Russian Lawmaker Outraged About 'Barbie'

Russian lawmaker Maria Butina recently called on Moscow to ban Barbie dolls over LGBTQ+ representation in the new Barbie movie.

The Barbie movie, starring actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was released on July 21 and quickly became one of the most discussed films of the year, with conservatives across the globe expressing outrage over its themes including feminism and inclusion of LGBTQ+ cast members.

Butina, a former spy who was convicted and jailed in the United States on charges of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent, called on the iconic dolls to be banned from Russia over the movie. Her remarks come as Moscow cracks down on LGBTQ+ rights, with the State Duma earlier in June passing among the world's most restrictive laws targeting members of the community.

"What we see [in the Barbie movie] is gays, trans people, and women who have taken over the world, i.e. Barbies," she said. "There's nothing about some kind of union, that there can be a man and a woman, about love. There's nothing about that. That's basically the whole content [of that movie.]"

She also called for Barbie dolls, as well as the entire Mattel company, to be removed from the market to promote Russian products instead.

"Our common task is to promote our characters. We have our own dolls. It doesn't mean that this is Malvina, who was the only one there in the Soviet Union. Now [the dolls] are completely different, and we have dolls like these beautiful girls. There are different ones. But Barbie should be removed from the market, along with the Mattel company, because they bring the LGBT agenda here," she said, who called the movie "the entire Democratic Party program."

Video of her remarks was translated and posted to Twitter by by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Newsweek reached out to Warner Brothers and Mattel for comment via email.

While the film itself does not have any explicitly gay characters, Doctor Barbie is played by transgender model and actor Hari Nef.

Robbie, a producer who plays Barbie in the film, told British publication Attitude that none of the characters have any sexual orientations because they are dolls, though she said the inclusion of LGBTQ+ actors was intentional, as "we wanted everyone to feel represented in the movie."

"We wanted Barbie Land to feel incredibly inclusive. And we wanted this film to feel like everyone was welcome. So, it was so important that, kind of, every person that was, like, coming aboard the party would be able to represent someone else that could be watching this movie," she said.

Earlier this month, Russia—which has long been viewed as one of the countries most hostile to LGBTQ+ people—passed a bill that would ban gender-affirming health care regardless of age, ban transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents, and annul marriages involving transgender people.

Equaldex's LGBTQ+ rights index places Russia as the 23rd worst country to live in for the LGBTQ+ community.

There have been reports for years that authorities in Russia's Chechnya region have violently persecuted LGBTQ+ people. The State Duma has previously worked to ban LGBTQ+ "propaganda," and one Russian commander has cast the invasion of Ukraine as a "Holy war" against the LGBTQ+ community.

'Barbie' Film Draws Similar Conservative Backlash in United States

Conservatives in the United States have similarly criticized Barbie for its support of feminism and LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has posted several videos to his YouTube channel criticizing the movie, at one point calling it flaming garbage and "one of the most woke movies I have ever seen."

"The basic sort of premise of the film, politically speaking, is that men and women are on two sides and they hate each other," he said. "And literally, the only way you can have a happy world is if the women ignore the men and the men ignore the women."

Correction 7/31/23, 3:12 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to say that Ryan Gosling stars in the film, not Ryan Reynolds.