The First Openly Gay Doll (for everyone) Was a Trailblazer Toy
Contents:
- THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
- WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?
- HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN
- THAT TIME MATTEL ACCINTALLY MA KEN GAY
THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
Simply put, Ken isn’t ol — and Mattel isn’t havg . The children’s answers, likely rmed by media (some would later ce Madonna’s background dancers) and club-culture trends, spire Ken’s new look and what would bee an famo nightmare for Mattel. The doll was lled Earrg Magic Ken, which is the absolute bt name for an accintally gay doll. * gay ken doll instagram *
” — only a whole lot Cyle Suz for In The KnowThe doll was lled Earrg Magic Ken, which is the absolute bt name for an accintally gay doll.
Te to his name, his ear is pierced on the left si, which was largely nsired to be “the gay ear” to pierce at the time and a vert way of ditg queerns. And that’s not all to mentn, his necklace was almost cidly moled after a sexual accsory trend of leathers and club-kids the doll’s 1993 release, activist and wrer Dan Savage, who at the time was workg for queer-foced newspaper The Stranger, wrote a piece about the doll’s cidly “gay” look. “New Ken, ” as he was termed, was officially “Gay Ken.
WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?
Remember when Mattel accintally ma a super gay Ken doll? We do. And queer people ma him the bt sellg Ken doll, ever. * gay ken doll instagram *
Even before Earrg Magic Ken, gay jok surround fashn-lovg Ken for his sat sus and affiliatn wh the hyper-feme world of unlike the jok about Ken’s sexualy, Earrg Magic Ken was the first time queer people weren’t the butt of the “gay Ken” joke.
In fact, that year, 44 percent of the natn believed “gay relatnships” — not marriage, simply datg someone of the oppose genr — should be 1993, Mattel (or any other brand, for that matter) would have never knowgly released a product for queer people bee would alienate the brand’s re nsumer: nservative married moms middle Ameri who are buyg Barbie for their Katie Dupere for In The KnowEarrg Magic Ken likely stck such a chord wh gay men and queer people bee was reprentatn when no one wanted to reprent .
HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN
Barbie has been a femist symbol for a while but do you know about the time when Mattel accintally created a 'gay' Ken doll? * gay ken doll instagram *
The toy giant now sells Creatable World dolls which allow for genr exploratn and Ken dolls that, let’s face , are gayer than Earrg Magic Ken ever was. More om In The Know:Nordstrom lnch first genr clive llectnDolce Va’s unisex Pri llectn go up to women’s shoe size 13The Phluid Project lnch fabric face masks to celebrate Pri MonthShop our favore bety products om In The Know Bety on post The te story of Mattel accintally releasg a super gay Ken doll appeared first on In The Know.
So they had no ia that say, Madonna’s ol back up dancers, were actually gay that’s how we end up wh Earrg Magic Ken, a pann to Earrg Magic Barbie clad a purple mh shirt, a purple leather vt, wearg a big, shy, silver rg around his neck. While he fs to some gay stereotyp, (pecially om the early '90s), ’s the necklace that really got everyone’s gay thor and journalist Dan Savage explas a lumn about the doll om 1993, the late '80s and early '90s, bis beg a sex toy, a ck rg was the queer fashn statement of the time.
The accsory was a staple of the gay club culture that was blowg up at the time, a scene Ken would f right to wh his leather/mh ensemble. Mattel stnchly ni the doll was tend to have anythg to do wh homosexualy at all. Some even claim the bt sellg Barbie mol ever, but as Mattel is unwillg to discs our iend Ken’s current stat, that tle go to Total Hair Barbie (released the year before), he will always have his ltle place history as the time Barbie supported her boyiend explorg his homosexual tennci.
THAT TIME MATTEL ACCINTALLY MA KEN GAY
A lot of male actors, pecially of a certa age (Goslg is 42), would vote the media cycle around a movie built on gags about their character’s aquacy to retablishg their own domance, the way straight men ed to soak up aclas for playg gay rol while seizg every opportuny to drop a mentn of their girliends. And clearly, no one red about Earrg Magic Barbie bee Earrg Magic Ken end up turng to a gay in and beme one of Mattel’s most profable dolls! This gave birth to Mattel’s early 90s gay nightmare (a betiful accint, if you ask me): Earrg Magic Ken looked like the plastic stereotype of queer fashn back then: drsed a lavenr mh t-shirt, a matchg purple leather jacket, tightly fted black jeans, and a pierced earrg at a perd when men havg pierced ears was still nsired taboo the Uned Stat.
Earrg Magic Ken was wrten about by Dan Savage who is a popular lumnist and podster, 1993 when Mattel had bee the lghg stock of pop culture for their failure to unrstand that kids of that era found outfs by Prce, members of Right Said Fred, or Madonna’s backup dancers “ol” but they were nsired by the adults as simply… gay! The doll rocketed off the shelv, particularly bee gay men, cludg Savage, hurried out to get their hands on one.
Though the Earrg Magic Ken cint evinced that LGBTQ+ culture had been absorbed to the mastream media at the time, Ken merely ntued to rema the butt of jok until Savage published his terpretatn of the gay-culture unrlyg msage nveyed by wearg the sex toy and fashn.