Ben Shapiro Mocked for Dressing Like Ken to 'Hate Watch' Barbie Film

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro faced social media ridicule over the weekend for appearing to dress up as the character Ken to "hate watch" the new Barbie movie.

Shapiro took to social media to share his criticisms of the film, which stars actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling that centers around the fictional doll, trashing it as "flaming garbage" in a Twitter post on Friday. The tweet quickly circulated around social media, with many critics mocking him. Some also pointed out the similarities between Shapiro's outfit and an outfit Ken wore at one point in the film, but it remains unknown if that was intentional or a coincidence.

The social media brouhaha comes as many conservatives have taken issue with the feminist themes of the film, directed by Greta Gerwig and amid a broader debate about cultural and societal issues in media. Conservatives have clashed with many recent movies, oftentimes accusing Hollywood of embracing "woke" ideas, typically in reference to featuring diverse characters or socially progressive values in movies.

"My producers dragged me to see 'Barbie' and it was one of the most woke movies I have ever seen. My full review of this flaming garbage heap of a film will be out on my YouTube channel tomorrow at 10am ET," Shapiro tweeted, following up with a lengthy YouTube video titled "Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Barbie For 43 Minutes."

During that video, he discussed the movie, which he called "the worst movie" he has ever seen, but praised the "beautiful costumes" and "production design." He said that he took down "pages and pages" of notes while watching the film.

"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."

Shapiro's critiques of the movie drew a wave of criticism on Twitter, with many mocking him for his strong response against the film.

Newsweek reached out to Shapiro for comment via the Daily Wire's press email.

"Ben Shapiro sitting in the Barbie premiere with his little notepad scribbling words that infuriate him so he can tweet this," tweeted political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.

Popular entertainment news Twitter account Pop Crave tweeted, "Ben Shapiro appears to have seen #Barbie dressed in Ken attire."

Journalist Matt Binder tweeted, "It was just pointed out to me that Ben Shapiro went to go hate watch the Barbie movie dressed exactly like Ken."

Why Are Conservatives Upset About the Barbie Movie?

Some conservatives have taken issue with the Barbie film's feminist themes, saying that the depiction of Ken degrades men. Ginger Gaetz, the wife of Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, criticized the film for not mentioning faith and the "disappointingly low T [testosterone] from Ken," according to Vanity Fair.

Meanwhile, other conservatives have criticized the film for the inclusion of Hari Nef, a transgender actress. Christian movie review site Movieguide warned its readers, "Don't take your daughter" to see the film, knocking it for allegedly forgetting "its core audience of families and children."

Despite conservative complaints, many critics and viewers have praised its feminist themes. The film retains a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a film review website, indicating universal praise from viewers. Entertainment Weekly's Devan Coggan praised the film as "a fierce, funny, and deeply feminist adventure that dares you to laugh and cry, even if you're made of plastic."

One viral tweet that received 116,000 likes and 9,000 retweets called out the conservative outrage.

"The funniest part about conservatives calling barbie woke is like what did they expect. did they want barbie to promote being a stay at home wife and homeschooling children or whatever? barbies whole thing is she could do any job men could do lol, she has never been 'antiwoke,'" tweeted @JUNIPER.