… I don’t get it. 
Is that so? I always change the channel in disgust right when Dorothy clicks her heels, so I’ve never seen the part with the abusive husband.
You seem to be new, so you may not be aware that I and all other Rhymers are smart-mouthed jerks. I’m kidding about the abusive husband, but the bits about Glinda being entirely imaginary and the implications of that fact for the story are serious. Well…as serious as I get in CS.
Even in the context of the movie, Glinda only exists in Dorothy’s head. The whole adventure is a representation of Dorothy’s tension between staying where she felt safe but bored, and going places that were interesting but dangerous.
Based on, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
I don’t know if this quite fits, because it seems to me to be different in some crucial way, but I can’t quite pin down in words why I think it’s not quite what is described in the OP.
While reading this thread, I was irresisitbly reminded of this bit of dialogue from the great crime caper The Sting, which I watched again the other day in memory of Paul Newman.
The set-up - Henry Gondorff (played by Paul Newman), a notorious grifter, wants to enter a high-stakes poker game hosted by mob boss Doyle Lonnegan (played by Robert Shaw). Gondorff doesn’t have the money necessary so he asks a friend to pick Lonnegan’s pocket. They start the game, giving everyone a bunch of poker chips, and Gondorff beats Lonnegan by cheating. Gondorff asks Lonnegan to pay up, Lonnegan reaches in his breast pocket for his wallet and notices his wallet is gone. Gondorff says, flashing a loaded wallet: “When you come to a game like this, you bring your money with you!” What makes it so funny is that Lonnegan’s money is there - except that Gondorff is the one holding it and waving it in Lonnegan’s face.
Never, ever step between a woman and a thermostat.