And Ken

The Toy Museum has its own kind of gravity.
Once you’ve visited a shelf, it tugs at you.

Tonight, the Night Watchman finds himself
back in the Barbie gallery.
Same pink glow.
Same tiny shoes.

But the spotlight is different.

It’s shifted to the left.

[Soft click of a case light turning on.]

NARRATOR:
Onto a smiling man,
molded hair,
permanent tan,
and a wardrobe that never quite decides what he does for a living.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
All right, then.
Your turn.

KEN (slightly nervous, friendly):
Wow.
Okay. Hi.
Uh… this is weird.

Transcript

Welcome to Celebrate Creativity and Conversations with Toys. This episode is about Barbie Siri and is called “And Ken. And as usual, let me get the disclaimer out-of-the-way.

This podcast is a dramatization that blends historical research with fiction, satire, and imagined conversations between people, toys, and other objects. It is not a documentary and not professional advice of any kind. No character, toy, product, or brand depicted in this podcast is authorized by, endorsed by, or officially affiliated with any company, manufacturer, museum, or organization; references to specific names are for storytelling only and do not imply sponsorship or approval.

I’m George Bartley… now let’s have some fun.

[SFX: Nighttime ambience again. Footsteps on the same route as before.]

NARRATOR:
The Toy Museum has its own kind of gravity.
Once you’ve visited a shelf, it tugs at you.

Tonight, the Night Watchman finds himself
back in the Barbie gallery.
Same pink glow.
Same tiny shoes.

But the spotlight is different.

It’s shifted to the left.

[Soft click of a case light turning on.]

NARRATOR:
Onto a smiling man,
molded hair,
permanent tan,
and a wardrobe that never quite decides what he does for a living.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
All right, then.
Your turn.

KEN (slightly nervous, friendly):
Wow.
Okay. Hi.
Uh… this is weird.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
You’re telling me.
Name?

KEN:
Ken.
Kenneth Sean… no, wait, that’s one of the movie guys.
Officially, just Ken Carson.
But everybody knows me as…

[Beat.]

KEN (dry):
“And Ken.”
Being Created as “And Ken”

NARRATOR:
If Barbie was born from a paper doll,
Ken was born from a question.

KEN:
People kept writing to the company, you know.
“Barbie’s great, but doesn’t she need a boyfriend?”
Because apparently a woman can have a dream house,
a car, a career…
but heaven forbid she attend a cardboard cocktail party alone.

So in 1961, they made me.
Swim trunks, molded smile,
named after Ruth Handler’s son.

Barbie got named after the daughter.
I got the hand-me-down from the son.
Even on the birth certificate, I was a supporting role.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
You’re saying you were invented
because people were worried Barbie might be… single?

KEN:
Exactly.
My original job description was:
“Stand next to her and make everyone feel better.”

I was plastic reassurance.
In a swimsuit.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
At least they gave you hair.

KEN:
Oh, you mean the flocked hair?
The fuzzy felt helmet that came off in the bath?
Yeah.
That went well.
Kids would take me into the tub,
and I’d come out with bald patches.
Imagine trying to be the perfect boyfriend
while molting.
Eventually they moved to molded plastic hair.
Hard, shiny, reliable.
If you’re going to be an accessory,
you might as well look consistent.

NARRATOR:
The Watchman looks around at the different Kens:
beach Ken, pilot Ken, doctor Ken, glittery 80s Ken,
a shelf of men in outfits,
all branded as “Barbie & Ken.”

KEN:
I had all kinds of jobs:
astronaut, vet, pilot, surfer.
I’ve had more careers than most résumés.
But it didn’t matter what uniform I wore.
On the box, it always said “Barbie & Ken.”
Do you know what that ampersand feels like?

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
Tell me.

KEN:
It feels like standing at the edge of the photograph,
smiling just right,
knowing they’ll crop you if they need to.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
Did kids actually play with you, though?
Or were you just… scenery?

KEN:
Both.

Sometimes I was the boyfriend.
Sometimes I was the chauffeur.
Sometimes I was the unfortunate groom
who got dragged through a wedding with twelve bridesmaids
and three different cakes,
only to be tossed in the toy box when the party ended.
I was useful.
But rarely central.

Meanwhile, the boys’ aisle had other options:
G.I. Joe, superheroes,
action figures with muscles and storylines,
comics and cartoons of their own.

Me?
I was the guy in the tux in Barbie’s world.

