On occasion, even a thoroughly propagandized feminist can see the problem with wokeness.
In an interview with Allure published Monday, pop star Shakira criticized the Oscar-nominated movie “Barbie” for its clear anti-male agenda.
“I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide,” the 47-year-old Colombian singer said.
In fact, Shakira’s full comments showed that she understood and rejected the film’s ugly message.
“I watched it, yeah,” the singer said, followed by what interviewer Patricia Alfonso Tortolani called a “Long pause.”
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When asked to elaborate, the three-time Grammy winner took the perspective of a mother.
“My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent. I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women,” she said.
Women can have power, Shakira said, without “robbing men of their possibility to be men.”
“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,” she said.
Do you agree with her about “Barbie”?
Those comments might strike the reader as eye-opening for the fact that they came from a modern, secular, propagandized feminist.
For instance, in the same interview, Shakira referred to the biblical account of Eve as “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.”
Still, that ahistorical and cringe-inducing remark should not detract from the singer’s sensible criticism of “Barbie.”
Indeed, in the days preceding its release, multiple reviewers panned the film as a woke screed against an imagined patriarchy.
Understandably, the Oscar-nominated pink nightmare did not sit well with some prominent voices on the right.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, for instance, colorfully lambasted “Barbie” as “a flaming piece of dogs*** piled atop an entire dumpster on fire, piled atop a landfill filled with dogs***.”
Furthermore, the film’s perceived anti-male message even included a creepy factor typical of modern Hollywood.
Transgender “Barbie” actor Hari Nef — a man pretending to be a woman — described the film as “a celebration of femininity” and “how far it can be taken.”
Did that include subversive messages directed toward children?
“It’s candy with a little poison, and that’s what I like,” Nef added, sending chills down spines everywhere.
Meanwhile, “Barbie” fans have made themselves almost as obnoxious as the film itself. In January, for instance, many complained when neither director Greta Gerwig nor lead actress Margot Robbie received Oscar nominations despite the fact that the film was nominated for Best Picture — snubs the fans perceived as more evidence of the imagined patriarchy.
In other words, if you have not yet seen “Barbie,” you should probably keep it that way.
On balance, Shakira’s comments seem like another signal that wokeness might have finally gone too far.
After all, like most pop stars, she has hardly built her career on outward modesty.
In 2005, for instance, she topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with the sultry “Hips Don’t Lie.” On YouTube, the video for that song had nearly 1.4 billion views as of Tuesday morning.
In other words, no one will mistake Shakira for a Mennonite.
Thus, her welcome defense of men and women who “complement each other” might remind us of “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, another liberal feminist who has rejected wokeness — in Rowling’s case, by steadfastly refusing to bow to the transgender mob.
Of course, we do not agree with Shakira’s perspective on history or the Bible. But perhaps the former slave and legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass put it best.
“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong,” Douglass wrote in 1855.
