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Justin Trudeau triggers homophobes and incels by going to see Barbie movie

by Lorraine Carpenter

The criticism that Trudeau’s received simply for posting a photo with his son on social media outside of a Barbie screening mirrors the tenor of the unjustified backlash to the film, including false accusations that it is anti-men when it simply addresses issues related to toxic masculinity.

Earlier today, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted a photo of himself with his son Xavier outside a screening of the Barbie movie, with a message reading, “We’re team Barbie.”

The acclaimed Greta Gerwig film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has just surpassed the $1-billion mark at the box office, bringing in $1.031-billion worldwide.

Many of the responses on social media to Trudeau’s photo with his son have ranged from homophobic quips to insults regarding Justin Trudeau’s recent separation from his wife Sophie Grégoire.

(In order not to give any of these social media comments even more of a platform, we have chosen not to embed any of them here. “These messages make me so embarrassed to be Canadian,” one person wrote in reaction to the onslaught of negative reactions.)

But there also have been messages of support, defences of Trudeau’s choice to post the photo and criticism of the tone of the social media response — which mirrors some of the tenor of the unjustified backlash to Barbie on platforms like Twitter, including false accusations that the film is anti-men when it’s really anti-toxic-masculinity.

Justin Trudeau triggers homophobes and incels by going to see Barbie movie

For more on Barbie, please read our review here.

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by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.