barbie world politics

This Barbie Is Not a Geopolitician

The map in question. Photo: Warner Brothers

Barbie might be everything, but she’s not a master of foreign policy and international diplomacy. After a scene from the film’s trailer depicting a hand-drawn map of the “real world†led Vietnam to ban the film, Warner Bros. addressed the geopolitical incident. “The map in Barbie Land is a childlike crayon drawing,†a spokesperson for the Warner Bros. Film Group told Variety. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the ‘real world.’ It was not intended to make any type of statement.†Vietnam regulators argue that the dashes on the side of the cartoonish map depict the “nine-dash line,†a border that upholds China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and infringes on Vietnam’s territorial sovereignty. A source told Variety that the lines in question — “journey lines†— often represent a main character’s journey in kids’ media, though lead actor Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig remain tight-lipped about the film’s plot. The map in the Barbie trailer has eight dashes, but it could represent anything since they want to be so coy about the film and refuse to give us clues. Senator Ted Cruz, consistently memed in comparison to the Zodiac Killer, claimed the film includes a “Chinese propaganda†map, drawing a conservative ire that’s probably the film’s greatest endorsement to date. We were gonna see the movie anyway, but now that it’s to spite that Texas senator? C’mon Barbie, let’s go party.

This Barbie Is Not a Geopolitician