NARRATOR:
He says it without bitterness,
just a kind of weary amusement.

KEN:
I’m not complaining, exactly.
There are worse fates than having a permanent six-pack and a good tan.
But when you spend decades as “the boyfriend,”
you start to wonder:
If Barbie hadn’t been invented…
would I be here at all?

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
You know, it’s funny.
People talk a lot about what Barbie does to girls.
They don’t say much about what you do to boys.

KEN (thoughtful):
I’ve thought about that.

I was supposed to be the safe version of “handsome.”
Nice smile, broad shoulders,
no chest hair, no stubble,
no real flaws. But I was really masculinity in plastic.

For some boys,
I was the first time they saw a man in bright colors,
pink, pastels, silly outfits,
without anyone calling it wrong.

For others, I was the guy they compared themselves to:
“Why don’t I look like that?
Why don’t I have abs like that?”

Masculinity in plastic is just as weird as femininity in plastic.
We’re both stretched and smoothed and polished
until we stop looking like anybody
and start looking like symbols.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
So what were you a symbol of?

KEN:
At first?
I think I was a symbol of reassurance.

“Don’t worry, parents,
your daughters can play with this bold new doll.
We gave her a boyfriend.
Balance has been restored.”

Later, maybe…
I became a symbol of confusion.

Standing between G.I. Joe and Superman,
wondering if I was supposed to be gentle,
or tough,
or just… interchangeable.

NARRATOR:
In one corner of the case,
a little cardboard sign still reads, “Barbie & Ken Are Back Together!”
A relic from a marketing campaign.

KEN:
There was a whole publicity stunt, you know.
In 2004 they announced Barbie and I were breaking up.
“It’s splitsville!”
They gave her another guy for a while.

Then a few years later,
big headlines:
“Barbie & Ken Reunite!”
I felt like I was starring in a soap opera
I only half understood.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
Did anyone ask you how you felt about it?

KEN:
I’m plastic.
No one asks the accessories.
To kids, it was fun drama.
To the adults, it was marketing.
To me… it was a reminder
that my entire romantic life was a storyline
someone else wrote on a box.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
And then there was the movie.

KEN:
Oh, yes.
That summer.
I’m… aware of him.
The Ken from the film.
The one with the big song,
the big dance number,
the existential crisis in a fur coat.
He said out loud
things I’d only ever felt quietly.
“Am I just the guy on the beach?”
“Do I have a purpose beyond looking at Barbie?”
“What happens if I want more?”

NARRATOR:
The Watchman shifts his weight,
remembering a certain catchy anthem
about being “just Ken.”

KEN:
I watched a lot of people laugh at him—and with him.
Some saw him as ridiculous.
Some saw themselves in him a little too much.
For sixty-some years,
my job was to be pleasant, supportive,
handsome in a non-threatening way.
And then suddenly,
the world saw a version of me
throwing a tantrum about not being seen at all.
It was… disorienting.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
Did you like it?

KEN (after a beat):
I liked that somebody finally admitted
I might have feelings.

Even if they were sung in a power ballad.

NARRATOR:
Behind this Ken,
the Watchman catches glimpses of others:
Kens with darker skin, different hair textures,
more casual clothes, less rigid smiles.

KEN:
These days, at least,
I’m not the only version.

There are more colors, more styles,
more ways to stand next to Barbie—
or not stand next to her at all.

Kids make up their own stories now.
Sometimes Barbie doesn’t have a boyfriend.
Sometimes she has two girlfriends.
Sometimes Ken and another Ken ride off in the convertible
and nobody bothers to label it.
The boxes still have names.
But once the plastic comes off,
the kids decide what we are.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
So who are you,
when they’re not looking?

KEN:
That’s the question, isn’t it?

KEN:
Let me put it this way.

If Barbie is a mirror,
I’m the person standing just outside the frame,
trying to figure out if I belong in the picture.

I began as an answer to someone else’s anxiety.
A prop for a doll who was already famous.
There are days when that still feels true.

But I’ve seen boys pick me up
because they liked the shirt I was wearing,
or the guitar I came with,
or the fact that I looked a little kinder
than some of the other guys on the shelf.

I’ve seen girls make me the clueless dad,
the goofy uncle,
the disaster husband who learns to listen.

I’ve been comic relief,
love interest,
Ken who runs the juice bar,
Ken who gets dumped,
Ken who finally says,
“I’d like to have a dream, too.”
If there’s a story I’m trying to claim,
it’s this:
You’re allowed to be in someone else’s life
without disappearing inside it.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
You don’t have to be the headline
to matter.

