Lebanon, once thought of as among the most liberal parts of the Middle East, is poised to ban global hit movie “Barbie.” More conservative Kuwait said Wednesday that it had gone ahead with a ban due to its promotion of homosexuality.
It’s disgusting that homosexuality is seen as such an abhorrent thing in this day and age. Are all humans not capable of love? If the answer is a resounding yes, then why are we stopping consenting adults from expressing this? Because of some archaic scripture from thousands of years ago? Excuse my French here, Lebanon, but kindly get to fuck.
This is exactly why the separation of church and state is supposed to exist in democracies. The zealots will continue to take away your rights until morale improves.
I’ll just mention that in the middle east the vast majority of people don’t support LGBT rights. Bringing up the separation of church and state makes no sense in this context.
So what? should you bring your “democracy” over there? It happens in Kuweit (8000km away) for a stupid american movie.
I am rather shocked by the amount of money this dump made, it gives quite an indication on the level of maturity of this f’d up society.
Yes I know, i’m uncool
That phrase was added in the 1950s, as right wingers provoked the red scare.
As a gay man, these are my thoughts every single day. Do I not deserve love? Is some old book really more important than what’s happening now? I just don’t get it.
It’s not about the book, it’s not even about sexuality. Yes these are the justifications they use, but at the core it’s all about finding someone they can hurt, and they found you. The cruelty is the point.
This seems a bit oversimplified ? I am no scholar, but as far as I can tell it’s phobias all the way down : these islamic lawmakers (certainly not using the term muslim here as I reserve it to refer to decent religious people) don’t know shit about homosexuality, and as we know ignorance holds the door open for bigotry and hate. This quickly becomes self-perpetuating as gay folks have no way of changing that status quo without risking their lives, and become invisible in these societies. I would say it’s about difference, and difference in sexuality certainly
Are you seriously whatabouting countries that regularly arrest and torture queer people for being queer?
I think your number is a bit off.
Edit to reflect the true severity or the comment is getting removed for misinformation.
Maybe I’m desensitized, but I honestly don’t remember any gay moments in this movie. There are obviously plenty of guys wearing really “flamboyant” outfits, but it was contrasted with their toxic masculinity (i.e. behavior mostly associated with the types of people who actually tend to be homophobic), which is what made it so goddamn funny.
And I also have no idea what they’re talking about with promoting body transformation. Unless you know going in that the one actress is trans, you might not even guess she is. The main joke that even references genitalia is making fun of the fact that the Barbie and Ken dolls have nothing there…
And all this is beside the point anyway. Modern societies shouldn’t be catering to the precious feefees of religious/conservative snowflakes. They can just choose not to see this movie instead of ruining it for everyone.
I also have no idea what they’re talking about with promoting body transformation
Well, there is the
spoiler
last line in the movie
I saw it in the trailer too but just in case, upcoming spoiler: maybe the whole beaching each other off scene? I can’t think of any others besides that, which if it is the one, then that’s kind of funny in a ridiculous way.
Good point, but I feel like they could probably just translate that scene without having the innuendo (like the direct translation for “beach off” probably doesn’t sound anything like the translation of “beat off”, so it would become more of a whimsical non sequitur directly translated).
I think there’s a fair amount in this movie that doesn’t really translate well outside American/Western culture anyway. For me, that scene was funny because it’s repeating a pun that points to the Ken characters’ innocence when in the real world, they’d be mocked mercilessly by some people. And it forces the audience to think about their own reactions when insecure straight men sometimes follow sentences like that jokingly with, “no homo,” to point out that, despite unintentionally saying something that sounded kind of gay, they are not in fact gay. At any rate, I don’t see this scene as an endorsement of homosexuality, but rather a commentary on society’s fixation on hypermasculine language.
Even if it was the case, what’s wrong about homosexuality? Who the fuck cares who fuck who? We have one life. Let people live like they fucking want. End of the story, end of the argument. If there’s a god, let that god be the judge of it. The rest is none of your god damn business
This is actually a good argument for these cultists. Are you playing god now? Let him punish these evil people minding their own business
As a Muslim I can understand arguments stemming from liberalism, but this one makes no sense. Islam is pretty clear about what should be done with known homosexuals, and leaving them alone isn’t it. Again, I can understand not agreeing with the principle from the start, but the “let God deal with it” is illogical.
It’s not even about “liberalism” or “conservative” mentality. It’s just common sense really. How the fuck does homosexuals hurt you in any way? Nothing. They don’t hurt anybody. They cannot magically turn you gay, you are born gay - or not. That’s all. Now this will never stop being a thing. It was a thing 25,000 years ago, it will be a thing in 25,000 years from there, it’s a thing in the animal kingdom, it’s not a disease you can transmit, nobody ever turned gay at 40 years old like “sheesh fuck vaginas, I like penis now”. Like what the fuck? If you are against homosexuals, you are pretty much against whatever god your parents told you to believe in, because it’s natural. It’s a creation of said gods.
The more people figure that out, the faster we can actually focus on real issues that ARE actually affecting us all; economy, inflation, climate change, job crisis, pandemics, heat waves, hurricanes, healthcare, etc. THOSE ARE REAL CONCERNS IN THE REAL WORLD.
Drop the fucking stupid bullshit with gays, lesbians, abortions and religions, those are all non-issues that doesn’t matter in the end. This isn’t 1532, we are in 2023 for fuck sake
If that is the case then your religion is immoral and you should leave it.
Religion was, and still is, about power and control over others. Observant people in the past noticed that homosexuals didn’t produce as many (if any) children compared to others. Less children means less bodies for your army. A smaller army means less power. Less power means less control. Therefore religions focused on power and control hate homosexuals.
Religion is a cancer on this world.
I have seen the movie, and I am still wondering where it is supposed to promote homosexuality. Neither Barbie nor Ken give any such vibes. Only thing Ken seems to suffer is a permanent case of blue balls, even if he lacks the equipment…
You’re assuming that they’re honest about their reasons, which is not the case.
The main message of the film (besides being a 2h ad for Mattel) is gender equality and female empowerment.
This threatens these people more than homosexuality, but I imagine even for them saying “we don’t want our women to even imagine a world where they’re not subservient to men” would be a tough sell.
Far fewer people are willing to stand up to defend the LGBT community so they’re a convenient scapegoat (‘conservatives’ will always find a group small enough to target in order to push their unpopular policies, it just works).
