Earring Magic Ken, also known as "Gay Ken" and "Fey Ken",
is a model of the
Ken doll introduced by
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...
in 1993 as a companion to its Earring Magic Barbie figure, one of five dolls in the Earring Magic Barbie line.
The doll is notable for inspiring a toy craze among gay men (including some claims that it was the highest selling Ken doll of all time) and for the controversy that ensued upon its debut.
The doll
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
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' 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.
[Vigoda, Arlene. "LEND ME AN EAR: INAL EDITION" ''USA TODAY (pre-1997 Fulltext),'' Feb 09 1993, p. 01D. ''ProQuest.'' Web. 23 Apr. 2023 .] According to manager of marketing communications for Mattel, Lisa McKendall, "We tried to keep
enas 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
Daniel Keenan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBTQ community activist. He writes Savage Love, an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husband, ...
joking that Mattel toy designers had "spent a weekend in LA or New York dashing from
rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
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
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...
/
Queer Nation
Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, by HIV/AIDS Activism, activists from AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of Violence against LGBT peopl ...
members were wearing to demonstrations and parties.
Donna Gibbs told the ''
San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...
'' 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
''MEL'' was a men's magazine headquartered in Marina del Rey, California. Originally funded by Dollar Shave Club, ''Mel'' has been described by ''New York Times'' journalist Amanda Hess as "the rare men's magazine that has taken upon itself to i ...
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
dto me: 'They will turn Ken gay with this doll!'"
Media reception
On February 11, 1993, Carol Lawson at ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' 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 ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States.
Th ...
,
the
Vancouver Sun
The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...
,
and the
Philadelphia Daily News
''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a daily newspaper in Philadelphia.
The ''Dail ...
.
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 hangers."
[DeCaro, Frank. "FRANK'S PLACE BUT HE'S STILL HETERO-HUNKY . . . MAYBE Something `Different' about Ken: ITY Edition" ''Newsday,'' Combined editions ed., Feb 23 1993, p. 47. ''ProQuest.'' Web. 23 Apr. 2023 .] 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
Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1940s and 1950s and its use more wi ...
wardrobe acceptability" by wearing a crop top and chaps, respectively.
Donna Gibbs, direct 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 the March 23, 1993 issue of gay magazine ''
The Advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law.
The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to:
Magazines
* The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States
* ''The Harvard Advocate' ...
,'' Denise Lessard suggested that gay men would soon be "paying more attention to
arbie'sboyfriend Ken" due to his rebranding.
[Nipple rings next? ''The Advocate''; Mar 23, 1993; 625; LGBT Magazine Archive pg. 9] She described Earring Magic Ken's outfit as "sport
ngstreaked hair, a mesh (!) top, neck chains, a purple leathery vest, and an earring."
This March blurb in ''The Advocate'' (misidentified as a February blurb in several sources) would later be reported as the publication that suggested to gay men that they should buy the doll.
[Bay Area Reporter, Volume 23, Number 43, 28 October 1993. pp. 32 https://archive.org/details/BAR_19931028/page/n31/mode/2up] Gay publication ''
Genre
Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...
'' also discussed the doll during this time.
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
W. Axl Rose ( ; born William Bruce Rose Jr., February 6, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in ...
and his leather chaps) to toy designers, mainstream America isn't even aware when it's adopting queer fashions and mores."
Despite the controversy, Donna Gibbs from Mattel told the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' in August 1993 that, "Everybody loves Barbie and we're pleased that
ay menare finding something to enjoy in our products as well."
[Pereira, Joseph. "These Particular Buyers of Dolls Don't Say, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'." ''Wall Street Journal,'' Eastern edition ed., Aug 30 1993, p. PAGE B1. ''ProQuest.'' Web. 24 Apr. 2023 .] However, by October 1993, Lisa McKendall was phrasing this statement to the Bay Area Reporter as, "if there are 'other people' who enjoy our product, of course we're pleased" and emphasizing that Ken was "wholesome." Donna Gibbs told the ''San Francisco Examiner'' in November 1993, "The Ken doll was not intentionally designed for any audience other than our primary one, girls ages 3 to 10."
Earring Magic Ken was a fixture in popular culture throughout 1993. He was joked about on ''
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fourth and sixth installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Jay Leno, it aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009, replacing ''The Ton ...
