Shakira Said Her Sons Thought Barbie Was “Emasculating” & She Agrees

Shakira was not a fan of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Neither were her sons. The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer spoke to Allure recently about how she and her sons found the movie “emasculating,” and her comments have people talking.

In a new interview with Allure, the magazine asked Shakira, who is mom to 11-year-old son Milan and 9-year-old son Sasha with ex-partner Gerard Piqué, what she thought of Gerwig’s massively popular 2023 movie Barbie. And she did not mince words with her response. “My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent,” she said. “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.”

Shakira did not stop there. “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,” she continued. “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.”

When asked if women “should do it all” by the interviewer, Shakira replied, “Why not share the load with people who deserve to carry it, who have a duty to carry it as well?”

Shakira’s comments about Barbie, and perhaps more importantly her slightly outdated comments about the roles she believes men and women play in society, did not exactly go over well on X.

“Not Shakira saying women’s success in society is linked to our femininity,” wrote one social media user, while another noted, “women don't owe femininity to anyone, not even themselves... what an awful take. disappointing.”

Another social media user questioned whether or not such young boys would call a movie “emasculating.”

One person wondered if the family watched the film all the way through.

Interestingly enough, Shakira’s profile in Allure was called “Shakira’s She-Wolf Feminism,” crediting the singer, who went through an incredibly public break-up in 2022, with giving a “masterclass on how to transform pain into world domination.” In the same interview she said, “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. Now, no one will control us. No one will tell us how to heal, how to clean our wounds.”

Some fans wondered, given the theme of her profile and the timing of its release on April 1, if perhaps this was an April Fools’ Day joke. As one wrote, “Is this an April Fool’s thing? Because if this is real, Shakira mama this isn’t it. Did you not understand the Barbie movie concept or…? Lmao, & in the same Allure article there’s talk about her ‘she-wolf feminism.’ Like what?! This is weird.”

Shakira and her sons might not have found Barbie enjoyable, but they appear to be in the minority. The film broke box office records, was nominated for several Oscars, and became the real cultural moment of 2023. For men and women alike, in fact.