Mod Hair Ken: A quintessentially ‘70s doll with a massive mop of hair, extra-long sideburns and bonus facial hair made for mixing and matching. He debuted a variety of looks that could only have worked in their respective decades, and even then, he couldn’t always pull them off. Lord writes that Ken was a “drip with seriously abridged genitalia who wasn’t very important in (Barbie’s) life.” He’d have an uphill battle to prove his worth to consumers - and to his toy girlfriend.Įven with an ever-fashionable companion like Barbie, Ken could never quite crack it when it came to personal style, though he certainly tried. In her book “Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll,” M.G. The omniscient narrator even teased a wedding between the two.īut Ken wasn’t exactly popular or even considered essential among diehard Barbie collectors. They’d go on to attend fraternity parties (Barbie was a university student), picnics and, of course, countless beach trips. “Somehow (Barbie) knew she and Ken would be going together,” said the narrator in the original 1961 ad that brought them together.

In Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie,’ Ken’s clothes are his key to emancipation Ryan Gosling in 'Barbie' Courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN.)īut who is Ken, really, besides Barbie’s sometime-boyfriend and nonessential accessory?ĭelve into the history of Barbie’s male counterpart, from his origins as Kenneth Carson to his tumultuous breakup with Barbie in the mid-2000s to his rebirth, via Ryan Gosling, on the big screen. (Warner Bros., which is behind “Barbie,” shares parent company Warner Bros. Even in the real world, Ken is still second fiddle. While brands are churning out “Barbie” collaborations and cinephiles vie for seats at screenings, Ken’s influence is relegated to memes. #3 (note: bug with v1.“Barbie,” which is gearing up to be summer’s must-see movie, has already vastly improved the cultural perception of its eponymous blonde star and made her relevant to a new generation more than 60 years after her toy store debut.īut the film’s tagline immediately pegs Ken, her lovesick sidekick with the washboard abs, as a lesser piece of plastic: “(Barbie is) everything. #1 (note: included in the PBEM & Single Player Balance mod) The top 10 for those too lazy to click on the article (I recommend to open the article though, as it contains some description of the mod, useful to see if you're interested or not):

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