‘Emasculating’: Shakira’s big problem with hit movie, Barbie

Colombian superstar Shakira has lashed out at a Hollywood blockbuster for a surprising reason.

Colombian superstar Shakira says she and her sons found the Barbie movie “emasculating”.

Colombian superstar Shakira has criticised the Barbie movie for being “emasculating”.

The mother-of-two said her boys, Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9, “absolutely hated it” in a cover interview with Allure magazine.

“They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent,” she said of the highest grossing movie of 2023.

“I’m raising two boys. I want ‘em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide.

“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.

“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 has criticised the Barbie movie after her sons, aged 11 and 9, felt it was emasculating. Picture: Mireya Acierto/Getty Images/AFP

Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, the film involves Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) leaving Barbieland, a utopia run by women, and going to the real world, where she is shocked by a patriarchal society.

Shakira only just released a new music video which is also set in a world where women rule.

Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken in a scene from the film when the dolls travel from Barbieland to the real world.

The Puntería music video shows Shakira and Cardi B playing the daughters of Artemis – the Greek goddess of hunting, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity – hunting down centaurs.

“The centaurs, they’re in ecstasy,” Shakira told Allure. “Because on this planet, the men are happy to be dominated by women.”

The Puntería music video from Shakira's new album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.

It is set in a world where women rule.

Her new album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, which was released last month, follows her messy break-up with retired soccer star Gerard Piqué, the father of her two children, in 2022.

She told Allure she transformed her pain into creativity while making the music and hopes it will help women discover their own strengths.

“In the past, when women went through a difficult situation, they were expected to mind their manners, to hide the pain, to cry in silence. That’s over,” she said. “Now, no one will control us. No one will tell us how to heal, how to clean our wounds.”

Shakira and Gerard Pique said in June, 2022 they were calling time on their relationship of more than a decade. Picture: Bryan R. Smith / AFP

Shakira, 47, recently shut down rumours she caught Piqué, 37, cheating on her via a jam jar – one that only she liked in their household – confirming it was “not true”.

“For a long time I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so he could play football,” she added to Sunday Times. “There was a lot of sacrifice for love.”

Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran is her first album in seven years.

Originally published as ‘Emasculating’: Shakira’s big problem with hit movie, Barbie