‘I'm just Ken’ – a brief history of Barbie’s boyfriend, from all-American boy to movie star
Introduced in 1961 by Mattel, the Ken doll was the epitome of the all-American boy next door.
- Introduced in 1961 by Mattel, the Ken doll was the epitome of the all-American boy next door.
- Clean cut, athletic and with a sharp haircut, he was the perfect counterpart to his more famous girlfriend, Barbie.
- However, this does not mean that traditional patriarchal relationship dynamics are always faithfully replicated when children play with Ken and Barbie.
- Outshined and out-glammed by Barbie, denied any rugged substance, Ken appears little more than an emasculated bit player.
Ken’s fashion history
- Yet, just as with Barbie, Ken reflects the real world in his changing clothes, accessories and abilities, becoming a marker of American fashion and cultural history.
- The preoccupation with coolness and counterculture of the 1970s shines through with his superstar and surfer looks.
- And in his retro and Baywatch styling, the preoccupation with nostalgia, television and film in the 1990s could be seen.
Ken in the Barbie movie
- What then to make then of Ryan Gosling’s newest incarnation of Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie?
- Coupled with his ability to sing and dance evidenced in La La Land (2016), Gosling brings complexity to his reading of Ken, giving him depth and pathos.
- Read more:
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie is a 'feminist bimbo' classic – and no, that's not an oxymoronSinging I’m Just Ken, Gosling mirrors the recent crisis in masculinity in the west.
- So, from college sweetheart, to Barbie’s ex boyfriend, to a poster boy for troubled masculinity, what next for Ken?