KEN:
Exactly.
Some nights I still feel like the plus-one.
But I’m learning that being “and Ken”
doesn’t mean “and nothing.”

It can mean
“and this guy,
who listens,
who learns,
who wears the ridiculous outfit
and doesn’t apologize for liking it.”

NARRATOR:
The Watchman looks from Ken
to Barbie
and back again.

Two dolls,
two symbols,
two sets of impossible abs and impossible expectations
sharing one pink, plastic world.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
Teddy implied he wanted to hold our fears.
Barbie said she holds our projections.
What about you?
KEN:
I hold all the moments when someone thinks,
“I’m just the sidekick.”
The friend, the coworker,
the person the story isn’t really about.
I’m here to say:
even sidekicks deserve an interior life.

Besides—
somebody has to drive the Dream Car
while Barbie figures out what she really wants.

NIGHT WATCHMAN (smiles):
Fair enough.

KEN:
Permit me to say a few more things about myself.

Night Watchmen
Certainly Ken. 


Similar to Barbie, I am also is from Willows, Wisconsin,  I hope that you can see that Barbie is not the only one who has a fashionable line of clothing and accessories (although I must point out that I made my debut wearing only a swimsuit).

Night Watchmen
So I guess you might say that you are definitely one of Barbie's main friends.

Yes this is quite true. It just said that I met Barbie on the set of a TV commercial and became her boyfriend Since my debut, I haveheld over 40 occupations, the latest being "beach" (standing in the sand and surveying the waves), as depicted in the 2023 Barbie film, portrayed by Ryan Gosling, et al.


Night Watchmen
SO could it be said that you are the male counterpart to Barbie?

Ken
Yes, that is a very concise way of stating an obvious truth. I was named after Kenneth Handler, son of Barbie creator/inventor Ruth Handler, just as Barbie was named after her daughter. Unfortunately, Mr. Ken Handler died in 1994 of a brain tumor.

Night Watchmen
Ken, could you possibly give us a brief description of your physique when you were first introduced.

Ken
Certainly, Mr. Smith From 1961 to the debut of Superstar Ken in 1977, I had straight arms that did not bend. My head could only turn left and right. And my hair was made of felt in my first year (known to collectors as the "flocked" hair Ken), but this was replaced with a plastic, molded hairstyle when the creators realized that the felt hair fell off when wet. Superstar Ken featured a dimpled smile, a head that could swivel, bent arms, a more muscular physique, jewelry, and underwear permanently molded to his body. Allegedly Ruth Handler built Ken's appearance in resemblance to her husband.

Night Watchmen
I know we may have touched on this before, but could you go into more detail about the split between you and Barbie.

Ken
Certainly, I am not embarrassed. You see, In February 2004, Mattel announced a split for Ken and Barbie, with Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel, saying that Barbie and Ken "feel it's time to spend some quality time – apart...Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end", though Arons indicated that the duo would "remain friends".

In February 2006, however, a revamped version of the Ken doll was launched, though it was stated that his relationship with Barbie was still purely platonic. In 2011, Mattel launched a massive campaign for Ken to win Barbie's affections back.] The pair officially reunited on Valentine's Day 2011. Now I do trust this answer your concerns.

Night Watchmen
Yes that does present a clearer picture of the situation.

Ken
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. The Japan Ken doll featured a new face sculpt.

In 2021, Mattel announced 15 new looks for me. This included looks with different skin tones, body shapes and hair styles. My dear Barbie underwent a similar makeover in 2020. Outside of this change, I must somewhat reluctantly admit that I have not changed much since I was introduced 64 years ago.

Night Watchmen
Thank you very much for your comments Ken.

NARRATOR:
The light over Ken’s case softens.
The Watchman turns away,
walking out of the Barbie gallery,
through the dim aisles of the Toy Museum.
He passes shelves of plush,
rows of round, squishy shapes
with tiny faces and enormous softness,
waiting quietly.
Tomorrow night,
one of them will have something to say
about being the pillow everyone cries into.
But for now,
the museum exhales,
and the toys go back to being still.

Join the following episode of celebrate creativity for LEGO Wild Animals: Panda Family add an episode by the name of  “Click, Click, Bamboo”

Thank you for listening to celebrate creativity for a series called conversations with toys.