Pop Culture Fix: What in the Lesbian Heck Is Happening in This “Barbie” Clip?

Does it feel like Pride is still happening? It feels like it to me! Maybe the whole of summer can just be Pride now? Let me know what you think! And also here is a Pop Culture Fix!


+ Okay there is no way in the world that Mattel is going to let Barbie be gay in the Barbie movie. Absolutely no way. And yet! What in the lesbian heck is this? There is no straight explanation on the face of the earth for this! PinkNews deep dived on it. Please discuss!

+ 15 non-LGBTQ+ movies that queer people still love.

+ 10 songs that spark queer Latine joy.

+ Anime characters that made is realize we’re queer.

+ Buzz Lightyear werks at Disney World!

+ The glorious, queer evolution of Janelle Monáe’s pleasure and politics.

+ Celebrating TV’s chaotic bisexual characters.

+ Best LGBTQ+ movies of the 70s, ranked.

+ Melissa Etheridge wasn’t overly impressed with Rolling Stone’s list of most inspirational gay anthems of all time.

+ Bikechess, a dark comedy about journalism in Kazakhstan, wins Karlovy Vary Works in Progress Award. According to Variety: “The Kazakh film follows Dina, who works as a journalist for the national television station. The stories she is asked to report on are becoming increasingly absurd and full of praise for the government. Her love life is limited to a few secret meetings with her married camera­man. Dina looks after her young sis­ter, a lesbian activist, who regularly finds herself in trouble with the au­thorities.”

+ The power of pink: How Nimona uses color to subvert stereotypes and embrace self-expression.

+ Sex Education is ending with season four.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

12 Comments

  1. It feels straight up homophobic to me that Rolling Stone only listed songs by straight people in their tweet. They should’ve called it their top motivational songs if that’s all they think gay music is.

    Annnnd after being led astray by Gaylor truther tiktok several times, I’m going to avoid Barbie movie clowning until I see the finished product.

    • Yes! I think it’s a rite of passage for every queer to be led astray by a theory that XY is totally gay. For me it was TJLC, and I’ve never been fooled again. Let’s wait and see about the Barbie movie…

    • In Ireland too, there are Pride marches in various towns around the country all summer.

      The reason is historical – when protesters were organising they wanted to get as many people to each march as possible. Because the country is so small, this meant spacing each the various marches on different weekends so that people could participate in a few marches.

      And we’ve kept it that way still. Hot Pride Summer.

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