It was 1993, and sales of Barbie and Ken dolls were slipping. Mattel was concerned. So what better idea than to create a “modern” hip version of everybody’s favorite couple! Mattel had conducted a survey of girls asking if Ken should be retained as Barbie’s boyfriend or whether a new doll should be introduced in that role. Survey results indicated that girls wanted Ken kept but wanted him to look “cooler.”
According to manager of marketing communications for Mattel, Lisa McKendall, “We tried to keep [Ken] as cool as possible.” This model of the Ken doll was dressed in a lavender mesh shirt, purple pleather vest, a necklace with a circular charm and, as the name indicates, an earring in his left ear.
Mattel had conducted a survey of girls asking if Ken should be retained as Barbie’s boyfriend or whether a new doll should be introduced in that role. Survey results indicated that girls wanted Ken kept but wanted him to look “cooler”. USA Today noted after the American International Toy Fair that the doll Soul Train Jamal, from the Shani doll line, was also wearing an earring that year. According to manager of marketing communications for Mattel, Lisa McKendall, “We tried to keep [Ken] as cool as possible.” This model of the Ken doll was dressed in a lavender mesh shirt, purple pleather vest, a necklace with a circular charm and, as the name indicates, an earring in his left ear.
These clothing choices led to gay commentator Dan Savage joking that Mattel toy designers had “spent a weekend in LA or New York dashing from rave to rave, taking notes and Polaroids.” He also suggested that little girls’ idea of coolness was shaped by homoerotic MTV music videos, Madonna’s dancers, and what ACT UP/Queer Nation members were wearing to demonstrations and parties. Donna Gibbs told the San Francisco Examiner in November 1993 that the team of women who made the doll were surprised that gay men wanted him. Art historian Erica Rand and feminist writer Ann Ducille both cast doubt on this claim in 1995 and 1996 respectively. In 2021, former designer Carol Spencer told Mel Magazine that discussion about Earring Magic Ken’s gay aesthetic did occur at Mattel. According to Spencer, “the male Mattel designer – who was married with several children and working on the project – sa[id] to me: ‘They will turn Ken gay with this doll!'”
On February 11, 1993, Carol Lawson at The New York Times responded to his unveiling at the American International Toy Fair with the claim that Mattel was attempting to “gender bend” Ken by making him appeal to both boys and girls. She also suggested that selling Ken as gender non-conforming may have been a subtle apology for a Barbie with a voice box that said “Math class is tough!” in 1992. 1993 saw Mattel and other toy companies experimenting with selling girl toys to boys, and vice versa as a larger sales trend. Manager of marketing communications for Mattel, Lisa McKendall, told The New York Times “We never would have done this a few years ago. But now you see more earrings on men. They are more accepted in day-to-day life. We are trying to keep Ken updated.” The article discussing Ken’s “gender-bending” went on to be syndicated throughout North America, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Vancouver Sun, and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Several days later, Frank DeCaro responded to this article in Newsday, writing, “Ever since Mattel introduced Earring Magic Ken a few weeks ago, people have been wondering whether there’s something more in the Dream House closet than a few Bob Mackie originals and some two-inch-wide [5 cm] hangers.”[ He pointed out that other Ken dolls released recently, such as Sun Sensation Ken and Western Stampin’ Ken, seemed to be “pushing the envelope of macho wardrobe acceptability” by wearing a crop top and chaps, respectively. Donna Gibbs, director of media relations at Mattel, emphasized that his look was not attempting to be controversial, saying, “Ken’s still a clean-cut guy, but he’s just a little more contemporary [. . .] Men are wearing earrings today, it’s become a mainstream phenomenon. So Ken should have an earring, why not?”[ As with the New York Times article, this syndicated widely across North America.
Backlash against Ken’s gender non-conformity followed shortly after. In another widely syndicated article, opinion writer Tom Zucco expressed extreme distaste for Ken’s recent outfits in the Saint Petersburg Times. He referred to Ken’s style transformation as “disturbing” and said that “Little girls of America need to know that most of us are not and never have been like Ken [. . .] In reality, most of us aren’t very glamorous or flamboyant. We don’t want to be glamorous or flamboyant. We can’t even spell glamorous or flamboyant.” Zucco purchased Sun Sensation Ken for his daughter (because Earring Magic Ken was not yet on sale) and remarked that her enjoyment of the toy must be due to “a slick marketing campaign by Mattel, peer pressure, and the fact that The World Is Going To Hell In A Handbasket!”
In July 1993, Dan Savage wrote an article on Earring Magic Ken titled, “Ken Comes Out.” He noted in his article that, in addition to his outfit’s perceived flamboyance, his necklace resembled a chrome cock ring that some gay men were wearing as charms at the time. Amelia Jones considers the cock ring to have been the defining accessory of the doll that cast doubt on Mattel’s insistence that it had no relation to gay fashion. Savage expressed feelings of ambivalence about Ken’s new style, writing, “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 [. . .] Queer imagery has so permeated our culture that from rock stars (Axl Rose and his leather chaps) to toy designers, mainstream America isn’t even aware when it’s adopting queer fashions and mores.”
(Source: Wikipedia)
