Bill Maher is the latest middle-aged white man to weigh in with his opinions on Barbie. The Real Time host slammed the Greta Gerwig-directed movie — which, by the way, just surpassed $1 billion at the global box office — as “preachy, man-hating, and a zombie lie.”
Maher explained in his lengthy review on X (formerly known as Twitter) that a “zombie lie” has two definitions — and that Barbie is one that tells the story of “something that used to be true but no longer is, but certain people pretend it’s still true.”
In the movie, Barbie (Margot Robbie) is forced to take back ownership of Barbieland after a trip to the “real world” teaches Ken (Ryan Gosling) all about the patriarchy. When he returns to his homeland before Barbie, he teaches the concept of patriarchy to the rest of the Kens, thus forcing the women to scheme their way back into power and overcome the patriarchy once and for all.
Maher took issue with the film — which takes place in 2023 — because he felt it didn’t accurately portray the current power structure of the world, which he claimed is “not really any longer deserving of the word ‘patriarchy.'” He added, “Yes, there was one, and remnants of it remain — but this movie is so 2000-LATE.”
For instance, he pointed out that the film’s Mattel board, which is led by a character played by Will Ferrell, consists of 12 white men — when, in real life, the board is made up of seven men and five women. Another premise he had a problem with was the way in which the Barbies tricked the Kens by acting helpless and confused.
“Helen Gurley Brown called, she wants her premise back. Yes, that WAS a thing,” Maher wrote, referring to the late Cosmopolitan magazine editor. “I saw Barbie with a woman in her 30s who said, ‘I don’t know a single woman of any age who would act like that today.'”
The late-night host then added, “I know, I know, ‘How could I know about the patriarchy, I AM a man!’ That argument is so old and so silly.” He continued to offered more data as he said “45% of the 449 board seats filled last year in Fortune 500 companies were women.” Therefore, in Maher’s view, the “real Mattel board is a pretty close mirror of the country.”
“Truth is, I’m not the one who’s out of step — I’m living in the year we’re living in,” he wrote, before adding that Barbie is “fun” and said he “enjoyed it” — even though it’s a “zombie lie.”
Maher continued, “People who don’t go along with zombie lies did not take some red pill — just staying true to CURRENT reality. Let’s live in the year we’re living in! Hi Ken!!!”