Psychologist’s Analysis of the Barbie Movie
After a brief hiatus, the podcast is back with a psychodynamic analysis of the Barbie movie! At the time this episode will be going live, it will be right around the one-year anniversary of when the Barbie movie premiered in the US, which was July 21st, 2023. Tune in to hear this psychologist’s analysis of the Barbie Movie. It might not be what you think!
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Hello and welcome! You’re listening to the PsycHope Self-Help Podcast: A space for women where psychology illuminates paths to healing, hope, and personal growth. I’m Dr. Jennifer McManus, a clinical psychologist and I’ll be your host. Each episode, we’ll explore a different way to use psychology to enhance emotional wellness. Hope you enjoy the show!
Hey everyone! It’s episode 38. After a brief hiatus, the podcast is back! For the rest of the summer, we’re bringing you fun, lighthearted episodes while still maintaining our dedication to healing, hope, and personal growth inspired by psychology.
We’re kicking off these playful episodes with a psychodynamic analysis of the Barbie movie. At the time this episode will be going live, it will be right around the one-year anniversary of when the Barbie movie premiered in the US, which was July 21st, 2023. I’ve been wanting to share some psychological perspectives of this movie with all of you for a while. So, the one-year anniversary of the premier of the Barbie movie seemed like the perfect time for this episode.
Now, before getting into this analysis, here’s your spoiler warning. This episode will discuss the Barbie Movie plot details and characters in depth. So, if you’ve not yet seen the movie, please use your discernment if you’d like to continue listening. I certainly do not want this episode to take away from your enjoyment of the movie.
Before diving into this psychodynamic analysis of the Barbie movie, let’s get ourselves re-oriented to the movie. Please know though, I will not be providing a comprehensive synopsis of the Barbie Movie. Instead, I’ll highlight key plot lines relevant to understanding the psychodynamic concepts for this analysis.
So, remember the opening scene is an homage to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey with Helen Mirren narrating. She takes us through the evolution of dolls, mostly baby dolls so little girls could play mommy. Until Barbie changed all that.
We’re then given a display of different Barbie dolls over the years. Helen Mirren remarks on Barbie’s many contributions, including the bold statement that Barbie solved all problems of feminism and equal rights. We quickly learn our narrator said that in jest, but don’t tell the Barbies that. We are then given our first glimpse of Barbie Land.
We get to see the dream houses, couture wardrobes, and how in Barbie Land, the Barbies are not only beautiful, but achieving all their personal and professional goals, no matter how lofty those goals may be. We see Barbies winning Nobel prizes as well as serving on the supreme court and as the president of Barbie Land.
I have to say, as a clinical psychologist who serves highly ambitious, career driven women, these initial scenes of Barbie Land held so much meaning to me. When the Barbies accepted their Nobel Prizes, they did so with confidence, knowing they worked hard and deserved that high praise.
There was another line during the introduction to Barbie Land that really warmed my psychotherapist heart. That was when one of the lawyer Barbies was making an argument to the supreme court. She explained the topic for which she was arguing made her emotional and then said, “I have no difficulty holding both logic and feeling at the same time. And, it does not diminish my powers, it expands them.” Embracing this sort of balanced approach of logic and feeling is a common theme in the therapeutic work I do in the world.
But it’s not the women’s empowerment, the celebration of feminine qualities, or the balanced approach to logic and feeling that I wish to focus on in this particular analysis of the movie. Most of these themes have been heavily covered already. Instead, I’d like to explore a specific psychodynamic concept through the Barbie movie with you. That concept is transitional phenomena, specifically transitional objects.
So, let’s get into some key definitions here. First, what’s an example of a transitional object? In the Barbie movie – it’s stereotypical Barbie, in her doll form. You may also be familiar with transitional objects seen in other movies or TV shows like Linus’ blanket in the Peanuts or Charlie Brown cartoon. Linus is often seen carrying his blue blanket, which he uses for comfort and security. This blanket is a well-known belonging of his and is a central part of his personality in the Charles Schulz cartoon. Now, dolls and security blankets are examples of transitional objects, but let’s dive deeper here into the concepts of transitional objects and transitional phenomena.
Back in 1953, Donald Winnicott, a prominent British pediatrician and psychoanalyst, introduced the concepts of transitional objects and transitional phenomena. Winnicott made significant contributions to the field of developmental psychology and is best known for his theory of transitional objects and the concept of the "good enough" mother. While not the focus of today’s episode, it is worth quickly mentioning that Winnicott’s contribution of the “good enough" mother concept is huge. The idea here is that the mother (or primary caregiver) does not need to be perfect to raise a healthy, well-adjusted child. Instead, she just needs to be "good enough" by providing consistent, reliable care and meeting the child's basic emotional and physical needs.
