Singer Shakira said her two boys, who are 11 and 9, absolutely “hated” the Barbie movie.

In a recent interview, Shakira was asked if she had seen the Barbie movie, and she responded after a long pause.

“My sons absolutely hated it,” she told Allure magazine in its April 2024 cover story. “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.”

The three-time Grammy winner continued, “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 “Whenever, Wherever” singer said she embraced feminism and that her idol was Wonder Woman as a young girl.

“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,” Shakira said.

Director Greta Gerwig has received praise for her Barbie film that took the popular childhood Mattel doll and brought it to the big screen with an all-star cast, high production value, colorful visuals, and an extensive marketing campaign. The film cracked $1 billion at the box office within one month of its release.

The film displays Gerwig’s view of Barbie. While Barbie is shown as a stereotypical Barbie played by actress Margot Robbie, the power dynamic is unequal in the film’s Barbieland. Every meaningful job, including the president and Supreme Court justices, in her world is dominated by women who live in mansions. The feminist utopia in Gerwig’s depiction of Barbie’s world also sidelines the Kens, having them live without housing, sustainable jobs, and even romance. In the end, Barbie admits to not even liking Ken in a romantic context.

“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. Just because a woman can do it all doesn’t mean she should? Why not share the load with people who deserve to carry it, who have a duty to carry it as well?” Shakira said.

“You like Shakira because of her comments about BARBIE. I like Shakira because she didn’t pay her taxes. We are not the same,” Brett Dasovic, host of Timcast’s Pop Culture Crisis podcast, quipped on social media about Shakira’s Barbie comments.

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Last August, HBO host Bill Maher called the film “fun” but also a “man-hating” movie.

“OK, ‘Barbie’: I was hoping it wouldn’t be preachy, man-hating, and a #ZombieLie — alas, it was all three,” Maher said on social media. “What is a Zombie Lie? Something that never was true, but certain people refuse to stop saying it.”