‘Barbie’ wasn’t snubbed, please get over yourselves

The internet has forgotten what an Oscar snub is. Here’s a reminder: An Oscar snub is when a film or performance worthy of a nomination does not receive one. 

The nominees for the 96th Academy Awards were announced on Jan. 23. As a dedicated follower of the Best Actress Category and an overall fan of female film performances, I was mostly pleased with the lineup — and especially excited to hear German actress Sandra Hüller’s name among the American and British nominees.

However, as the reactions to the nominations started pouring in on social media, I noticed something odd. X, formerly known as Twitter, was ablaze with complaints about Margot Robbie’s apparent snub from the Best Actress category and about Greta Gerwig’s absence from the Best Director category for their contributions to “Barbie.”

In one viral post about Robbie’s so-called snub, user @cruelsummerwbre graced X with an image of the Australian actress clad in a pink dress along with a screenshot of lyrics from Taylor Swift’s song “The Man.”

“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can / Wondering if I’d get there quicker / If I was a man,” read the snippet of Swift’s song displayed in front of a pink background. 

The lyrics, which, I assume were meant to encapsulate the feminist outrage of a feminist movie’s exclusion from the Oscars, were quickly — and justly — debunked by critical award junkies. How would Robbie’s being a man help her to be included in an Oscar category solely for women?

Soon after it went viral, parodies of @cruelsummerwbre’s post started popping up on X. One of my favorites was a play on “Nyad,” a film whose lead was actually — but perhaps undeservedly — nominated for Best Actress.

Not only did online fans of “Barbie” express their outrage, but trade publications like the Hollywood Reporter started to comment on the optics of excluding Robbie and Gerwig from the Actress and Director categories.

Even Hillary Clinton chimed in.

“Greta & Margot, while it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you,” the former Secretary of State posted to X. “You’re both so much more than Kenough.”

I was gobsmacked at what seemed like genuine confusion and outrage at what was essentially a two-hour-long Mattel ad being left out of two prestigious Oscar categories. Here’s why.

As you might have guessed, I wasn’t the biggest fan of “Barbie.”

Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun filmgoing experience. I want to preface this by saying I don’t like to yuck someone’s yum needlessly.

However, the basic second-wave white feminist message of the film did not inspire me, nor did it land as it should have. America Ferrera’s (who, surprisingly, did get a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance in the film) speech at the end of “Barbie” felt undeserved. Her character had little to no development throughout the film and so when it came time for her textbook feminist monologue, it fell flat and felt forced. 

Imagine my surprise when my cinema audience started applauding after her monologue. 

It’s not like I was expecting “Barbie” to come out with some radical, intersectional, nuanced feminist critique of society. Nobody was. 

That said, given Gerwig’s successful second-wave-y filmography, I was expecting the “Little Women” director to stick the landing with a simple woman-sees-gender-inequality-for-the-first-time story. 

Famously, the Oscars don’t like to nominate women in the Best Director category. I recognize that. But between giving the token female director nominee slot to Gerwig or Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall,” I’m on team Triet.

Ironically, the best performance in the so-called “feminist” film was Ryan Gosling’s Oscar-nominated turn as Ken. Yet, Gerwig’s direction of the film centered on his story. 

A combination of Gerwig’s choices and Gosling’s excellence did the impossible: They made me, a known misandrist, more invested in a supporting male character’s arc than that of the female lead. 

I came out of the movie thinking about Gosling, not Robbie. While Robbie did her best with the script and direction she was given, her performance was far from Oscar-worthy. If we’re going to hand out Oscar nominations for single tear drops, I’d give it to her for “Babylon” over “Barbie.”

I would love to see both Robbie and Gerwig win Oscars for their otherwise fantastic work one day. Both women still did get nominated for “Barbie” — Robbie as a producer, and Gerwig as a writer — but when it comes to acting and directing, this is not their time, nor their movie. 

On the other hand, the real artists of “Barbie” got their dues. “Barbie” picked up eight total nominations, including Production Design and Costume Design — the two best elements of the film.

I’d like to end by shouting out the real snub of this Oscar season. Todd Haynes’ “May December” received but one nomination for Original Screenplay on the fateful morning of Jan. 23. Preposterous!

Yes, some of the best film work of the year was snubbed. The Best-Picture-nominated film “Barbie,” however, was not one of them.