So back to defining transitional objects, they are inanimate objects to which children may form lasting attachments and use for self-soothing during times of stress or change. Winnicott explained that transitional objects are usually soft blankets, pieces of cloth, or a stuffed animal toy, like a teddy bear. Winnicott also pointed out that transitional objects are especially important to many infants at bedtime and can help with depressive anxiety. Transitional objects are understood to be a universal and healthy aspect of emotional development.
The concept of transitional phenomena involves the psychological manner in which one experiences a transitional object. In this psychological mode, an object can be simultaneously valued for both its objective features and internal qualities imbued to it by an individual. We’ll be coming back to the idea that a person can imbue characteristics onto the object (in our case, a Barbie doll).
Adopting a transitional object occurs at different points across the lifespan. The first transitional object is most frequently adopted around the age of 6 months and is usually a blanket or cloth diaper. It’s typically an item in the infant’s immediate environment like a crib or otherwise used in the infant’s care. Transitional objects can be understood to aid in the emotional regulation aspect of attachment when the parent or caregiver is absent from or otherwise unavailable to the infant.
At around 2 years of age, children tend to develop attachments to the second transitional object, which is usually a soft or treasured toy. Toys like Barbie.
While it’s beyond the scope of this analysis, it’s important to note that there are significant limitations with scientific research in this area. Critics have also shared their concerns that transitional phenomena theories tend to attribute too high of a level of mental sophistication to young infants. Also, I want to clarify that these experiences are found far more in individualistic societies vs collectivistic cultures.
Alright – now that we have a foundation set of these psychodynamic concepts, lets explore how transitional objects and transitional phenomena show up in the Barbie Movie.
It’s primarily through the characters of stereotypical Barbie played by Margot Robbie and Gloria played by America Ferrara that we can see elements of transitional phenomena. Given virtually every doll in the movie is called Barbie, I’ll clarify if I’m discussing a different Barbie than our main Barbie, stereotypical Barbie. If I just say “Barbie” or “our Barbie” I’m talking about stereotypical Barbie played by Margot Robbie.
So, back to the movie synopsis, the next day in Barbie Land our Barbie is no longer having the best day ever. Her shower’s cold, her milk’s expired, and soon we learn she’s malfunctioning to a degree the Barbies have never seen before…she has flat feet! Our Barbie learns from the doctor Barbie that she must go see Weird Barbie, played by Kate McKinnon, who can hopefully help her with the malfunctioning.
It’s through Weird Barbie that we learn Barbie has to go to the real world to find the girl who has been playing with her. In the director commentary of the movie, Greta Gerwig comments on the fake science often used in movies to explain what’s happening. Their fiction was certainly over the top, but it still had some threads to psychodynamic understanding of human behavior, specifically transitional phenomena.
At one point, Weird Barbie said: “The two of you are becoming inextricably intertwined.” This is similar to how a child imbues certain qualities on the object.
So, playing in this space for a moment with the fake science from Barbie Land and the threads to the psychodynamic concept of transitional objects, we can ask would Weird Barbie be considered a transitional object? Given what we know about Weird Barbie, mainly that she smells like basement, is always in the position of doing splits, and that “someone played with her too hard” I’m leaning towards she would not be considered a transitional object. Transitional objects are also known as “treasured objects,” so one might say that the way this doll was treated does not correspond to being treasured. This argument is strengthened when we think of the scene with the child being really rough with Weird Barbie and not treating her in a way that one would really consider tender or caring. I do realize though that, sometimes dolls, toys, or other items treasured by children are used so frequently that they become threadbare.
Moving along with the plot of the movie, our Barbie travels to the real world on her mission to find the girl who she believes has been playing with her and causing her to malfunction.
After some adventures in the Venice Beach real world, Barbie is able to focus and basically see visions of a daughter and mother. Barbie believes it is the daughter in this mother/daughter duo with whom she must connect in order to correct her malfunctioning. She even correctly senses that the daughter, who we later learn is named Sasha, is at a nearby school.
When Barbie first meets Sasha, she introduces herself as “your favorite woman of all time, Barbie!” She then learns that here in the real world, some people take issue with Barbie with things like unattainable standards of beauty. Relevant to the concept of transitional objects Barbie says… “I’m supposed to help you and make you happy and powerful.”
Fast forward a bit, we briefly see the character Gloria, Sasha’s mom, picking up Sasha from school. As Barbie is getting into an SUV with Mattel security, Gloria appears mesmerized by this real-life Barbie.
After some adventures at the Mattel headquarters, Gloria and Sasha arrive just in time and come to Barbie’s rescue. As Barbie emerges from the Mattel headquarters, Barbie and Gloria share their first eye to eye gaze. In the director commentary of the movie, Greta Gerwig describes the moment of their shared gazed as a “love push in shot.” Gerwig explains, “they love each other” and it’s the “love between a doll and a human.”
