The te story of Mattel accintally releasg a super gay Ken doll

Contents:

• HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN
• THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
• MATTEL MA A GAY KEN DOLL THAT WAS IT'S BT SELLG KEN DOLL EVER
• THAT TIME MATTEL ACCINTALLY MA KEN GAY
• THE LTLE-KNOWN, REAL-LIFE BACKSTORY BEHD THE BARBIE MOVIE’S VERY FUNNY GAY KEN JOKE
• WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

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 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. "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?

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. The doll flew off the shelv, pecially sce gay men, cludg Savage, shed out to buy a Ken doll. 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.

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

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.

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

"I don't thk a gay man unr 40 would even know what we we're talkg about, " he said. Adam McDonald is a 36-year-old gay man and film cric for the Bored as Hell podst. ” — 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.

THAT TIME MATTEL ACCINTALLY MA KEN GAY

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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THE LTLE-KNOWN, REAL-LIFE BACKSTORY BEHD THE BARBIE MOVIE’S VERY FUNNY GAY KEN JOKE

Gog all the way back to 1993 and releasg a male doll that was obvly gay seems like que a risky choice to make. 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.

The children loved this doll, gay dividuals saw as easier to relate to, and the public bought up rerd numbers.

WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

Mattel was really embarrassed by the nnectn between their doll and the ia of him beg 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.