Behind every Barbie there is a Ken: Everything about the handsome doll

Barbie, one of the highly anticipated film of the year, featuring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as the iconic doll duo Barbie and Ken, has hyped up the viewers to know more about their sweet and sour relationship over the years.

Before exploring their decades long romance, let’s dig into Ken’s creation who came into existence two years after Barbie as her male counterpart, created by Mattel in March 1961.

The male doll's full name is Kenneth Sean Carson, named after the son of Ruth Handler, the inventor of the iconic fashion doll. Fans of Barbie raised questions about her being single and desired a companion for their dolls, leading to the creation of Ken, as reported by Time.com.

Speaking to Vogue, the brain behind the first live-action Barbie film, Greta Gerwig, spoke about Ken, saying, “Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world,” adding, “That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.”

When designing the male doll, Ruth Handler and designer Charlotte Johnson deliberately made him different from Barbie, giving him a height of twelve inches, half an inch taller than her. They gave him blonde hair and tanned physique which went on to become his trademark in 1979.

Interestingly enough, the real life Ken could not relate with his namesake doll as he claimed they have nothing in common. “Ken doll is Malibu,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1989, “He goes to the beach and surfs. He is all these perfect American things.”

The real Ken “played the piano and went to movies with subtitles,” he said of the doll, adding, “I was a nerd—a real nerd. All the girls thought I was a jerk.”

Ken's complicated yet sweet relationship history with popular fashion doll, Barbie

As for Ken’s relationship with Barbie, Mattel revealed that they first met while filming a commercial together in 1961 and subsequently fell in love. However, after nearly four decades of being a beloved couple, their relationship hit a rough patch, and they decided to take a break, spending some time apart.

Talking of their romance, Russell Arons, then vice president of marketing at Mattel said, “Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end.”

He noted that Barbie and Ken realized that it was “time to spend some quality time apart” while alluding that Ken not proposing Barbie despite 40 years of relationship may have played a significant role in their breakup.

Soon after Barbie moved on with an Australian boogie boarder named Blaine and maintained friendly bond with her ex. It took Ken two years to realize that he was still in love with Barbie and in an effort to win her back, opted for a complete makeover.

Speaking of his makeover, Phillip Bloch, Hollywood stylist and Mattel consultant said back in 2006, said, “Ken has revamped his life—mind, body, and soul. Everyone knows how difficult it is to change, especially when you’ve lived your life a certain way for more than four decades.”

Bloch said Ken’s new look was “world European,” before revealing that main inspiration behind changing his appearance was to woo Barbie by “looking hot.” But it still took Ken seven years to reconcile his romance with Barbie and finally on Valentine’s Day, he was able to win her back after meeting her on the set of Toy Story 3.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Lisa McKnight, vice president of marketing at Mattel enthralled Barbie fans by revealing, “As we like to put it, they found they were kind of missing each other.

“They had a lot of fun together. Now a little time has passed since the shoot and all the premiere noise around the movie and all that good stuff, and I think they both realized that they’re made for each other,” she added.

The duo is still together but Ken seems to be confused about putting a ring on Barbie’s fingers.