![]() The reason for their demand was obvious: Barbie taught girls what was expected of women and a woman in the fifties would have been a failure without a male consort.” Ken, over the years ![]() But consumers so pushed for a boyfriend doll that Mattel finally released it in 1961. Male dolls had traditionally been losers in the marketplace. Writer MG Lord, in her book Barbie: the Unauthorised Biography of a Real Doll, writes: “Mattel, in fact, never wanted to produce Ken. He was 12 inches tall (0.5-inches taller than Barbie) had “molded” plastic hair (blond and brunette) and came dressed in red bathing suit trunks with a yellow towel and sandals. The Southern California business slowly ventured into the toy world, whose market was growing with the establishment of Disneyland in 1955.Īnd so arrived Ken, in 1961. Mattel was started by couple, Elliot and Ruth Handel, along with Harold “Matt” Matson in 1945, initially as a picture frame manufacturing unit. The narratives circulated by Mattel around Barbie and Ken’s relationship, through commercials, video games, books and campaigns, also reflect, to an extent, the changing landscape of American pop culture. Just as Barbie, Ken has transformed over the decades, as the conversations surrounding the dolls have changed. Over the past five decades, I’ve tried on many hats – businessman, Olympian, pilot, and most recently, actor.” You might know me as arm candy, Prince Charming or the guy-in-waiting, but my friends know the real me: confident, considerate, and of course, handsome! While Barbie is known for traveling the world and for her glamorous adventures, I’ve been quietly leading a very active Ken-tastic life of my own. This is how Ken is described on the website of Mattel, the company that makes the dolls: “Hi, I’m Ken Carson, better known as Ken.
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