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Totally Hair Ken looks like he's up for a night of clubbing, and with hair like that, who wouldn't be? He even comes with a small tube of Dep to keep every hair in place while dancing the night away. 14. Talking Ken Ah yes, Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare's most overproduced, least-understood play. Despite being read in every English class on earth and performed by every drama class in the solar system, it seems like those who venerate R&J have never read the ending or dug just a little bit beneath the surface. In the film, Ken is obsessed with horses, but that fascination began in 1982 with his Horse Lovin' persona.
Mattel's official line was that this was an attempt to modernize Ken based on the results of a survey that was conducted among their customers.Not only does this Barbie doll's rarity come from the 60 years that have passed since she was created, the Career Girl Barbie was a Japan-exclusive doll, meaning collectors elsewhere around the world were, and still are, clamoring to get their hands on this import. Emily Tamkin, Smithsonian magazine contributor: We sent these Barbies to college. They had different careers. Ken got eventually real hair (like Barbie doll) in the 1970s, one edition was the “ Now Look Ken” in 1975 and the other one was “ Sport and Shave Ken” in 1979. Groovy. The next Ken with real hair was the “ Totally Hair/Ultra Hair Ken” in 1991 and “ Shaving Fun Ken” in 1995 or 1996, then the Ken of “ Butterfly Princess Barbie” also had real hair and a late 90s version of the Shaving Ken too. All the other editions had painted hair. Ken was constantly available and a reliable companion until 2004. Suddenly Ken and Barbie were separated and Barbie got a new boyfriend called Blaine but their relationship did not last that long. At the begin of this decade there was a reunion of Barbie and Ken. Mod hair Ken prototype Klimek: We spoke with Emily Tamkin just before the Barbie movie hit theaters and just after her article came out . We had both just seen the trailer for the new movie.
Harley Davidson did an entire series of Ken dolls for the Barbie brand and they certainly gave Ken the bad boy look that every motorcyclist in the '90s was known for. Take, for example, this Ken doll dripping in Russian fashion. It is one of four dolls and the only male doll in the Barbie Fashion Model Collection (BFMC). 4. Brunette Ken Doll (Japan) Tamkin: With euphoria, with obsession? No, I think it's great. I think they're really playing on the sort of, not tension, but the twist of the trope, which is that very often we have superhero movies or we have, whatever the story is, and it's all about the guy. That estimated price is no typo - this limited-edition Barbie was released for the 40-year anniversary of the De Beers, a legacy diamond jewelry company that more than left its mark with this blinged-out Barbie. Tamkin: Just looking on approvingly as their daughters shave their Ken doll's faces, and then draw the beard on again …
So even if he was the father or the boyfriend or the husband or the professor or the teacher, whatever he was, it wasn't like, “Today we're going to play this really great game and it's all going to be about Ken”–ever. Sorry, sorry to Ken. Klimek: To get a better understanding of where Ken has been, and where he might go in the future, Emily and I sat down together and watched some ads for different Ken dolls over the years. We started with Ken’s debut in 1961.
But I don't know that the official company narrative of Barbie and Ken's relationship has dictated how most people have thought of it. But with dolls constantly on offer now, some of the dolls from throughout Barbie’s long life so far have become far rarer than anticipated. Whether from a high sale price, limited run, or famous designer, these rare Barbie and Kell dolls are worth a fortune. Toys played a large part in most of our childhoods, no matter how old you are or what era you grew up in. We would create fantastical stories for them to play out and let our imaginations run wild as we played. The same can be said for Barbie and Ken dolls. Any young girl (or boy) is bound to have memories of playing with their beloved Barbie and Ken dolls when they were younger.
14. Talking Ken
Chris Klimek, host: When writer Emily Tamkin was little, she created a whole imagined life for her Barbie and Ken dolls. By 1965, the dolls of the Barbie universe had bendable appendages, and Ken's friend, Allan, was no exception. His clothes were also more fashionable. I don't know that there's the same dynamic going on with Ken. Because, and I don't mean this disrespectfully, but like, what in this country have white men not been raised to think they can do? So it's not like, “Wow, candidate Ken.” Doesn't have the same sort of excitement as presidential candidate Barbie. What do you think Mattel might have been responding to circa 1993 to give Ken such a dramatically different new look? He was around for about two years before his original run was discontinued, though he did reappear in the 1990s as a companion for Midge.
Yeah, I mean, it's only appropriate that our conversation about Ken should start with Barbie because, as we say, he only makes sense relative to her. And even the name—you know, Barbie is invented in the 1950s. A lot of Barbie's different careers seem to reflect an attempt to keep current with the times on the part of Mattel. In the 1980s, when movies like 9 to 5 are coming out and foregrounding this idea of women acquiring more influence in white-collar environments, we get Barbie in a pink kind of power suit. Tamkin: Yeah. And I'm not trying to say that Ruth Handler was consciously going through all of this, but I do think it's important that it comes out of this certain point in American history.Klimek: Barbie was always the star of the show. And in all her imaginary plotlines, Emily can only remember her Ken doll playing one featured part.
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