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Harley Davidson did an entire series of Ken dolls for the Barbie brand and they certainly gave Ken the bad boy look that every motorcyclist in the '90s was known for. Kens made in other countries don't differ much from those produced in the U.S. This Ken, however, has a "made in Japan" stamp, which makes him all the more valuable. A lot of Barbie's different careers seem to reflect an attempt to keep current with the times on the part of Mattel. In the 1980s, when movies like 9 to 5 are coming out and foregrounding this idea of women acquiring more influence in white-collar environments, we get Barbie in a pink kind of power suit.
Kevin sure is …. something. I have a feeling that he never got to use his lunch money ?. He’s cute, but he doesn’t have rubber legs!!! Why?!? Was there a version of him made with rubber legs? @eric_joseph79 I’ve seen him in your collection, what are his legs like? #barbiekevin #skippersboyfriend #dork #boxedbarbie #barbiebox #barbiefriends #friendsofbarbie #dudeswithdolls #dudewithdolls #dollstagramTamkin: I think that my Kens sort of fell into the traditional Ken paradigm where, you know, he was always in relation to Barbie. I can't remember ever having a Barbie game where the plot centered around the Ken. Klimek: Let's hear another piece of archival audio that gets into the increasing sophistication of the hair on these dolls. The Spanish were remarkably guarded about their methods for processing and cooking chocolate throughout the 16th century and into the 17th century, such that when they went public in the 18th century, they really, really dominated this European trade in cacao. And also had avoided a significant degree of competition by not telling everyone how magical these beans were. While this Ken doll doesn't exactly have the highest fetch price on our list, he does have a pretty limited-edition rarity to boost his collector's value. The Gianfranco Ken Doll was designed by Robert Best for the Barbie Fashion Model Collection, and it was produced with a gold label. Get The Best Gift Registered office 9 Appleton Drive, Wymeswold, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE12 6TS, United Kingdom
Tamkin: I don't, I couldn’t. It's also just like, someone at Mattel thinking like, “What do men do? They shave.” Like, what are some activities? Klimek: Yeah. Do you think it's the expectation “Well, you know, certainly, these young women are going to have to know how to shave a man's face …”Klimek: I noticed that too. Yeah, olive-skinned. Boy, that poor man is just not going to have any skin left on his face. Ah yes, Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare's most overproduced, least-understood play. Despite being read in every English class on earth and performed by every drama class in the solar system, it seems like those who venerate R&J have never read the ending or dug just a little bit beneath the surface. Like, this is a certain kind of hair that is being held up as, “Look how wonderful this is.” And I honestly had this Totally Hair Barbie in 1992. I had the same thought where it's like, “Oh, look how long the hair is.” From the original Ken doll to the latest special edition, these valuable dolls offer a glimpse into the evolution of fashion, culture and design over the years. We can't list them all here, but this is what you'll get for some of your favorite childhood toys (depending on their condition, of course).
In an interview with Jimmy Fallon last summer, Ryan Gosling talked about what it was like for him when the world found out he was playing Ken. Klimek: Barbie was always the star of the show. And in all her imaginary plotlines, Emily can only remember her Ken doll playing one featured part. Klimek: This is a thing that you write about in a really nuanced way in your piece about how the Handlers were a Jewish family and how even for the creators of Barbie the aesthetic of Barbie was kind of a fraught subject. You know, as a sign of “You can't put this hyper-feminine pressure onto me as a woman.” Which, again, I do understand even if Mattel would say, “Well, you could be anything,” that's the whole point.
I should also say that the postwar period is one of great ambivalence of gender roles for American Jews. This is the period where the development of the idea of the Jewish American Princess comes up, of the American Jewish man as being like nerdy and whiny compared to the strong Israeli. Wanting to cash in on the apparent "earring craze" of the nineties, Barbie was sold with a pair of kid-sized clip-on earrings. Not to be left behind, Ken was released with a similar accessory, and designers had to ask themselves "What else does a guy with an earring wear?" Chris Klimek, host: When writer Emily Tamkin was little, she created a whole imagined life for her Barbie and Ken dolls. Through Ken’s evolution, Gerwig and her cowriter/partner Noah Baumbach are no doubt gesturing at a yearslong discourse that suggests “men are lost” in a society in which it’s increasingly hard to get ahead, and women can surpass them in earning power and professional accomplishment. But as diligent students of the Barbie-verse, Gerwig and Baumbach are also incorporating the cultural conversation that has surrounded Mattel’s Ken doll since his 1961 inception: his obsessed-over introduction, makeover snafus, and Mattel’s shifting strategy in his marketing that add up to his current-day persona as an afterthought. “I think all the dead ends are a reminder that they were just trying stuff out,” Gerwig said of Mattel in a recent New Yorker story. “Dealing with all the strangeness of it is a way of honoring it.” For the character of Ken, that meant engaging with a people’s history of the doll rather than the one you might find in a Mattel press release. The movie alludes to his smooth nether region, that time he inadvertently became a gay icon, and, ultimately, Mattel’s own tendency to think of him as superfluous. Within the context of a decades-long Ken-versation, Gosling’s character brings to life a question that has always plagued the doll: What kind of man can Ken be in the shadow of a woman who’s designed to be larger than life? I've got a shaving gear. Wet the play razor, and you can take off Ken's beard and mustache. Then put it on again with this beard marker. Better fix your hair. OK! Nice beard, Ken. It’s Ken and Beauty Secrets Barbie. Sport and Shave Ken Doll with two play razors and a beard marker. Beauty Secrets Barbie Doll is sold separately. New from Mattel.
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