Shakira’s Unhinged Thoughts on Masculinity Are Giving Boy Moms a Bad Name
Shakira, Shakira, Shakira — what were you thinking, girl? With a shaking head and a gaping mouth, I just read Shakira’s latest interview and comments on masculinity, and I am appalled. How could a woman say something so awful about her own sex — and raise sons to think the same?! The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer opened up about her feelings on men and women’s “roles” in the world, and it’ll leave you with a bad taste in your mouth about boy moms.
The Colombian singer, who is mom to Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9, with ex Gerard Piqué, started off by talking about women’s empowerment. “My idol was Wonder Woman. I think I was drawn to her because she had black hair like mine, but also because she was a symbol of empowerment and strength in a decade where women were not playing the most important roles,” Shakira told Allure. “I remember my mom stopped working at some point. She stopped wearing miniskirts, and the length of her skirts got longer because my dad said so.”
So it makes sense she would want something different for her sons, right? Right??
Yet, when asked about her opinion on the Barbie movie, the things she is teaching her boys feel downright misogynistic.
“My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating,” she said about the Oscar-winning film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. It’s not shocking that her sons didn’t like it, I guess. There was a whole speech about the double standards women face by America Ferrara and a wider metaphor on how society treats women (they can be swimsuit models, but not Supreme Court justices in real life), which could make men and boys who have been born with privilege feel uncomfortable. But what is surprising is that Shakira agreed.
“And I agree, to a certain extent,” she continued. “I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide.”
Shakira continued, “I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity. I think that men have a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well. We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost.”
I’m sorry, what? So women can’t have freedom and autonomy because that robs men of their feelings of being powerful? Well, good! Men have had too much power for far too long in our patriarchal society that they can definitely afford to lose a bit of it. Not to mention, saying that women can’t be strong and empowered without losing their femininity is just plain wrong. Hello, Beyoncé? Taylor Swift? This take doesn’t even make sense.
The interviewer apparently thought so too, as she pushed back a little: “Just because a woman can do it all doesn’t mean she should?” they asked.
Shakira responded, “Why not share the load with people who deserve to carry it, who have a duty to carry it as well?” Yikes! I believe that women “deserve” to carry equal responsibilities (and their rewards) as men do, but apparently there are still people in 2024 who think women should have less.
Later in the interview, the Grammy winner seemingly contradicted herself when she said, “I don’t know if every woman goes through life like this, wondering, Am I pretty enough? Am I considered beautiful or not? Sometimes you just look in the mirror and say, ‘It’s a yes. And I can conquer the world.’”
… As long as it doesn’t get in the way of a man’s place in that world, apparently.
If you want to raise feminist sons, read this mom’s experience. And maybe stream Barbie with your boys this weekend, too.
Before you go, check out these celebrity mothers who love being boy moms.