Arguing about Margot Robbie’s hotness is insane—and really dangerous

Hollywood bombshell Margot Robbie is now apparently “mid,” according to Twitter trolls.

For those not versed in internet speak, Urban Dictionary defines “mid” as someone who “on a scale of 1-10 is like 4, 5, 6, or 7 based on looks” and is “just like every other girl.”

“This is her without makeup,” one Twitter user quipped of Robbie, posting a photo. “Definitely mid.”

That tweet has been viewed more than 62 million times as of Monday afternoon.

“She is a hard 7,” another declared. “You used to find a Margot Robbie in every Blockbuster Video in 1995.”

The digs at Robbie’s looks come as the Australian sex symbol is set to star in the “Barbie” movie, out July 21, with some actually implying she isn’t attractive enough to carry the role.

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“Margot Robbie was cast in Barbie explicitly because she isn’t pretty enough to alienate a female audience,” a tweet with 2.6 million views reads. “Where are the big Barbie doll t–s?”

Robbie is perhaps the closest human equivalent to a wildly disproportionate, literally plastic caricature of what a woman should be — and anyone claiming otherwise is out of their mind, or trolling for clicks.

And the expectation that Robbie could somehow more literally resemble a Barbie doll is absurd at best, and sexist at worst.

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In fact, according to analysis by South Shore Eating Disorder Collaborative, a life-sized person with Barbie doll proportions would be 5’9” with a 39-inch bust, 33-inch hips and a measly 18-inch waist — not to mention a size 3 shoe.

No wonder many on Twitter came to the actress’s defense.

“This new trend on Twitter trying to convince us that Margot Robbie is mid is insane,” one user declared.

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Another posited that the trolls degrading her looks were either “partially blind, not attracted to women, or aliens.”

It goes without saying that Margot Robbie — who has played incredibly provocative characters “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Legend of Tarzan”— is anything but “mid.” 

But the fact that this even became grounds for debate is a sign of some pretty toxic beauty standards.

Degrading women and picking apart their appearances online is ugly enough. Literally holding them up to the standards of plastic dolls with cartoonish proportions is even worse. 

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This sort of rhetoric being spewed by Twitter trolls hiding behind digital avatars and anonymous pseudonyms sends a terrible message to girls growing up in the digital age.

There’s already enough pressure to look better than humanly possible — whether that means photoshopping your waist to be smaller, spending thousands on plastic surgery, or simply applying a filter to make your skin look smoother — in the social media era.

Girls’ self-esteem is being absolutely destroyed.

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In fact, two thirds of teen girls say that social media makes them feel bad about their appearance. And 6% of American teens say Instagram has been a source of suicidal thoughts.

It’s yet another reason that young people should be kept off social media. Policymakers are weighing bills that would raise the minimum age to join platforms, at the behest of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy who suggested 16 to 18 is a more reasonable age to plug in.

“I, personally, based on the data I’ve seen, believe that 13 is too early,” Murthy told CNN. “It’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships, and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children.”

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Nothing could be more skewed and distorted than seeing a drop-dead gorgeous actress’s name trend on Twitter because her appearance is being dragged through the mud.

It sends a message to young girls that they will never be enough — even if they look like a real-life Barbie doll.

Policymakers and parents alike should be working to help keep tweens away from this toxic rhetoric so they can enjoy being kids, rather than hyper-fixate on their imperfections.