Penna Dexter
They said the movie, Barbie, is ‘subversive.’ Woke. Promotes feminism. But I couldn’t hate it. It was too clever and beautiful. And genuinely funny. A parody of feminism, Barbie, and Mattel itself.
The opening scene takes place on a rocky beach where little girls are playing tea party with baby dolls. Barbie appears — larger than life — in her black and white striped bathing suit. Awestruck, the girls smash their baby dolls on the rocks. A jarring reminder of society’s denigration of women’s motherly role.’
Then we’re introduced to the feminist utopia that is Barbieland. The family simply doesn’t exist there. There is a pregnant Midge. “Didn’t we discontinue her?” wonders the Mattel CEO — played by Will Ferrell.
Each Barbie lives in her own house. The houses have no outer walls. The Barbies can see each other. They greet one another in the morning and affirm, love, and support one another throughout the day. Who needs a family? Who needs men? All Barbies have meaningful jobs: doctors, airline pilots, or astronauts. A Barbie is President, and the Supreme Court is all Barbies. The Kens do something called “Beach.”
Daily Mail columnist, Sarah Vine calls Barbie “a deeply anti-man movie.”
“Every male character is either an idiot, a bigot, or a sad, rather pathetic loser.”
Barbie’s purpose, as she understands it, is to help little girls grow up to run the real world.
Margot Robbie — the perfect Barbie — winks at the little girls surrounded by their broken baby dolls as if to reassure them. ‘Ladies, we’ve got this.’
When Barbie travels to the real world, she realizes she and the other Barbies have failed. “You represent everything wrong with our culture,” a teenager tells her.
Co-writer and producer Greta Gerwig’s previous movies portray men as oppressive authority figures. Her good men are disrespected or demeaned by female characters. Here, the Mattel executives are buffoonishly authoritarian. The Kens — and real-world fathers — are weak and compliant.
Behold:  feminism’s rotten fruit.

Kerby Anderson
Tim Busch begins his commentary with this quote: “We don’t want to convert the young people to Christ or to the Catholic Church or anything like that.” He then asks, who said this? Not an atheist. Not a defender of the separation of church and state. Not even a member of another religion.
It was spoken by a leader in the Catholic church. No matter what your denominational background (Catholic, Protestant, etc.), you can probably see the issue. We have a loss of courage and conviction. He observes that “many religious believers are losing the courage to defend their beliefs. Yet modern society desperately needs vibrant faith communities that stand strong for timeless principles and deeper truths.”
We are facing threats to the sanctity of human life and threats to the institutions of marriage and family. We are facing threats to our ability to practice our religious beliefs, though we have recently enjoyed many victories for religious liberty in the courts. And he concluded that one of the biggest threats facing modern society is the rise of transgenderism.
His question is appropriate: “Will religious believers take the heat without melting? Many are, but others are not.” He points to religious hospitals facing pressure to accept transgenderism and concludes that we “make clear that changing genders is impossible and wrong.”
His observations and conclusions are what we have been discussing on radio for the last few years. It has become even more important for Christians to develop biblical discernment when so many issues and principles are up for debate. And it is equally important for Christians to develop biblical courage to act on those biblical convictions.
I agree with his assessment that religious believers need to address these social issues that will determine the direction America takes. It is time for Christians to show courage.