Shakira agrees with her sons: Barbie was “emasculating … to a certain extent”

As a successful, powerful woman, you might think that Shakira absolutely loved the Barbie movie. But you’d be wrong.

Speaking to Allure, Shakira says of Barbie, “I watched it, yeah. My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent.”

“I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women,” she continues. “I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide.”

“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,” she adds. “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.”

On the other hand, Shakira feels that her new album, Women No Longer Cry, is a much-needed declaration of female power and strength.

“Creating this album has been a transformation in which I have been reborn as a woman. I have rebuilt myself in the ways I believe are appropriate,” she explains. “No one tells me how to cry or when to cry, no one tells me how to raise my children, no one tells me how I become a better version of myself. I decide that.”

“In the past, when women went through a difficult situation, they were expected to mind their manners, to hide the pain, to cry in silence. That’s over,” she continues. “Now, no one will control us. No one will tell us how to heal, how to clean our wounds.”