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Socialite barbie bff12/5/2023 ![]() ![]() Ken’s smooth groin area was the compromise the two parties reached. “The squeamish male executives at Mattel did not” agree. ![]() The two advocated for Ken to have some sort of genitalia, “if no actual penis, then at least a ‘bulge’ in his trousers,” according to Esquire. Handler and designer Charlotte Johnson wanted Ken to stand out from Barbie in other ways as well. Ken stands twelve inches tall, which is half an inch taller than Barbie. “That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.” ![]() “Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world,” Gerwig told Vogue. (She also founded and ran Mattel until 1975 with her husband, Elliot.) Ken was made in response to those who wrote Mattel complaining about Barbie’s singledom. Ken, who, yes, is a Pisces, was created as a male counterpart and companion to Barbie by Ruth Handler, the inventor of the iconic mononymous fashion doll. Kenneth Sean Carson hit store shelves in March 1961, two years after Mattel released the first Barbie doll. Read more: Our cover story on Barbie When was Ken created? Before seeing Barbie, in theaters July 21, find out how Ken became the most iconic boy toy in history. (Listen to Ken’s blonde fragility ballad “I’m Just Ken” to understand how deep the prototypical himbo’s inferiority complex runs-or, should I say, roller blades.) Barbie’s plus one has finally realized something the rest of us have known forever: it’s Barbie’s world and he’s just living in it. This might be why Gosling’s Ken to Margot Robbie’s Barbie is in the midst of an existential crisis. All Barbie’s boyfriend does, according to Gerwig’s film, is “beach,” which, as Barbie’s über Ken Ryan Gosling has noted throughout the movie’s press tour, is a difficult occupation to define and certainly not one to brag about. For the last sixty-four years, she has been doing just that: holding down more than two hundred jobs, including air force pilot, robotics engineer, baby doctor, Mars explorer, and president, putting other famous multi-hyphenates to shame. Ken is a piece of delicious, but wholly unnecessary arm candy for Barbie, a woman who can do it all on her own. No, he’s the neon pink plate that Barbie would use while eating an impeccably made PB&J. But who is Ken-or, perhaps the better question is, why is Ken? He is not the peanut butter to Barbie’s jelly. In Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Ken is just Ken. ![]()
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