You’re kidding us! Shakira of all people didn’t like Barbie?!
The Waka Waka singer unleashed the scorching hot take in her new Allure profile on Monday. During a convo about feminism, the question came up about the already beloved film. But Shak disappointed the interviewer by saying:
“I watched it, yeah.”
And then a long pause. Eventually she fired off:
“My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating.”
But that wasn’t all! She’s on the hater train, too! She said:
“And I agree, to a certain extent. I’m raising two boys. I want ’em 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. 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.”
“Robbing men of their possibility to be men”? “Losing our femininity”?? Uh oh. It kind of sounds like Shakira thought Barbie was woke garbage! Is this woman really team Ben Shapiro?!
That’s pretty upsetting, tbh. We thought the movie pretty specifically mocked toxic masculinity, not that it said men in general were useless. Or in other words, it made fun of LAME GUYS. But if you hear No Scrubs and immediately think, WhY aRe tHeY bEinG mEaN tO Me? Well, we can’t help you there.
Related: Is Shakira Dating This Emily In Paris Hottie?!
Obviously Shakira’s sons are very young, and the movie wasn’t necessarily made for that demo. But adult men — and women — who thought the movie was just anti-man? OR anti-femininity??? We don’t get it.
But honestly we also don’t get how Shakira could be so anti-Barbie when she’s also preaching such an anti-patriarchy message herself! Heck, she told the Allure reporter, when asked about playing the role of the Biblical Eve on the cover of her 2005 album Oral Fixation, Vol. 2:
“Eve was a story created by misogynists to put women in the little box where we have to remain silent, not speak our minds, and not be a catalyst for change. To keep things as they are… I think there’s something refreshing about women when they get to be themselves and be unapologetic. Because we’ve had to apologize so many damn times in the past.”
We mean… preach it, gurl! But like… she also thought Barbie was reductive? She’s definitely not on that Shapiro crybaby wavelength, so what gives?
Well, it may be that word in there we mentioned. It kind of sounds like Shak doesn’t want to be preached to! While speaking about recording her new music after her very public divorce, she explained:
“Creating this album has been a transformation in which I have been reborn as a woman. I have rebuilt myself in the ways I believe are appropriate. No one tells me how to cry or when to cry, no one tells me how to raise my children, no one tells me how I become a better version of myself. I decide that.”
“No one tells me how I become a better version of myself.” Definitely not a plastic doll come to life, right?
But again, even if she didn’t dig the messenger, she’s kind of hammering the same message as far as we can tell. Because she said:
“In the past, when women went through a difficult situation, they were expected to mind their manners, to hide the pain, to cry in silence. That’s over. Now, no one will control us. No one will tell us how to heal, how to clean our wounds.”
Sounds good to us. What do YOU think about Shakira’s read on Barbie? And how it parallels or differs from her own version of feminism?? You can read her full interview for more context HERE!
[Image via Warner Bros/YouTube/Shakira/Instagram.]