![]() ![]() One 2002 product from the collection was “Midge and Baby,” featuring a pregnant Midge whose detachable belly contained a removable baby. Midge and Alan later became the center of a “ Happy Family” line complete with kids and grandparents. (Naturally, Barbie and Ken were in the wedding party.) In 1991, for instance, “Wedding Day Midge” married Ken’s best friend, Alan (formerly Allan) Sherwood, whom she’d been “dating” since the 1960s. Midge hasn’t been around consistently throughout Barbie’s history, but her reappearances have been memorable. The two had the same proportions, so they could easily share clothes. In 1963, Mattel debuted Barbie’s best friend: a wide-eyed, freckle-faced doll named Midge Hadley. Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding Ken’s evocative jewelry caused Mattel to discontinue the toy.īarbie and Ken stayed together until Valentine’s Day in 2004, when Mattel’s vice president of marketing, Russell Arons, revealed that the two “feel it’s time to spend some quality time-apart.” Barbie went on to have a brief relationship with an Australian surfer named Blaine, but her ex ultimately succeeded in winning her back in 2011 “after a series of grand gestures that included everything from personalized cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery to billboards professing my love,” Ken said. It became the best-selling Ken doll up to that point, thanks in large part to the number of gay men who bought one. “Queer Ken is the high water mark of, depending on your point of view, either queer infiltration of popular culture or the thoughtless appropriation of queer culture by heterosexuals,” he wrote. While McKendall tried to maintain that the design simply mirrored “what see their dads, brothers, and uncles wearing” and that Mattel “was not in the business of putting cock rings into the hands of little girls,” Savage argued that Earring Magic Ken was an unmistakable reflection of queer culture. From a chain around his neck hung an oversized silver ring that looked a lot like a certain sex toy especially popular among gay men.Įarring Magic Ken and company. In 1993, consumers met this cooler version of the character: Earring Magic Ken-the counterpart for Earring Magic Barbie-flaunted an earring (naturally), black jeans, and a purple pleather vest over a purple mesh crop-top. “They wanted Barbie to stay with Ken, but wanted Ken to look a little cooler,” a Mattel spokesperson Lisa McKendall told journalist Dan Savage. In the early 1990s, Mattel polled young girls for their thoughts on whether Barbie needed a new flame. It was love at first sight.” Though Ken has blithely taken a backseat to his more famous girlfriend for most of their shared history, he’s made headlines on his own at least a couple of times. In doll Ken’s words, per the Barbie media site, “Barbie and I met in 1961 on the set of our first television commercial together. In 1961, Barbie introduced her new boyfriend, Ken Carson (named after the Handlers’ son, Ken). ![]()
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