Bill Maher Says the Patriarchy Is Over

By Miscellaneous | TV | August 8, 2023 |

By Miscellaneous | TV | August 8, 2023 |

Bill Maher, in his own words:

OK, “Barbie”: I was hoping it wouldn’t be preachy, man-hating, and a #ZombieLie - alas, it was all three. What is a Zombie Lie? Something that never was true, but certain people refuse to stop saying it (tax cuts for the rich increase revenues, e.g.); OR something that USED to be true but no longer is, but certain people pretend it’s still true. “Barbie” is this kind of #ZombieLie.

Spoiler alert, Barbie fights the Patriarchy. Right up to the Mattel board who created her, consisting of 12 white men! The Patriarchy! Except there’s a Mattel board in real life, and it’s 7 men and 5 women. OK, not perfect even-steven, but not the way the board IN THE MOVIE - which takes place in 2023 - is portrayed. And not really any longer deserving of the word “patriarchy.” Yes, there was one, and remnants of it remain - but this movie is so 2000-LATE.

At one point the Barbies have to win over the Kens, and they are told to do it by pretending to act helpless and not know how to do stuff. Helen Gurley Brown called, she wants her premise back. Yes, that WAS a thing. I saw “Barbie” with a woman in her 30s who said, “I don’t know a single woman of any age who would act like that today.”

I know, I know, ‘How could I know about the patriarchy, I AM a man!’ That argument is so old and so silly. Of course, none of us can know exactly what others go through life, but I can see the world around me, and I can read data. The real Mattel board is a pretty close mirror of the country, where 45% of the 449 board seats filled last year in Fortune 500 companies were women. Truth is, I’m not the one who’s out of step - I’m living in the year we’re living in. Barbie is fun, I enjoyed it - but it IS a #ZombieLie. And people who don’t go along with zombie lies did not take some red pill - just staying true to CURRENT reality. Let’s live in the year we’re living in! Hi Ken!!! #BarbieMovie

Fortune 500 Companies Ran By Women CEOs: 10.4 percent
Female Late Night TV Hosts: 2 1 (Amber Ruffin, Ziwe)
Number of Women Nominated for Best Director Oscar in 95 years: 7
Solo Female Directors with $1 billion blockbuster hits: 1 (Greta Gerwig)
Number of Female Producers on Barbie: 6 (out of 14)
Number of Women Nominated for a Best Director Oscar in 2023: 0
Pay Gap in 2023: Women paid 83.7 percent as much as men
Number of Female U.S. Senators: 25 (out of 100)
Number of Female House of Representatives: 125 (out of 435)
Number of Female Guests on Bill Maher’s Talk Show in 2019: 39 (out of 161)