Summary
The summer ofBarbiehas taken over the world. Since its release this past July, millions of fans worldwide have dusted off their pink attire and made their way into the theaters to watch Greta Gerwig’s reimagining of the popular Mattel doll. While the film is mostly celebrated by fans and critics alike, it has also been met with some backlash due to its feminist themes.
Barbiefollows Margot Robbie as the titular character as she makes her way out of Barbieland and into the real world, where she realizes women no longer rule society and are subject to the patriarchy more often than not. Though it has been widely met with praise, not only for its core discussion of feminism, power imbalance, and womanhood but also for its hilarious dialogue and outstanding performances by the ensemble, it has proven to be a controversial topic internationally. Earlier in July,Vietnam prohibited screenings of Barbieafter it was revealed that the film depicted a map with the nine-dash line, a set of line segments that assert China’s territorial claims of the South China Sea. Now, three weeks after the film’s premiere, two more countries seek to ban the film in their territory.
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Lebanon’s culture minister Mohammad Mortada said on Wednesday thatBarbiewas found to promote homosexuality and contradict “values of faith and morality,“Varietyreports. “The film goes against moral and religious values in Lebanon, as it encourages perversity and gender transformation while calling for the rejection of patriarchy and ridiculizing the role of mothers,” said Mortada. Due to the culture minister’s comments, the General Security’s censorship committee must review the films and give its recommendation.
Furthermore, Kuwait also officially joins theBarbie-banning crowd. The state’s news agency said on Tuesday that it had bannedBarbieand thesupernatural horror filmTalk to Meto protect “public ethics and social traditions.” As for Lebanon, the move against the Warner Bros. film is not surprising. For years, the country has been cataloged as one of the most liberal parts of the Middle East, so much so that they were the first Arab country to hold a gay pride week in 2017. But experts believe that a period of economic and political instability may cause that position to change.
The Middle East is no stranger to censoring or banning movies that deal with sex, homosexuality, and religious issues.Barbie’srelease in the regionhad been delayed several times for this exact reason, being pushed back from July 19 to Aug. 31 after censors suggested edits related to the LGBTQ-related narration and dialogue in the film. Regardless, Gerwig’sBarbiehas already proven to be a historic picture for the industry, garnering an 88 percent critic score and an 84 percent audience score at Rotten Tomatoes and raising $1 billion at the global box office, making it the biggest performance for a film directed by a female filmmaker.
