(LifeSiteNews) — While the first live action film about Mattel’s wildly popular Barbie doll breaks box office records around the globe, three countries have banned the movie due to its liberal themes on gender and sexuality that contradict morality.
The “Barbie” movie was released July 21 and remains the number one box office hit, earning $1.18 billion from international and domestic revenue and claiming the status of second all time in Warner Bros. history.
A few nations in the Middle East and Africa, however, are not contributing to the profits. Kuwait and Lebanon announced bans on the film last week, with Algeria following suit on Monday.
The official state news outlet Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) announced Wednesday that the “Kuwaiti Ministry of Information’s committee on cinematic censorship decide on Wednesday to ban the screening in Kuwait of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Talk to Me’ films.”
“Talk to Me” is a horror movie about teenagers who become addicted to conjuring spirits. It was released a week after “Barbie.”
“The decision stemmed from keenness on protection of public ethics and social traditions,” the announcement quoted Lafy Al-Subei’e, Undersecretary of the Ministry for Press and Publication. “The committee noted that both movies promulgate ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order.”
The statement emphasized “public ethics” leading to the “censoring of the scenes” that contradicts the nation’s moral compass.
“But [if] a film carries alien concepts, message or unacceptable behavior, the committee decides to bar the stuff in question as a whole,” whether domestic or international productions.
Earlier the same day, Lebanon minister of culture Mohammad Mortada also pushed to ban “Barbie” in the country, citing opposing views to the nation’s religious beliefs.
The film, Mortada argued, attacks the traditional family through its themes designed to “promote homosexuality and sexual transformation” and that it “contradicts values of faith and morality.”
The following Sunday, the North African country of Algeria banned “Barbie” after it had played in theaters since its international release. According to a report from the news outlet 24H Algérie, “the Ministry of Culture and Arts has sent notices to cinemas showing the film in Algiers, Oran and Constantine to withdraw it ‘immediately’ from their programs.”
The official reason provided for banning the film is that it was found to be “offending morals.”
The news outlet pointed out that the movie “has been sold out every day” since its July 19 release date. During that time, sources confirmed to the outlet, “the film was seen by over 40,000 spectators in 20 days.”
The bans come weeks after American conservatives began issuing content warnings about the “Barbie” movie, anticipating pro-LGBT and feminist themes. One especially hot topic related to the casting of a gender-confused man who plays the role of a female doctor.
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk discussed the movie’s appropriateness for kids with a conservative mother and writer who uses the pseudonym Peachy Keenan. She argued that the film normalizes transgenderism in a way that could prove to be a form of “psychologically grooming [children] to accept” the ideology.
Daily Wire co-founder and host Ben Shapiro also emphasized the feminist themes and berated the “absurd” concept that “women ought to be feminine and men ought to be masculine” for individuals to fully experience their humanity. Later, after having seen the movie, Shapiro blasted it as “one of the worst movies” and pointed to recurring themes of “the patriarchy” that belittle men in the name of “equality.”
RELATED
Lindsay Lohan celebrates motherhood as ‘greatest joy’ after troubled celebrity life
New Disney movie ‘Elemental’ with ‘non-binary’ character opens with massive box office failure