The Greta Gerwig-helmed “Barbie” film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as iconic toys Barbie and Ken, is set to be released July 21st. While Barbie and Ken have always been popular with children, parents are being cautioned that the upcoming movie is not appropriate for children. There is, first, to consider the film’s PG-13 rating for “suggestive references and brief language.” Christian movie review site, Movieguide, warned against taking children to see the film with an article entitled, “WARNING: Don’t take your Daughter to Barbie.” The site warns that the movie “forgets its core audience of families and children while catering to nostalgic adults and pushing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender character stories.” A Movieguide staff member lamented that “Millions of families would have turned out to the theaters and purchased tickets, but instead, Mattel chose to cater to a small percentage of the population which has proven over and over to abandon the box office. Movieguide®’s 40 years of research indicate this just isn’t true, and Mattel has made a grievous mistake.”

The film features a bevy of actors who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. In an email to “Out,” Gerwig, who has been tapped to direct two new “Chronicles of Narnia films,” stated the LGBTQ+ community was essential to the film. “We are opening the doors to the Barbie universe. There’s no way we could have told this story without bringing in the LGBTQ+ community, and it was important for us to represent the diversity that Mattel has created with all of the different Barbies and Kens that exist today.” Three actors were featured on the cover of “Out” as the “LGBTQ+ Dolls of ‘Barbie.’” Hari Nef is a transwoman, a biological man who identifies as female and is playing one of the iterations of Barbie, Doctor Barbie, in the Barbie Land universe of the movie. “Barbies are Barbies, they’re not human women. They’re dolls. They don’t have genitalia,” Nef told “Out.” Nef does not play a “trans” Barbie in the film but did state the inclusion was positive. “As much as there’s a celebration of femininity and being a girl in this [movie], I think there’s also an encouragement of letting go of the checklist we ascribe to living and living your life and being in your body your way, on your own terms,” said Nef. “The best that we can do as women, as trans women, is be there for each other and take ourselves at face value, without relying on the green light from someone or anyone else.”

Two other actors, Alexandria Shipp, and Scott Evans, brother to Chris Evans of “Captain America” fame, also spoke to “Out” about their inclusion in the film. “I think that that’s what Barbie represents, a state of being where we can do and be anything. We can dress however we want to dress,” said Shipp. “In this movie, you see people in Barbie World who are perfect…everyone’s just perfect. And then you see someone go through this existential crisis of learning about who they actually are and why they actually are,” said Evans. The three actors are not the only members of the LGBTQ+ community in the film either, with actress Kate McKinnon, a lesbian, making an appearance. It is unclear what, if any, LGBTQ+ storylines are present in the film, as details of the actual plot are scarce, and its review embargo will not be lifted until July 18th. Speculation, however, abounds in the gay community, with many excitedly hoping that even Barbie herself will be gay. As journalist Alex Berg wrote on Twitter, “The Barbie movie trailer is so camp and gay, the film will be pure cinema or used as a torture device in the future. Either way, I’m in.”