Ken Has Always Been Barbie’s Gay Best Friend—Not Her Boyfriend
It’s Barbie Week at The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, celebrating the doll’s pop-culture history, our favorite Barbie memories, and a certain major movie. Read all of our coverage here!
“She’s everything. He’s just Ken.” That’s the tagline for the wildly anticipated Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The implication is clear: Come for Barbie, and stay for Barbie… but Ken happens to be there too.
Ken has long been seen as nothing but Barbie’s human accessory, but it wasn’t always this way for the poor misunderstood doll. When Ken was first introduced in 1961, his first commercial tried to position him as Barbie’s equal and, unmistakably, boyfriend. “Get both Barbie and Ken and see where the romance will lead!” the commercial promised.