Barbie used to make people on the left angry.
The classic version of the doll celebrated an impossible feminine ideal with her narrow waist, large bust, and feet perpetually ready for high heels. Yes, she was a doctor, an astronaut, and lots of other impressive things, but there were a lot of things that made left-leaning parents question whether the doll made sense for their children.
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The Greta Gerwig "Barbie" movie starring Margot Robbie as the famed doll plays with some of the stereotypes perpetuated by the Mattel (MAT) -) doll. It's a movie that's meant to both embrace the iconic character and break it down.
In many ways, it's a film that lives in the same world as 2014's "The Lego Movie." It's an attempt to examine ideas like imagination and play against expectations and stereotypes.
Mostly, Gerwig is looking to celebrate Barbie in a way that also modernizes a character that has always been a strange mix of modern and anachronistic. That's a complicated balance, but mostly the director and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) -) want to build a major franchise with a take on the character that's a little more clever than most movies based on toys.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, however, does not like when people have fun things. He has not seen the "Barbie" movie, but he still has campaigned against it for a reason that's probably going to surprise you.
Image source: TheStreet
Ted Cruz Links "Barbie" to Communist China
"The 'Barbie' movie is coming out right now. I'm the dad of two young daughters. This is going to be a big movie, particularly for a lot of young girls," Cruz said in an interview with The Daily Signal, a conservative news website.
"There's a scene in 'Barbie' where there is this map of the world and it's drawn like with crayon. I mean it's really a very simple cartoon. So they have this blockish thing that is called 'Asia' and then they have drawn what are called the 'nine dashes," the Texas Senator charged. "This is Chinese communist propaganda."
The "nine dashes" are considered to be China asserting sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea (which includes areas that are not controlled by the country). Had Gerwig, Mattel, and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) -) put the nine dashes in the movie, Cruz would have a point, but the movie studio called nonsense on the Senator's claim.
“The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing,” a spokesperson for the Warner Bros. Film Group said. “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.”
The studio, if it was doing the bidding of communist China, would of course, have to make that statement, but Tufts University International Politics Professor Dan Drezner slammed the door shut on Cruz's claims.
"It’s a nonsense map," he wrote on his blog. "There are squiggles and arrows and hashtags and dotted lines all over the damn place. To the extent that the map is supposed to depict the Pacific Rim, the dotted line is nowhere close to where the actual nine-dash line is."
Cruz Is Seeking His Own Disney/DeSantis War
Many of the Republican candidates for president have built their reputations on taking on what they perceive as "woke" culture. That has worked (to a point) for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who has built his national reputation on his willingness to accuse Walt Disney (DIS) -) of supporting a woke agenda and sexualizing children in its movies.
DeSantis has also jumped into the boycott of Anheuser-Busch (BUD) -) products after the company's decision to partner its Bud Light Brand with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. That protest, which has caused Bud Light sales to drop by 30%, has resonated with right-leaning consumers.
Efforts to brand the "Barbie" movie as woke propaganda appear about as successful as when Cruz went after Big Bird for sharing information about washing your hands and other health precautions during the covid pandemic. The film is tracking to make $95-105 million in its opening weekend and the hashtag #boycottbarbie has only received about 407 mentions in the past 30 days, Rolling Stone reports.
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