Ben Shapiro hate-watches ‘divisive’, ‘sexist’ Barbie movie

The film of the year is being slammed as “divisive” and “sexist towards men”, with Ben Shapiro leading the charge.

This story contains spoilers for Barbie.

Ben Shapiro has come under fire for his review of the Barbie movie, as the film of the year cops criticism for being “divisive” and “sexist towards men”.

The premise of Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is simple. Barbie and Ken, played respectively by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, exist in the hot pink and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land, where women reign supreme as presidents, writers, doctors and judges.

When the duo takes a trip to the “real world”, they are surprised to find women and girls still face glaring sexism every day.

Barbie has been slammed as “woke” and “sexist”. Picture: Barbie.

The movie debuted last week to huge critical and commercial success. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an impressive 90 per cent for both audience and critics’ scores.

But at the same time, it’s been condemned by the right for being “man-hating” and “misandrist”.

At the end of the film, patriarchy is strongly questioned, and rightly so. The status quo of Barbie Land — where Ken says he feels overlooked and undervalued — remains intact.

As the narrator explains: “The Barbies will give the Kens as much power in Barbie Land as women have in the real world”. They can have a few judgeships, not half of them. They can have cabinet positions, but not the presidency.

It’s worth noting that Robbie’s Barbie abandons this future in favour of becoming human.

Ben Shapiro slammed the film as “flaming garbage”. Picture: YouTube.

One critic was conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who on Saturday shared a 43-minute YouTube video in which he slammed Barbie as “flaming garbage” and “one of the most woke movies” he’d ever seen.

Shapiro’s review started out on a dramatic note. He began by setting a trio of dolls on fire while holding a toy bomb to signify Oppenheimer, last weekend’s other big release.

Shapiro explained his producers “dragged” him to watch the film, which he said was an “angry feminist claptrap that alienates men from women” and is “explicitly designed to divide men from women.”

“The basic sort of premise of the film, politically speaking, is that men and women are on two sides and they hate each other,” he says.

“And literally, the only way you can have a happy world is if the women ignore the men and the men ignore the women.”

Shapiro went on to question why mums were bringing their kids to watch the film. He slammed Gosling’s Ken as “annoying and ridiculous”.

Shapiro began his review by setting a trio of dolls on fire. Picture: YouTube.

Fans of the movie responded by poking fun at Shapiro’s fiery review.

“Ben Shapiro is a 40-year-old man who’s so upset over a kids movie about Barbie dolls that he made a 43 minute review,” left-wing TikTokker Harry Sisson tweeted.

“lmao is this real,” asked another.

Some even embraced the “misandry” of the film, with one fan writing before the movie premiered: “Barbie is misandry and we are here for it”.

Despite its critics, Barbie made history last week, scoring the biggest opening weekend ever for a female director. Early projections show the film raked in a staggering US$155 million (A$230 million) at box offices across the US and Canada, with a 65 per cent female audience.

Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which was released on the same day, have been credited for “saving cinema”.

In the UK, the concurrent release — dubbed “Barbenheimer” on social media — resulted in the best ticket sales in years with more than 4000 sellout showings, according to local cinema chain Vue.