In an effort to boost sales in the early 90s, Mattel ran a focus group with a bunch of five-year-old girls to figure out how they could make the doll more appealing. Mattel had been manufacturing Barbie since 1959, and while she had always sold well, Ken – introduced a little while later – was something of a flop. The most striking example of Ken as an accidental gay icon is ‘ Earring Magic Ken ’, a doll which was released in 1993. He is also, of course, extremely kitsch – a vibe which has always been popular among gay men. The doll has a long history as a gay symbol, which stands to reason: minus a handle-bar moustache, he embodies the kind of beauty ideals that in the 70s and 80s would find you atop the sexual hierarchy of Fire Island. Lots of people said that, at 42, Gosling is simply too old to play Ken, while others lambasted this as ageist writing in The Independent, Victoria Richards argued, “ It’s time to do away with ageism and recognise that you don’t have to be below 25 to be beautiful.”Īlready, the image has inspired scores of memes based on the simple premise that Ken looks, well, kind of gay. With his peroxide blonde hair, orange spray tan and washboard abs, he looks like some ageing twink that you’d see at G-A-Y Late on a Wednesday night – and reactions haves been mixed. Yesterday, Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie film set the internet ablaze by releasing the first promotional still of Ken, played by Ryan Gosling.
