The Barbie movie’s great triumph is its heroine’s makeover. After a difficult history setting, and maintaining, unrealistic beauty standards, she has been reinvented as a feminist icon. But there’s a problem – one that shortchanges half the potential audience and jeopardises the overall empowerment message. It’s the Kens.
Ken has, of course, long been portrayed as a pretty boy, the canonical boyfriend throughout the decades. Consequently, he hasn’t formed as tangible a personality as the more contemporary Barbie dolls we see today, with Mattel focusing on humanising their lead figure in all her varying manifestations.
