Writer-Director Greta Gerwig celebrated the release of her new Barbie movie this past weekend. The Barbie Movie, created in collaboration with toy-maker Mattel, earned an estimated $162 million over its opening weekend. The film is full of dreamy shades of pink and Greta Gerwig’s brand of liberal arts college feminism. The film rapidly became an internet sensation inspiring viewers to dress up to the theaters.
The venture has also proved to be exceptionally profitable for Mattel. In addition to their earnings as producers of the film, the initial hype and subsequent success of The Barbie Movie has sent Mattel stock up 18% in the past month. Mattel’s CEO went on record to say that the corporation plans to use this growth to develop an all-new line of incel Ken dolls.
Despite the movie’s commercial and social achievements, The Sundial’s investigative team found it to be particularly unpopular among men. Upon further examination of review sites and countless interviews we found that straight men between the ages of 18-30, notably those without a girlfriend, were exceptionally loud about their negative feelings towards the movie. Many took it to Letterboxd, a popular social networking service focused on film media, to declare their opinions about the film and its disgusting focus on empowering women, an already arrogant group of people. Many cited claims of corporatism and a lack of authenticity in the film about plastic dolls that earn over a $1 billion in profit every year.
Although we found the movie to be unpopular amongst single men, multiple anonymous interviews conducted by our team revealed that a small group of men who did not enjoy the film had girlfriends. Although they were few and far between, our team interviewed these men further to try to decipher what caused their distaste towards the film. The overwhelming response from the group was that they did not approve of the social agendas pushed by the film. One candidate said “Way too much feminism! They had an all-female supreme court! What’s next, I must go down on my girlfriend too?”
Written by Sia Sindhwani