Ken became the villain of Barbie. As he ventured into the real world, he learned about patriarchy and embraced it, bringing it back to Barbieland. His plans for Kendom failed, but Barbie helped him realize it was okay to be vulnerable, to be lost and emotional.
Ruth takes Barbie by the hand, and the two of them are whisked off to an infinite white void. Everyone waves goodbye, stiffly; Ken is wearing a “I am Kenough” tie-dyed pullover fleece, serene in his new sense of self. Barbie remains anxious about her future, which is a new emotion for her.
The most perfect plastic pair had been together for 43 years when the surprising split was announced. Mattel said that it was just time for the two dolls to spend some time apart, with some hints pointing to Ken's avoidance of the marriage subject.
Ken brought everything that he offered to her feet. Mattel created Ken with one sole purpose—to be obsessed with Barbie and stand there as her arm candy. This portrays the reality of how men view their partners, it can also signify what females want in a partner.
The fact is that Ken is, ultimately, not simply the villain of the film. He's also the damsel in distress. Look at his miserable life in Barbieland when we meet him: he has no Dream House to call his own – where the Kens live is unclear – and seems to spend all his time on tenterhooks waiting for Barbie to notice him.
Barbie makes it clear she's not interested in Ken romantically and urges him to find his own personal passions. The finale not only flips the normal script on female-centric films—in which a woman discovers she doesn't need a man to find her inner power (Legally Blonde, Eat Pray Love, etc.)
Ken's original backstory was that he met Barbie in 1961 on the set of their first television commercial together. The couple fell in love and started dating. Barbie broke up with Ken on Valentine's Day in 2004. To impress Barbie, Ken got a makeover from stylist Phillip Bloch in 2006.
But after the Barbies reveal their victory and Ken goes off crying, it's Barbie who apologizes to Ken, not the other way around. Some viewers have wondered: why does Barbie apologize to Ken when he's the one who brainwashed all her friends and took over Barbie Land?
Mattel released a statement in 2004 that Barbie and Ken had broken up, but they were reunited in 2011. Barbie and Ken aren't officially engaged or married, though wedding clothing and gift boxes have been released so that children could play that they were marrying.
Created by Barbie's inventor Ruth Handler, Ken was a boyfriend designed by women for girls. Just as Barbie was named after Handler's daughter, so Ken was named after her son. And so the safe, boyfriend-friend dynamic of Barbie and Ken's relationship was established.
Meet Blaine, the Aussie boogie boarder Barbie dumped Ken for back in 2004. “BARBIE DUMPS KEN FOR AN AUSSIE,” shouts a 2004 headline from The Sydney Morning Herald.
Technically, Ken has no official age (he is a doll, after all) although he was first introduced as Barbie's boyfriend on March 11, 1961, which means he has been around for 62 years. (Barbie was created in 1959, which would make her 64.)
Summary. Margot Robbie's friends were surprised that she and Ryan Gosling's Ken don't kiss in the Barbie film, questioning her role as a producer. Barbie and Ken have a close bond but do not share a romantic relationship in the movie, with Barbie explicitly stating that she isn't interested in Ken that way.
Ken has been dating Barbie for 43 years total now. Ken has been shown to be frenemies with Ryan, the twin brother of Raquelle. Raquelle has a crush on him, but Ken obviously doesn't reciprocate these feelings, since he is in love with Barbie. He fights with Ryan over Barbie's affections.
Why does Barbie go to the gynecologist at the end of the Barbie movie?
CNN: Why might it be important that “Barbie” culminated in a gynecologist appointment? Wen: Having everyone see Barbie go to the gynecologist normalizes the experience. It solidifies the understanding that reproductive health is an integral part of overall health.
The breakup was announced at the International Toy Fair and Barbie's publicist stated that they would remain friends and that Barbie was going to spend some time with “close family and friends” at her Malibu beach house.
Barbie was childfree. She was invented to be that way. Her creator, Ruth Handler, way back in 1959, was disheartened to find that the only dolls her own daughter could play with were baby dolls.
Ken (short for Kenneth Carson) hit the toy aisle as Barbie's buyable boyfriend two years after her 1959 debut. He was available in two styles — blond or brunette hair, made of hard plastic — and came dressed in very short red swim trunks. He cost $3.50 and shared a name with the son of Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler.
Although the doll was part of a 'Happy Family' line of dolls, there was backlash at the time for endorsing 'teenage pregnancy', so the road towards endorsing a liberating world through Barbie dolls has admittedly not always been smooth. Regardless, for Ruth the idea was to keep Barbie single and child free.
In 2011, Mattel launched a massive campaign for Ken to win Barbie's affections back. The pair officially reunited on Valentine's Day 2011. In 2011, Mattel introduced Japan Ken, the first Ken doll to be included in the "Dolls of the World" collection, which was formerly a Barbie-only line.
Some argue that her emphasis on fashion, beauty, and materialism strengthens stereotypes and limits girls' aspirations. They claim that Barbie fails to empower young girls to pursue careers in male-dominated fields or engage in activities traditionally seen as "boyish."
Barbie and Ken are one of pop culture's most famous couples. But the plastic dolls were named after real people, and they weren't a couple – they were siblings. Ruth Handler's children resented the dolls named after them and didn't buy any for their own children.
Yes, Sugar Daddy Ken was a real thing in the Noughties, but his backstory is not what you'd think. A Gavin and Stacey actor plays him in the movie. A little Barbie trivia for you – there is an actual doll called Sugar Daddy Ken.
1961: First introduced at the American International Toy Fair as Barbie doll's boyfriend on March 11, 1961 Ken doll was 12 inches tall, had “molded” plastic hair (blond and brunette) and came dressed in red bathing suit trunks with a yellow towel and sandals.
