Ken and Barbie are the same versions of one another except for their genders. Barbie is our leading lady, with Ken as her sidekick. She has been portrayed for decades as being unstoppable, “a cultural phenomenon, a symbol of beauty, fashion, and femininity.” (Yakali, 2024, pg 02) Ken, on the other hand, lives in a Barbie-dominant world that he must contend with.(Yakali, 2024, pg 02) Our Barbie can be anything she wants to be, whereas our Ken is viewed to be patron to Barbie, as her boyfriend, and often secondary to the storyline, quite opposite from our real world stereotypes.
Both Ken and Barbie are just ‘dolls’, however, they also embody materialist culture in ways that are similar to ideals in real life. For example, Barbie is a lean, blue eyed blondie, that is viewed as the epitome of beauty, similarly, Ken is an attractive, muscular, charming character that has The Barbie as his girlfriend.(El- Mengad, Chakroune, 2025, pg 06) Both of these characters represent what it means to be ‘ideal’. (El- Mengad, Chakroune, 2025, pg 01) As the idea of Barbie progresses, she becomes a character that can live up to any standard she sets out to for. However it appears that Ken doesn’t progress as a character and has no development, remaining much to similar to day one Ken, on the other hand, Barbie has progressed in over hundreds of ways, whether that be having over 250 careers, having many Barbie-esque friendships evolving, or developing sister Barbies, known to us as Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea. Out of Barbie’s many friends, Midge, Summer, Nikki, Teresa, and Raquelle (Barbie’s frenemy), just to name a few, Ken doesn’t have any friends, and it seems so that Barbie is his only friend. The Allan doll was created as a buddy for Ken, but was shortly discontinued in 1966, sorry Ken! This shows us the irrelevance of Ken, being only made as Barbie’s arm candy.(Wright, 2003, pg 33)
Barbie and Ken have many shared attributes, despite having an unequal level of importance. For example, they have similar fashion and style, always being decked out in their signature colours, pink and blue, and always staying on top of the latest fashion trends. They are also both “famous” in Barbieland, stereotypical Barbie and stereotypical Ken are well-known amongst their group of friends. They have many shared attributes when it comes to their personalities as well. Both are optimistic, cheerful, confident, and charismatic. The two are extremely friendly and social, as well as kind and supportive. This goes back to the first statement made, ‘Ken and Barbie are the same versions of one another except for their genders.’ So this begs the question, why is Barbie more popular than Ken? Especially in a society where male characters are typically more respected and known than female characters. Simple, Barbie was a life-changing, revolutionary, inspiring example for young girls.(Wright, 2003, pg 29) She represents independence and female empowerment, making her a key role model and historically significant. (El- Mengad, Chakroune, 2025, pg 05) Barbie has proven that you can in fact be anything you want to be. From astronaut, to military, to president, all male dominated careers, Barbie has proven that her, a female, can accomplish all those careers, and then some, all while doing it glamorously.
The idea of Barbie and Ken moves away from a common and extremely strong stereotype. (Yakali, 2024, pg 07) It’s the idea that women are secondary to men, that women shouldn’t be adventurous and shouldn’t dream big. The idea that women can’t dominate, that they can’t be historical figures, that they can’t be important to a society. Barbie and Ken move away from these ideas, making girls from an early age believe in themselves, and girls at an older age continue believing in themselves.(El- Mengad, Chakroune, 2025, pg 03)
Ken being a less relevant character doesn’t signify the idea that men should be less relevant, but signifies the idea that men and women should be equal. Barbie was a doll created for the target audience of young girls to have a strong female leader to look up to. Ken wasn’t made for young boys, because young boys already have strong male leaders to look up, for example Napoleon, or Muhammad Ali. There aren’t female equivalents to these men, therefore a character like Barbie wasn’t just a good idea somebody had, but it was a necessary idea, because without her, the idea that women can be capable of anything would have been harder and taken longer to find.(Wright, 2003, pg 28)
Bibliography:
Yakalı, Dikmen. “‘He Is Just Ken:’ Deconstructing Hegemonic Masculinity in Barbie (2023 Movie).” Frontiers in Sociology 9 (April 5, 2024).
https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1320774.
El-Mengad, Abdelhakim, and Samira CHAKROUNE. “She’s Everything, He’s Just Ken: A Comprehensive Analysis of Barbie (2023).” Journal of Gender, Culture and Society 5, no. 1 (January 20, 2025): 01–11 https://doi.org/10.32996/jgcs.2025.5.1.1.
Wright, Lenore. “The Wonder of Barbie.” Essays in Philosophy 4, no. 1 (January 2003): 28–52. https://doi.org/10.5840/eip20034121.
Victoria Warner
Barbie has been a phoneme in the last year. This analysis does a great job at demonstrating why. The Barbie was meant to show girls they can be anything they want. In a patriarchal society, women had very few role models. Men had army soldiers, boxers, and other action figure type toys to fuel this optimistic energy. Whereas girls had few toys that gave them nothing but motherhood to look forward to. Barbie dared girls to dream of something other than cooking and having children. Barbie rocked the gender stereotype of women, and even reversed the role.
Ken seemed to be the first man to ever be overshadowed by his girlfriend. As demonstrated throughout this article, Ken is just an accessory for Barbie. Ken was not a necessity, as shown in his lack of sales compared to Barbie. The statement about Barbie being a necessary idea is absolutely true. Having this type of representation was monumental for young girls. In a world where everything praises men for doing hard things, Barbie can do the same things and in high heels. By completely reversing the stereotypical roles of society, the Barbie doll changed both lives and the world.
I think this analysis does a great job using academic resources to validate their argument. The Barbie movie caused quite a stir on the internet, as men were angry Ken didn’t have a bigger role in the film. COmpletely missing the point of the film, men didn’t like the way men were portrayed. The analysis of Barbie is a very interesting read, and was used very well in this paper. My only critique is I wish the image demonstrated the point of this analysis. This photo doesn’t give us any indication of who is the main character, unless you know this is Barbie. Perhaps using an image where Ken is fawning over Barbie in a more dramatic fashion could’ve helped make the point even stronger. Otherwise, a really interesting perspective from Karma.