Barbie and Ken Were Never Married?

[KittyWampus]

An Editorial in the NYTimes talks about Barbie's illustrious past in the context of Women's History Month and goes on to mention that she will be breaking up with Ken after 40 years and, furthermore, they were never married.

Now I never stopped to think about that... but then as a little girl I enjoyed my animal dolls much more than my human dolls.


snip
Over the years we've been encouraged to marvel at Barbie's dexterity. She has navigated an exceptional career path and maintained a picture-perfect 43-year relationship, with ne'er a hair out of place. Last month, however, the fantasy unraveled. Mattel announced two days before Valentine's Day that America's favorite plastic couple had split up.

Those of us who wondered, "Who will get the Dream House?" were a bit perplexed to learn that it's not an issue. There would be no lawyers' fees over the divvying up of assets, no quibbling over who keeps the Beach Cruiser, because Barbie and Ken were never married. That was a bit of a shock, and it provoked a complicated reaction. What do you call a single woman who's gone steady for more than four decades? Sexually liberated? Lacking in imagination? Commitment phobic?

Barbie made her debut in 1959 as a fashion model. Ken entered the scene two years later. The happily unmarried couple began their radical lifestyle together at a time when the working husband and his stay-at-home wife reflected mainstream cultural values on programs like "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Barbie made up for her radicalism with acceptable feminine occupations, like candy-striper volunteer and ballerina — although, always contradictory, she did sport a spacesuit four years before NASA put a person on the moon.

snip
By the time the 80's rolled around, Ken's main squeeze had gotten her groove back. She would not be caught unawares again. She covered all possible fast tracks. Barbie the hard-nosed business executive and Barbie the Unicef ambassador rivaled pop icons like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper as Barbie the rock star, and she sweated it out like Jane Fonda as an aerobics instructor. Luckily for the slew of exotic and domestic pets she'd acquired over the years, she also became a veterinarian.

snip
In 1998, Barbie went through one of her most drastic changes. Her breasts shrank, and her torso put on a little weight. Ken didn't love her any less — he stuck by her side for another six years. And while Barbie's family grew by leaps and bounds, the kids — Skipper, Tutti, Stacie, Todd, Kelly and Krissy — were introduced as her siblings, not illegitimate children. So there will be no need for a new outfit for the custody battle.

Now that Barbie has morphed into the latest trendy persona — single woman — who knows what she'll tackle next. But anyone scribbling away on a "Barbie and the City" pilot may want to think twice. Her future sounds more like Baywatch Barbie. Word is that she's surfing the California waves and has her eye on an Australian boogie-boarder named Blaine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/opinion/30TUE4.html?ex=1081227600&en=14286b9062cb1443&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[DarkPhenyx]

1. BS!

I know for a fact that my sister staged at least three barbie weddings.

[Mari333]

2. They have no genitalia, ergo, they are the perfect right wing

extremist couple that profess abstinence at all times.

[KittyWampus]

3. Dolls & Genitalia- Interesting Ancedote

I do cloth sculpture... art dolls in other words.

A friend of mine who is a well known cloth doll artist did a nude female doll which had its anatomical parts well defined.

She had it among some of her work on display in an Ohio museum and had the organizers ask her to cloak the nude female doll.. even though there were nudes in artwork throughout the museum.

Something about it being a doll, we guessed.

Children and Republicans shouldn't be confronted with sexuality...

[DrBB]

4. It would be incest if they were

You don't know about the covert incest narrative here? The two dolls were named after their creator's son, Ken, and daughter, Barbie.

Gotta read your Claude Levi-Strauss, people.

[Bridget Burke]

5. She's found another!

Of course, many of us were aware of her long-ago dalliance with GI Joe. But now she's not even willing to keep up the pretence with Ken.



Who can blame her?

[Mari333]

6. Barbie was originally a harlot , based on a prostitute doll named Lilli

Until recently, few Barbie owners were conscious of Barbie's true age -- or of the life this all-American prom queen once led in another land, under another name. But Barbie's first playmates are now old enough to handle the truth. M.G. Lord, the author of "Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll," is one of those women. In "Forever Barbie," Lord reveals that Lilli -- "an eleven-and-a-half inch, platinum ponytailed" German doll -- was the pre-American Barbie. The Lilli doll was the three-dimensional version of a popular post-war cartoon character who first appeared in the West German tabloid Bild Zeitung in 1952. A professional floozy of the first order






http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1997/11/26harlot.html
ergo, she cannot marry or is infested with STDs, which may be why her genitalia have shut down.

[neebob]

7. Then how come I had Barbie as a bride?

This was an early 1960s Barbie, with dark brown beehive hair and blue eye shadow. It was a set, with Midge as bridesmaid and Skipper as flower girl. I don't specifically remember Ken being included, but I'm pretty sure he was. Did he leave her at the altar?

Damn, I wish I still had that set - but no, I had to play with the dolls and mess them up.

And by the way, I had several other Barbies, and every single one had messed-up box hair. So that bit about never a hair out of place is a lie.

[KittyWampus]

8. Messed Up Box Hair! LOL

:D

[latebloomer]

9. Yes, she had many wedding dresses

but apparently always chickened out before the main event.

A true "Runaway Bride", and undoubtedly commitmentphobic.