How Barbie's Boyiend Ken Beme an Accintal Gay In | HowStuffWorks

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.

HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN

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.

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

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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.

THAT TIME MATTEL ACCINTALLY MA KEN GAY

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

“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.

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

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. 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.

WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

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.