Barbie’s gay Ken Easter egg, explaed - Polygon

Contents:

• THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
• HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN
• THE FUTURE OF GAY BARBIE DOLLS AND THE HISTORY OF EARRG MAGIC KEN
• THAT TIME MATTEL ACCINTALLY MA KEN GAY
• MATTEL MA A GAY KEN DOLL THAT WAS IT'S BT SELLG KEN DOLL EVER
• KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND
• IS ALLAN OM 'BARBIE' GAY? 5 REASONS TO THK HE MIGHT BE
• GAY BOB AND EARRG MAGIC KEN: A SHORT HISTORY OF GAY DOLLS
• WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL

” — 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.

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 . 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.

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HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN

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 FUTURE OF GAY BARBIE DOLLS AND THE HISTORY OF EARRG MAGIC KEN

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.

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. Pictur of the Allan doll have gone viral a few tim on social media, as many people believe that Ken, Mattel's famo doll who has historilly been marketed as Barbie's boyiend, is actually gay.

We already knew Mattel's Ken doll has a very hilar, very queer history, but se you need more proof that the Barbie character is an advertent gay in, here's a new velopment for you. In a now viral post om Twter er @byelacey, Barbie fans old and new are beg troduced to Allan, a handsome, brown-haired, and strappg vtage doll who serv as a pann to our gay in Ken. "He's always read gay, " said Dan Savage, ternatnally renowned lumnist and podster, an email, "but has he ever read gayer than he did wh a gay sex toy around his neck?

THAT TIME MATTEL ACCINTALLY MA KEN GAY

Savage origally wrote about Earrg Magic Ken the summer of 1993, when much of the pop culture world was havg a good lgh at Mattel's lack of unrstandg that while ltle kids saw what Prce, the members of Right Said Fred or Madonna's backup dancers were wearg simply as "ol, " the adult world was clued to how gay was. Though the Earrg Magic Ken cint showed that LGBTQ culture at the time had filtrated the mastream (or, arguably, been -opted by ), Ken might've simply remaed the butt of late-night jok until Savage — who's sce gone on to serve as one of the untry's most proment sex and relatnship advice lumnists — published his explanatn of the gay-culture subtext munited by wearg the sex toy.

And a form of , specific placements on clothg uld imply certa sexual preferenc among the gay crowd; you n read Savage's more tailed acunt of the nuanc the Chigo Rear's archiv. And Dan Savage, a sex-advice lumnist then only known to rears of a few pennt alt-newspapers around the untry, was pable of makg breakout news wh a sndalo revelatn: Mattel’s latt Ken doll, part of the Earrg Magic le of Barbie toys, was openly moled on gay fashn.

“What the ltle girls were seeg, and tellg Mattel was ol, wasn’t what their relatns were wearg — unls they had hip queer relativ — but the homoerotic fashns and imagery they were seeg on MTV, what they saw Madonna’s dancers wearg her ncerts and films and, as happens, what ACT UP/Queer Natn fags and dyk were wearg to mos and rav, ” Savage wrote. When to gay Barbie dolls, the Mattel toy pany hasn’t always been a pneer, but they have always been the center of the nversatn. And for all we know, Earrg Magic Ken stigated the unfound fear among agile mascule fathers regardg the notn that playg wh dolls uld lead to their sons beg gay.

MATTEL MA A GAY KEN DOLL THAT WAS IT'S BT SELLG KEN DOLL EVER

Bee he f nearly every sgle early-90s gay stereotype, nversatns grew around Ken’s sexualy and he quickly beme a highly sought-after Barbie pecially among gay men—rultg the doll sellg out by Christmastime shortly after s but. One thg particular gay people sgled out about Ken’s outf was his necklace, which neher the box nor Mattel’s executiv seemed sure of the functn of at the time of the doll’s release.

Gay people sure as hell did though and hundreds of gay mentators were quick to pot out the the necklace was clearly a ck rg. You see, was en vogue back then for gay men to exprs their sexualy by wearg a ck rg on their cloth, there was even a subtle gay men uld e to exprs jt what they were to the bedroom.

KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND

It’s assumed then that someone workg for Mattel had seen a bunch shredd gay men wearg ck rgs about their person and assumed that was jt a ol fashn accsory popular wh tanned men who worked out a lot.

Gay men cleared out stock of the doll at every toy store Ameri and thoands more sent tongue--cheek letters of thanks to Mattel about how they were lovg the new, more fabulo Ken. Mattel absolutely hated this and vehemently nied terviews that Ken was gay, rpondg to requts for ment om magaz and newspapers wh a stock rponse about Ken beg straight.

Unwillg to endure the ridicule, Magic Earrg Ken was quietly pulled om stor makg even more popular bee addn to beg known as “the gay Ken” the doll was now a highly sought after llectors em. Hilarly, Mattel is still salty about everyone llg Magic Earrg Ken gay and the pany ref to discs how many of the dolls they sold.

IS ALLAN OM 'BARBIE' GAY? 5 REASONS TO THK HE MIGHT BE

Those stereotyp were particularly strong the early 1990s, and that meant that this doll stood out even more at the time as clearly beg a gay man. One might thk that the public at the time would have been repulsed by the ia of purchasg their children a doll that they saw as gay. Though the toy maker ref to release official numbers, the general belief is that the gay Ken doll may have actually sold more than even any of the female Barbie dolls that have ever existed.

The film won’t say , but a post-creds punchle about Ken’s handwrg, plete wh hearts and stars surroundg his name, tells what we need to heavily implied nature of Ken’s gayns Toy Story 3 harkens back to Hollywood’s tradnal gay bt iend-type characters. In the Hays Co era, explic referenc to homosexualy weren’t allowed, so characters like Van Buren (Frankl Pangborn) 1937’s Easy Livg, Kip (David Wayne) 1949’s Adam’s Rib, or Addison (Gee Sanrs) 1950’s All About Eve stead were imbued wh effemate characteristics, offerg a glimpse outsi of heteronormativy whout explicly beg of the characters were the same—some were tty, others sweet. Des later, 2010, the gay bt iend was all the rage; Teen Vogue even went so far as to proclaim the GBF as the summer’s mt-have accsory.

In movi like Mean Girls (2004), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Easy A (2010), No Strgs Attached (2011), and Isn’t It Romantic (2019), gay iends exist entirely the orb of their female iends. ” But Barbie do, and for Ken, that’s are plenty of reasons why the film wouldn’t outrightly state that Ken is homosexual. Mattel, of urse, vehemently nied any claims that Ken was gay, let alone that he had somethg as prepostero as a ck rg around his neck.

GAY BOB AND EARRG MAGIC KEN: A SHORT HISTORY OF GAY DOLLS

As a rult, gay men bought the doll drov, and spe Mattel ultimately rellg the doll and wipg away any trace of Earrg Magic Ken, was near-impossible to see Ken as anythg but the glor homosexual he was born to be om then on.

Though Mattel don’t seem to be willg to say Ken is actually gay, the Ken dolls of recent years seem to really lean to Ken’s queerns.

WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

While there is no way to “drs gay, ” there are several dolls that seem to suggt otherwise, such as:Fashnista Ken #193, who looks very exced to tell you about his new obssn, Troye Sivan;Travel Ken Doll, who has a satchel perfect for bathho and a purple overnight bag that lerally proclaims he’s “extra;”Ken Looks Doll, servg “I’m gonna give you a makeover”-type realns while sportg black pleather pants;This Ken, who wears the least heterosexual double nim I have a feelg the new Barbie movie will put the work to nvce that Ken is a hetero du who lov nothg life more than Barbie herself, the wrg’s already on the wall: Ken is, and always will be, Barbie’s gay bt obssg! From the moment the first character posters om Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie arrived on the scene, my fely tuned gaydar started to pg. In the 1960s when LGBTQ+ people often had to live closeted liv, gay men often scribed their lovers as "roommat" or "buddi.

While we technilly don't know if Allan is gay (and perhaps Allan himself don't know yet—after all, g out is a long, difficult procs pecially if you don't have queer role mols to look up to), I strongly believe that he is.