Hillary Clinton Has Entered the ‘Barbie’ Snub Discourse

Following yesterday’s announcement of the 2024 Oscar nominations, many people were outraged that although Barbie had been nominated for eight awards, these didn’t include Best Director for Greta Gerwig or Best Actress for Margot Robbie.

Now, a surprising figure has waded into the discourse: Hillary Clinton.

On Wednesday, the former First Lady took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to post an encouraging message to Gerwig and Robbie.

“Greta & Margot, While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you,” she wrote.

Clinton ended her message with a reference to Ryan Gosling’s now-Oscar-nominated Barbie song “I’m Just Ken,” along with a custom hashtag. She wrote: “You’re both so much more than Kenough. #HillaryBarbie.”

Clinton is just the latest to add her voice to the “Barbie was snubbed!” movement. Gosling, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Ken, released a statement on Tuesday afternoon that significantly inflamed the discourse.

“There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally celebrated film,” he said in part. “No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit, and genius. To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.”

Simu Liu, who played one of the Kens in Barbie alongside Gosling, also took to X opine on the whole situation.

“Being involved in a small way gave me a window into just how hard Greta and Margot had to fight to get Barbie made, and how flawlessly they executed,” Liu wrote on Tuesday. “Together they started a movement, touched the world and reinvigorated the cinema. They deserve everything. They ARE everything.”

Elsewhere on the internet, Full House star John Stamos curiously gave his two cents by recreating a scene from the film on TikTok. He captioned the post, “This one goes out to Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie who crafted a film that was both a critical success and a cultural phenomenon, delving into feminist themes through the lens of Barbie and challenging patriarchal norms. This movie not only resonated deeply, but also grossed OVER a billion dollars. Yet, in a twist of irony, both women were snubbed by the Academy. Everyone go re-watch Barbie tonight.”

In total, Barbie received eight Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for America Ferrera’s performance, and two nominations for Best Original Song.

Discussing her own triumph at being nominated, Ferrera told Variety that she still hasn’t “really been able to get in my feelings because I’m still on like the top layer of ‘I can’t even believe that this is real.’”

She did, however, have much more to say about her coworkers; the actress said she was “incredibly disappointed that [Gerwig and Robbie] weren’t nominated.”

“Greta has done just about everything that a director could do to deserve it,” Ferrera said. “Creating this world, and taking something that didn’t have inherent value to most people and making it a global phenomenon. It feels disappointing to not see her on that list.”

And Robbie, she continued, “is a magician as an actress in front of the screen, and it was one of the honors of my career to get to witness her pull off the amazing performance she did. Perhaps people got fooled into thinking that the work seems easy.”

Needless to say, this discourse isn’t dying down anytime soon, and will probably continue all the way up to the Oscars on March 10. Buckle in.