''
and on the premiere of the short-lived
''Chevy Chase Show''. The doll was awarded "Dubious Achievements of 1993" by Esquire alongside gaffes by baseball player
Darryl Strawberry
Darryl Eugene Strawberry Sr. (born March 12, 1962) is an American former professional baseball right fielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Throughout his career, Strawberry was one of the most feared sluggers in the sport ...
and actor
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began appearing in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in ''Looking for Mr. Goodbar (film), Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Hea ...
.
Consumer reception
Kitsch
''Kitsch'' ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as Naivety, naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal Taste (sociology), taste.
The modern avant-garde traditionally opposed kitsch ...
-minded gay men responded to this press by buying the doll in record numbers, making Earring Magic Ken the best-selling Ken model in Mattel's history.
The doll debuted in stores for around and had completely sold out by the Christmas season, largely due to gay men buying the doll in droves. Due to high demand, Chicago's
FAO Schwartz created a wait list, and, allegedly, some shops in San Francisco began to sell Earring Magic Ken for prices ranging between to .
(The latter claim was disputed in the Bay Area Reporter in October 1993 by the general manager of San Francisco FAO Schwartz.
According to him, only a few gay men were coming into his store, and Earring Magic Ken was selling better in New York and Chicago than San Francisco.)
Earring Magic Ken was also popular with gay men in the United Kingdom, and sold well at the toy shop
Hamleys in 1993. Toy scalper Mr. Barger told the ''Wall Street Journal'' in 1996 that Earring Magic Ken was so popular that he was able to re-sell him to specialty shops at premium prices. Richard Roeper, writing for the ''
Chicago Sun Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'', referred to him as "The
Cabbage Patch Doll of the summer of '93."
A major appeal of the doll for many gay men was that Mattel did not market it to them on purpose.
Rick Garcia, director of Chicago's Catholic Advocates for Lesbian and Gay Rights, told ''
People
The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...
'' magazine in 1993 that the stereotypical dress was funny to him because he believed it was an accident, and that it would have offended him if it was purposeful.
In 1993, many newspapers interviewed individual gay men in California to understand the phenomenon. A San Francisco resident described Earring Magic Ken as, "a pariah setting foot in one of America's sanctuaries."
Another California resident, Bill Harley, described Earring Magic Ken as, "A campy, funny thing to have." Laguna Beach resident Keith Clark-Epley had more reservations about the toy, saying that, "It's an uptight heterosexual male doll following gay fashion and who is still behind the times," and believed that calling the doll gay could potentially reinforce negative stereotypes about gay people.
In the ensuing decades, it has become common for news articles and trivia books
to claim that Dan Savage's article is what led Mattel to discontinue Earring Magic Ken. This rumor first appeared in a 1994 review of Dan Savage's new radio show, "Strange and Stranger," in which the reviewer says that Savage scared Mattel into shelving the toy and was repeated in the 2005 book "Brand Failures: The Truth About the Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time."
However, upon questioning by Ann Ducille in 1996 for her essay, “Toy Theory: Black Barbie and The Deep Play of Difference," Mattel denied that Earring Magic Ken was pulled from the market for reasons other than standard discontinuation practices. In the 90s, Mattel changed 98% of their Barbie line each year, and was distributing coupons for Christmas shopping to encourage sales of their toys as early as August 1993. No Earring Magic Barbie products (including the Barbie dolls that made up the majority of the collection) were sold after 1993. In 2021, the toy collector Cammy told
''Mel Magazine'' that the six-month window Earring Magic Ken was on the shelves was very normal for a seasonal fashion doll.
Legacy
Earring Magic Ken has been displayed at several museums as an example of both gay pride and brand failures, including the
Missouri History Museum
The Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, showcases Missouri history. It is operated by the Missouri Historical Society, which was founded in 1866. Museum admission is free through a public subsidy by the Metropolita ...
, the
National Museum of Play, the
Fleming Museum, and the
New York Historical Society.
Earring Magic Ken appeared — with a changed necklace — as a character in the 2023 film ''
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...
'', played by
Tom Stourton, alongside
Sugar Daddy Ken as a pair of discontinued Ken dolls.
See also
*
Gay Bob
*
Billy doll
References
External links
Earring Magic Ken: The Story Behind Mattel's Gayest Doll
{{Barbie
Products introduced in 1993
Barbie
LGBTQ culture in the United States
Toy controversies
Ken (doll)