Gloria then says, “Get in.” Barbie jumps in and a car chase with Mattel ensues. Through all this action, Gloria and Sasha are trying to make sense out of why there is a living Barbie doll in the real world. Gloria says to her daughter, “I’ve been a little lonely lately.” She describes how she found the Barbies they used to play with together and started playing with the Barbies. She thought it would be joyful, but it wasn’t. She said she got sad and weird and then the drawings got sad and weird (these are the same drawings we briefly saw when Gloria was sitting at her desk outside the Mattel board meeting, that corresponded to Barbie’s malfunctioning).
Barbie then has a moment of realization that she came for Gloria, not Sasha.
This plot twist in the Barbie Movie – that it was the mother not the daughter playing with stereotypical Barbie – also has connecting threads to the psychodynamic concept of transitional objects. While attachments to transitional objects are initially formed in infancy and then in early childhood, interestingly enough though, psychological research also supports that attachments to transitional objects can be formed at later times in human development, particularly during times of intense emotional pain and suffering.
Gloria summarized her struggle as being a “boring Mom with a boring job and a daughter who hates [her].”
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Traditional transitional objects (those used by infants or children) were understood to aid in the process of separation and individuation from the mother. In the Barbie Movie, Gloria turned to a Barbie doll when the mother/daughter relationship was strained in a different way, further down the lifespan. She was lonely and felt like her tween aged daughter hated her.
Transitional objects in later phases of development like adolescence or adulthood can take many different forms. It may be a toy or doll like Barbie as was the case for Gloria. However, it could also be a trinket, clothing, or other item that carries special meaning and assists with adjusting to a time of significant transition.
The fantasy realm of Barbie Land gave us the unique opportunity of imagining the impact of the user or player’s pain and suffering on of the transitional object. When things started to go wrong for Barbie in Barbie land, we now know it was connected to Gloria’s own suffering.
Barbie then brings Gloria and Sasha to Barbie Land. They learn the Kens have brainwashed all the Barbies and are attempting to overthrow the constitution. Throughout this turmoil when Barbie is feeling defeated, she says “I’m not good enough for anything.” Gloria tries to console her and comments on human suffering, specifically as a woman. Gloria says, “It’s literally impossible to be a woman.” She then gives her famous double bind speech, which further highlight the stress Gloria had been experiencing prior to trying to comfort herself by playing with a Barbie doll. Through this psychodynamic lens, Gloria’s experiences helping return Barbie Land (her imaginary playland) to normal can also be understood as playing a key role in her own emotional healing. This is because anything happening in Barbie Land can also be understood to be Gloria’s imaginary playland. Through the transitional object lens, she is imbuing onto stereotypical Barbie, her suffering, but also her healing.
The movie then has a series of endings, saving Barbie Land, Ken finding himself (yes, he is Kenough), and lastly, Barbie’s ending of choosing to live as a human in the real world.
Ruth Handler, the creator of the Barbie doll imparts sage counsel upon Barbie, advice which is also germane to our exploration of transitional phenomena in the Barbie movie. Ruth says, “I created you so you wouldn’t have an ending.” This also connects with how we imbue our own fantasies onto Barbie or other toys or items serving as transitional objects.
Ruth also shares wisdom about the suffering that is part of the human experience. She says, “Humans make things up like the patriarchy and Barbie just to deal with how uncomfortable it is.” There are many ways that the creation of Barbie could potentially help with the discomfort of being human – like encouraging achievement and independence. While of course we want to recognize that like most things in life, Barbie has positive and negative aspects. In the movie, Sasha shared a pretty thorough list of Barbie’s areas for improvement. So, in the spirit of a balanced approach, I hope that this analysis in which Barbie is viewed as a transitional object has expanded our appreciation of Barbie’s helpful qualities.
Keeping with one of the primary aims of the PsycHope Self-Help Podcast that of bringing you self-help ideas informed by psychology, let’s wrap up this episode with some self-care practices inspired by, you guessed it, transitional objects. You might consider using a memento that represents a person, maybe a pet, or a period of time you really miss. Another idea is to identify an item that represents a quality in yourself you’d like to strengthen. These objects could then be used to self-soothe (like holding them in your hand or placing them against your body for comfort), you could use these objects as a visual cue for encouragement, or as an external focal point for mindfulness meditation.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my psychodynamic take on the Barbie Movie. Leave a comment for the show if you’d like to hear more episodes like this where I review movies or TV shows through the lens of a relevant psychological concept. We’ll be back later this summer with more fun episodes just like this.
Much peace till next time!
The information shared on the PsycHope Self-Help podcast is done so with the understanding that it does not constitute professional help nor is it a substitute for professional help. If you think you might benefit from more than self-help, there are resources listed in the show notes.
Show Notes
Episode 38, originally published on July 21, 2024.
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Disclaimer
The information shared on the PsycHope Self-Help podcast does not constitute professional help nor is it a substitute for professional help. If you think you might benefit from more than self-help, here are some helpful resources:
Find a therapist:
Psychology Today, directory for locating a psychotherapist. More details here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/
Mental health crisis resources:
Suicide Prevention Hotline: call or text 988
Crisis text line: text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor for any emotional crisis
