Barbie’s Fresh Take on Cultural Emotional Immaturity
I admit, when I went to see the new “Barbie” movie, I had rather low expectations walking in. How could a movie about a plastic children’s toy be very entertaining? Not to mention I had written an essay my freshman year at university which ripped Barbie dolls apart for being anti-feminist. And yet, everyone I talked to was giving it rave reviews, including my highly selective teen clients. I dragged my feet in out of curiosity, and staked out the least conspicuous place in the crowded theater.
The movie opens with a scene depicting a young girl playing with her classic baby dolls. This reminds me of my youngest daughter, who is currently 3 years old. She loves her baby dolls, especially a (now beat up) stuffed dolly she calls “Christmas Baby” since she found it in her stocking. She drags that doll everywhere….anyway, the girl ends up smashing her baby dolls as soon as Barbie is invented. I was furious. Baby dolls have an intention, to teach young children how to take care of more fragile humans. What is Barbie’s intention…teaching youngsters to aspire to become a “perfect” adult female?
As the movie unfolded, I settled in. Immediately, there were some laugh out loud moments. I think the points were subtle but still tongue in cheek, and okay, the doll thought her mission was “to teach girls to be more powerful.” Okay, I thought as I lowered my guard a little, “let’s see what this message is”…
Barbie appears to have some weird defect which makes her experience real human problems (fear of death, cellulite, aging). She visits a “weird” Barbie (depicted more closely to resemble the LGBTQ identity) who is supposedly some kind of wise oracle, and tells her that she needs to visit the “real world” and find the girl who has been playing with her in the real world and causing these “dark” human thoughts.
The girl was a young teen who had outgrown playing with barbies years ago, and who made the point that Barbie was everything wrong with our culture today, and that she gave girls unrealistic aspirations for how to look and how to be. The character portraying the “stereo-typical Barbie doll” was blind-sighted by the attack, as she had never encountered this type of “reality check” before. She began to cry…she was experiencing real human feelings…what was going on?
Enter the girl’s mother. Barbie discovers that it was actually the mother who had the thoughts of death and aging, and Barbie returns home to show her the perfect fantasy land where she had come from.
Meanwhile, the fantasy land had been corrupted by a takeover of the Kens who had suddenly become inspired by the “patriarchy” (a side plot, which I don’t have time to address in this blog). Barbie realizes that her fantasy land is no longer perfect, and that her vision of what is and what will be does not match the insight she gained from living in the “real world.” She breaks down because she has to face the truth. And there is no going back from there….
This is when Barbie discovers that it is not so bad to be grounded in reality. That there is a wonderful aspect to the dark thoughts of the death, and the existential fears that every human eventually has to face. She may no longer be invincible or “perfect” but she is more real, more genuine, and more adaptable than she has ever been before. And she no longer wants to live in a perfect controlled environment. She wants to be free to imagine and create, with her free flowing dreams and thoughts, to be the “creator/ inventor” and not the “creation/idea.”
This is similar to the role we sometimes play in our alternate versions of reality. The role where we have to be perfect, always look good, be fit, be smiling and positive all the time. But that version doesn’t actually exist. And the more invested we are in this “idealized” version of ourselves, the harder it is to return to face those realities. That we are only human, not perfect, and not adored 99 percent of the time. That we exist in relationship to ourselves and others in a way that is functional and not superficial. That our dreams and visions do matter, but so does the necessary “reality check.” In addition to our imperfect, loving and sometimes frustrating human relationships. To be human is to let go of that “controlled fantasy” and to be a real live person with cellulite and thoughts of death.
Go Barbie, Come on…let’s go party!
