Welcome to the Psychopomp Dreamhouse! by Stacey Simmon, PhD

When I first heard a Barbie movie was going to be released this summer I groaned. Like the awful complements of GI Joe, American Girl, and Trolls, I assumed that the content of this film would be designed to fleece parents out of the cost of tickets and popcorn. I am delighted to report that I was completely mistaken. Not only does Barbie enchant, she also delivers a complex message about idealism and womanhood.

But Barbie’s most important revelation is in her role as a psychopomp between the world of the ideal and the world of the real. Barbie Land is like a patriarchal heaven. Women are ideal, they don’t have flaws. They get shit done without breaking a sweat or wearing comfortable shoes, and the men are the accessories. It is what I imagine all the men who struggle with patriarchy idealize about what it would mean to be a beautiful, flawless woman- all of the power, where men can relax and be accessories for a change.

In Barbie Land, most of the women are versions of Barbie, with a handful of other dolls like Midge and Skipper scattered through the ideal world. All but one man is a version of Ken. In every mythological system heaven is breached when Death enters the realm of the immortals.

Barbie’s journey from the ideal to the real begins when she first considers the possibility of death. This intrusive thought arrives in the middle of a fabulous party while dancing to her “planned choreography, and bespoke song” wearing a sequined jumpsuit, and sporting perfectly coiffed hair. A scratch track interrupts the Barbies’ and Kens’ celebration when stereotypical Barbie played by Margot Robbie asks, “Do you guys ever think about dying?” This stops the party in its tracks. Barbie recovers quickly, but soon the introduction of mortality to Barbie Land threatens to change the landscape forever.

Stereotypical Barbie visits a Barbie Land shaman called “Weird Barbie” for help. Weird Barbie, the embodiment of the doll that little girls sacrificed to experiment with weird makeup and haircuts is the only one who knows about the Real World. In order to return Barbie Land to its former ideal terrain, Stereotypical Barbie must travel to the Real World and heal the wounds of the girl playing with her in too “real” a way.

All women in patriarchy must face what I call the Divide- the realization that the identity they cultivate for themselves exists outside of the limits culture dictates for women. As a result, women find ourselves forced into a stereotype, or falling outside of t. The Real World that Barbie travels to only has one reality for stereotypical Barbie. In order for the world not to fall into chaos, Barbie must be returned to her “box.” She has to stay “ideal” and not be tainted by reality.

Barbie soon realizes that she was called out of Barbie Land by Gloria, who longs for the time when her own daughter was young and innocent- when as her mother she could touch the ideal. Gloria’s longing and sadness introduce mortality to Barbie. Gloria designs her own versions of Barbie, with “Irrepressible Thoughts of Death Barbie” and “Cellulite Barbie.” It is Gloria, a grown woman, not a child, who Barbie has to heal. This seems outside the scope of Barbie’s expectations, but not outside of her abilities. All of the Barbies believe that their presence as individualized, self-actualized female role models has already healed the Real World. When this proves to be a myth, Stereotypical Barbie is shocked and sad. The realization sends her into despair. The psychopomp has to return to the Ideal World with knowledge of Death. She escorts Gloria and her daughter Sasha into Barbie Land, expecting that they will experience Barbie Land the way she always has. But soon in true mythological fashion, the world is completely changed because Ken has returned to Barbie Land and introduced Patriarchy – blinding the Barbies to their own abilities and intoxicating the Kens with newfound power.

Barbie is horrified to see her beloved feminarchy transformed into a world where Nobel prize winners and Presidents become cheerleaders and forget their power in favor of positive attention from the Kens. Her own experience of the Real World is the only inoculation against the amnesiac powers of the newly introduced patriarchy.

At first, Barbie is distraught, what is it all for? She feels like she has failed because she hasn’t instantly restored Barbie Land to its previous Heavenly perfection. It doesn’t take long for Barbie to figure out that Barbie Land was not ideal for everyone. The Kens were second class accessories to the Barbies. The Barbies can be reclaimed, their former identities rescued. But the world cannot go back to the way it was, heaven was not perfect.

The ultimate coup de grâce comes when the Mattel board has followed the psychopomp into Barbie Land, hoping to reclaim the ideal from the real. They will put the worlds right again. Barbie stays in Barbie Land. Gloria and Sasha will return to the real world. But it is Sasha, Gloria’s 14 year old daughter who reminds us all that Barbie’s story cannot end with the Ideal upheld. The story cannot end with Barbie Land becoming the (unreal) ideal again. Barbie isn’t there to be ideal. She isn’t there for Ken. She isn’t there for Mattel. Barbie is there for Barbie.

In this moment, Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie, enters the scene portrayed by Rhea Perlman. She helps Barbie realize that she has a choice. She can be Real. She doesn’t have to live in a box, and she doesn’t have to struggle against an idea. Barbie can be transformed into a Real Woman, and in so doing she’ll have a heart, lungs, and yes… a vagina. She will be a woman, not a doll.

The movie is somehow both campy and profound- an astonishing feat for director Greta Gerwig. Whether we are discussing reproductive rights or women in the workplace, women almost always find ourselves being compared to either an idealized or denigrated version of womanhood. Barbie’s psychopomp journey is about giving up the ideal for the real. Barbie leaves her comfortable position as a stereotype not because she wants to, but because the world has been altered by the introduction of mortality. That is true for almost all of us. We begin to realize that the world is more complex when we start to see how it is broken. If we allow the brokenness then we allow difference, and even death- then the real starts to have much more meaning because it of its temporality. Life is more beautiful than a doll in a box could ever be.

BIO: Stacey Simmons is a writer and psychotherapist who lives in Los Angeles. She is currently writing a book on the discovery of The Queen’s Path, a female centered analog to the hero’s journey that is as old as writing and still active in women-driven story. You can learn more about her work at staceysimmonsphd.com.