The biggest movie in the world right now is director Greta Gerwig’s follow-up to Little Women, and ain’t that grand? Alas, not everyone’s a fan of Barbie. The far right has lost their marbles over an aggressively pink comedy with strong feminist bona fides (plus some nothingburger business about a map that’s enraged Ted Cruz). And yet the movie is if anything even more popular in red states than in blue, which has left Fox News hosts scratching their heads.
A segment on America’s Newsroom was devoted to the comedy’s command performance at the box office this weekend. Unlike others on the right, the hosts weren’t necessarily down on the movie. But they were surprised at a map that showed it was somehow more popular in non-Democrat-dominated states, where Oppenheimer has the edge.
“I don’t know what’s going on down South,” said Daa Perino. “They like this Barbie movie a lot.”
Taylor Riggs argued that it shows those states are a “little more fun,” preferring it to a three-hour panic attack about the birth of atomic warfare.
But Bill Hemmer couldn’t get over the map, asking, “What’s going on” with Barbie’s Red state popularity?”
“I think people in the South like to party,” joked former MTV VJ Kennedy. “And people in the North, you know. They maybe have a little bit of intellectual guilt about the way Western civilization has unfolded.”
Earlier in the segment, Kennedy praised both Barbie and Oppenheimer for being “completely authentic,” she said. “They know their audience, and they’re giving them a multi-dimensional experience that they can be completely attached to and invested in.
“You have something for both types of movie fans,” she continued. “You have a big bubblegum experience where you get to dress up, and then you have something for the intellectual crowd that lets you think and reflect and appreciate history with phenomenal performances, writing, and directing. So it’s rare that all of those things happen at once, but we will take the perfect storm.”
Shocked as they were by red states embracing an openly feminist movie about a doll line, the hosts’ responses were a marked change from others in the party. That includes Ben Shapiro, an adult man pushing 40 who over the weekend released a 43-minute diatribe in which he even burns a Barbie doll. It’s almost as though they’re huffing and puffing about destructive “woke” stuff is falling on deaf ears.
(Via Mediaite)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/fox-news-hosts-baffled-barbie-popular-red-states/