It was hard for fans of 2023 blockbuster film Barbie to ignore the twist of fate when Greta Gerwig, the movie’s director, and Margot Robbie, its titular star, were shut out of the Best Director and Best Actress Oscar categories.

It could have quite literally been a plot point in the movie, which serves as a lesson on the patriarchal structures that shape institutions and ways of thinking.

On Jan 24, Hillary Clinton joined the conversation by posting a message to Gerwig and Robbie on social media.

“Greta and Margot, while it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you,” Clinton wrote on Instagram. “You’re both so much more than Kenough,” she added, referencing a phrase that shows up on Ken’s sweatshirt in the film.

Perhaps the message could not have come from a more appropriate public figure than Clinton, a former Secretary of State who, of course, lost the presidential election in 2016 to Donald Trump despite winning the popular vote.

She was just one of many to share their dismay about Gerwig and Robbie being snubbed, while the film itself earned eight nominations – including Best Picture; Best Actor for Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken; and Best Supporting Actress for America Ferrera.

After the nominations were read on Jan 23, Gosling issued a lengthy statement expressing his disappointment: “No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius,” he wrote.

In an interview with American publication Entertainment Weekly, Ferrera called their work “phenomenal” and said that they both “deserve to be acknowledged for the history they made, for the ground they broke, for the beautiful artistry”.

Fellow Ken actor Simu Liu lauded the way the two women had fought to make Barbie the movie it was.

“Together they started a movement, touched the world and reinvigorated the cinema. They deserve everything. They are everything,” he wrote on social media.

Wrestling star-turned-actor John Cena, who had a cameo in Barbie as a merman, praised Gerwig and Robbie at the British premiere of his new movie Argylle on Jan 24.

“Awards are not the only metric to success,” said Cena. “Greta and Margot have made a movie that has done tremendous business and changed a lot of lives in the process. And I think that’s one hell of an achievement.”

Billie Jean King, the tennis champion who won equal pay for women at the 1973 US Open, posted on Wednesday that she was “really upset about #Barbie being snubbed, especially in the Best Director category”.

“The movie is absolutely brilliant,” King wrote, “and Greta Gerwig is a genius.” NYTIMES