Photos of Ryan Goslg as Ken 'Barbie' ll to md Earrg Magic Ken, aka Gay Ken, who lighted the queer muny and dismayed Mattel.
Contents:
- HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN
- THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
- THE YASSIFITN OF KEN: EARRG MAGIC KEN AND HIS ENDURG GAY LEGACY
- THE LTLE-KNOWN, REAL-LIFE BACKSTORY BEHD THE BARBIE MOVIE’S VERY FUNNY GAY KEN JOKE
- IN 1993 MATTEL UNKNOWLGLY RELEASED A GAY KEN DOLL
- MATTEL MA A GAY KEN DOLL THAT WAS IT'S BT SELLG KEN DOLL EVER
HOW BARBIE'S BOYIEND KEN BEME AN ACCINTAL GAY IN
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. * 1993 gay ken *
In the distant past of 1993, gay marriage wasn’t legal any state the untry.
Sodomy laws all over Ameri attempted to outlaw gay sex by crimalizg any oral or anal erotic ntact. 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. “For about a year every gay boy at a rave was wearg at least one, ” Savage wrote.
THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
* 1993 gay ken *
“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' Earrg Magic Ken Hs the Shelv. "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 YASSIFITN OF KEN: EARRG MAGIC KEN AND HIS ENDURG GAY LEGACY
In 1993 Mattel unknowlgly released a gay Ken doll * 1993 gay ken *
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.
"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.
THE LTLE-KNOWN, REAL-LIFE BACKSTORY BEHD THE BARBIE MOVIE’S VERY FUNNY GAY KEN JOKE
” — 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.
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 1993 MATTEL UNKNOWLGLY RELEASED A GAY KEN DOLL
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. 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.
” (The first openly LGBTQ+ doll, Gay Bob, was released 1977.
MATTEL MA A GAY KEN DOLL THAT WAS IT'S BT SELLG KEN DOLL EVER
“I do rell the male Mattel signer—who was married wh several children and workg on the project—sayg to me: ‘They will turn Ken gay wh this doll!
By makg him gay. Some fans, however, noticed certa siari between Goslg’s look and another time gay fans went nuts over Ken.
That’s right – Goslg bears a strikg remblance to Earrg Magic Ken – sometim known as Gay Ken or even Cock Rg Ken, who actually mak a meo appearance Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Between his purple mh top and fx-leather vt, bleach-blon two-toned hair, sgular pierced ear and necklace holdg a good sized rg (whatever termology you want to lend to ), Ken screams early-’90s-gay-rave-attene.