Barbie Stokes Support For Women’s Equal Rights Here And Abroad!

By Donald A. Collins | 22 August 2023
Church and State

Screenshot taken from the trailer of the film Barbie by Greta Gerwig. (Image credit: Wikipedia)

We know already that boosting women’s right to equality with men has already given an exhilarating welcome and effective boost to all aspects of our democracy. Look at our TV media shows with more and more key spots handled better (they are so much better looking than the old white men of my era) by women with fully respected competence! When will we have a woman President or approval of the ERA? That’s not on the MAGA GOP agenda.

Now we can read of Barbie’s impact in the leading Muslim country, Saudi Arabia, from this August 18th Wall Street Journal story headlined “BARBIE” IS FETED IN SAUDI ARABIA BANNED ELSEWHERE”

Barbie’s message for now is not overtly encumbered with LBGTQ references but simply is suggesting to Saudi and other Muslim women and men that there are significant advantages to elevating women to functions beyond their traditional roles as mothers and home makers.

The Journal article–a possible crack in the Muslim monolith of censorship–starts here:

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia—“Barbie,” Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster rom-com about a doll that becomes a human and enters the real world, is facing its own real-world problems: censor boards in parts of the Muslim world.

Kuwaiti authorities banned the movie for promoting “ideas and beliefs that are alien to Kuwaiti society and public order,” according to a statement from an official state news agency. Algeria’s Culture Ministry sent notices to theaters in the country to stop screening the film, declaring that it was “damaging morals,” according to local news reports.

In Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province with over 110 million people, a film board suspended screenings of “Barbie” for 10 days because it was declared to contain “objectionable content.” It was cleared of those accusations on Aug. 1, when the movie resumed playing in theaters there.

Not all conservative Muslim countries are pushing back against the film. Saudi Arabia, long an icon of conservative Islam, permitted “Barbie” in its films earlier this month and many moviegoers got into the spirit of things, wearing pink abayas—the long robe overdress traditionally worn in the Arabian Gulf region—and munching pink éclairs. It was also released in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The Barbie message is being eagerly forwarded beyond Saudi Arabia as you can read the whole powerful article here.

While encouraging, don’t get too optimistic as Barbie won’t be bought in Afghanistan.

Going backwards into an intolerable past is OVER for our younger voters!

Read here more about Barbie’s reception here.

Our democracy’s survival requires a rejection of the flood of issues against our personal freedom which all the defunct GOP’s candidates are offering to bring our republic down!

Barbie’s surge of popularity demonstrates women understand Barbie’s symbolic calls for the freedoms the GOP wants to deny!

Even the presumably far less far right Mike Pence says he is fully committed to anti-abortion rights or religious choice when his constant mantra is “I am a Christian, a Republican and a conservative in that order”. He favors making the US a Christian Nationalist nation.

His views are consistent as you can read here in this 2016 article.

The next Presidential election will be the most important in our nation’s history. Are we on a Fascist path? Are the institutions and laws that have made us the greatest country on Earth to be discarded to allow the most dangerous candidate ever elected President to have a second term?

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us” and “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”.

‘Barbie’ movie banned from multiple Arab countries

The AP interview: Mike Pence on faith, Jan. 6 and Donald Trump

Trump Indictment: Scholar of Fascism Says GOP Has Become an “Autocratic Party” Led by “Cult Leader”

Be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here