Diablo Valley College student Zhenaleigh Doldol isn’t sure how she’ll vote in her first election in 2024, but she’s inspired by the messages of female empowerment that radiated around her beloved summer movie “Barbie” and the blockbuster global concert tours of Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
“This year has been such a pivotal point for women and women’s rights,” said Doldol, 19, of Pittsburg.
During a break between classes, she and a friend, Christian Ebonia, 20, agreed that “Barbie,” Swift’s Eras tour and Beyonce’s Renaissance concerts have given American women an unexpected focus for their anger since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling ended the constitutional right to abortion: the ballot box.
“That’s the thing with the ‘Barbie’ movie and these two famous women. (They) can influence a lot of younger people in getting out there to vote,” Doldol added.
After “Barbie” opened in July, prominent feminist author Susan Faludi told the New York Times that this ostensibly apolitical comedy about a doll’s existential crisis actually is about “the shock and horror over what happened to us — what happened to women — from 2016 on, with the double whammy of Trump and then Dobbs.”
Since then, local and national political strategists have begun to see the potential in harnessing the personal-is-political “energy” surrounding “Barbie” and the female stars of the summer concert season, even wondering if these events could help determine whether Joe Biden, Donald Trump or scores of other candidates are elected to national and state offices in 2024.
The Dobbs decision could be “a powerful motivator” for women voting in 2024. It’s a particularly salient issue for young women, ages 18 to 29, who were part of a youth surge in voter turnout in the 2022 midterms, said Alberto Medina, who heads communications for Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. After the Dobbs…
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