Twitter Just Decided Barbie Is Queer and It’s Glorious

I love logging into Twitter to see something confirmed that I always knew in my heart to be true: Barbie is queer. That’s at least the consensus today as the internet discovered that the iconic doll character may be more into ladies than her traditional image might suggest. Is Barbie a lesbian? Is Barbie bisexual? Did we all know something when we made our dolls get married (usually naked) when we were kids? If a few million memes are to be believed, then yes.

Today’s “Barbie is a lesbian” Twitter storm happened thanks mainly in part to Twitter rediscovering a 2017 photo spread with Barbie and a doll representing fashion blogger Aimee Song in “Love Wins” shirts, looking pretty much like girlfriends. I mean, it looks like they’ve already adopted a pet together which is peak queer woman.

Well, over three years later, the image and others resurfaced and Twitter went into gay overdrive. And it was great.

Song herself got in on the fun.

And it’s not just the Barbie doll whose sapphic tendencies were coming to the general public’s attention. In her various movies, Barbie really seems to have a lot of “gal pals” as they say.

As a mom who has watched Barbie Dolphin Magic a hundred times with my little girl, I immediately agreed. Barbie spends the whole movie ignoring her nice himbo buddy Ken in favor of making heart eyes at a beautiful mermaid named Isla (pronounced Ayla). It’s gay people!

Harold. They’re lesbians.

The Barbie universe seems pretty chock-full of queerness if we’re to be honest, because we’ve known about Ken for years too.

Now, I’m sure there will be some folks getting up in arms about this and I would like to remind them that Barbie … is a doll and a fictional character. She’s whatever we want or need her to be. If you want your doll to be gay, she is. If your Barbie is bisexual or pansexual, that’s her truth. For kids now and in the past, Barbie represents what they can be and can be whatever they want to be.

Barbie is a rocket scientist. Or a ballerina. Or a fairy. Or a lesbian. Barbie is whatever you need her to be, and for a lot of us and our kids … that’s a queer hero we all can love. And as her shirt says: love wins!

(Image: Mattel)

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Jessica Mason

Jessica Mason (she/her) is a writer based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on fandom, queer representation, and amazing women in film and television. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author.

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