Barbie experiences an existential crisis marked by thoughts of death, unease, increasing difficulty, and physical changes that destabilize her identity. She travels to the real world to repair a tear between Barbieland and reality and encounters a world with unease and a mild undertone of violence. Sasha criticizes the unrealistic expectations embodied by Barbie dolls and highlights women's oppression under the patriarchy. Barbie briefly longs for Barbieland but returns to find Ken's patriarchy has harmed that world as well. She collapses emotionally and physically while friends attempt consolation and Weird Barbie names the condition an existential crisis.
In Barbie, Stereotypical Barbie (henceforth referred to simply as Barbie) undergoes changes that challenge her sense of self. Thoughts of death, feeling of unease, things being more difficult than usual, and flat feet (the horror!) amongst other trials. In order to return to the standard of, "Barbie has a great day every day," she travels to the real world to restore the rip in the portal between the two worlds.
There she finds a world that is the opposite of Barbieland. There are feelings of unease with a mild undertone of violence. She is criticized by Sasha for the unrealistic expectations that Barbie dolls place on impressionable young women. She realizes that women in the real world are oppressed by the patriarchy and she longs for the happiness and superiority of Barbieland.
However, after Barbie returns to Barbieland and sees what Ken's introduction of patriarchy has done to the world she loved, Barbie falls to the ground, the lowest she's been both emotionally and physically. Gloria and Sasha try to reach out to her unsuccessfully. Weird Barbie tells them, "She's not dead, she's just having an existential crisis." And while this turn of phrase is often used lightly, in this case, it's appropriate.
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