knowles even called the movie’s director, Greta Gerwig, a “genius director” and said the movie is actually “conservative.”

Finally saw “Barbie.” It’s terrific. Greta Gerwig is a genius. Ben is completely wrong.

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) August 1, 2023

“I left the movie a lot more optimistic about the culture,” Knowles said Wednesday on “The Michael Knowles Show.” “‘Barbie’ is great,” he added. “Ben is completely wrong. A lot of conservatives, mostly who haven’t seen the movie, are wrong to think it’s terrible and woke. The movie is splitting the right. I’ve noticed that a lot of the conservative, traditional, kind of hardcore right-wingers really like ‘Barbie.'”

Why I LOVED the Barbie movie.

From ep. 1300: https://t.co/ofVj6oZCrh pic.twitter.com/GMFyoScyNf

— The Michael Knowles Show (@MKnowlesShow) August 2, 2023

Knowles is not the only conservative who praised the film, however. Multiple conservative women have come out and expressed their support for the movie, claiming that it acknowledges “what makes a woman a woman.”

Katrina Trinko, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Signal, said that although the film does include “woke” aspects, it “challenges the understanding of women promulgated by the sexual revolution and modern feminism.” This notion, she said, is one “Conservatives should cheer… not despair.”

The film confronts Barbie (depicted by Margot Robbie) with a choice: stay in Barbie Land, where the Barbies are in charge and the Kens merely exist, or enter the real world.

“Ultimately, the message of ‘Barbie’ is: Barbie’s life isn’t enough. Sure, the world of Barbie is sheeny and sparkles and there’s no aging or cellulite or crying babies or stress. But it’s also vapid, meaningless and loveless,” Trinko writes.

“In some ways, this 1960s doll is in line with the bad thinking of both the sexual revolution and modern feminism – the idea that women could have casual sex, and not be emotionally destroyed, just because they could prevent pregnancy, and the idea that to be a fully realized woman must include having a successful career outside the home,” she says.

“The never-pregnant, never-married, career-laden Barbie is exactly the kind of woman the 1960s thought we might all want to be. Except female desire – including, as it turns out, even in Barbie herself – is just more complicated than that,” Trinko added.

Nina Power, a senior editor at Compact, wrote, “[Director Greta] Gerwig’s film is ultimately good-hearted, breaking the fourth wall to posit a feminist fourth wave.”

“If the first wave sought political representation; the second, women’s reality and history; the third – well, whatever that was; the fourth posits a return to sexual difference, and to a heterosocial world in which men and women largely get along,” she writes.

I also find it interesting that conservatives are praising “Barbie” despite the film’s inclusion of a “transgender” actor. To each his own, I guess.