It’s easy to be a fan of Barbie and remember the good ol’ days of the doll. What I loved about the Greta Gerwig movie, though, had a lot to do with Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken’s (Ryan Gosling) relationship. For most of their time together, it really was Barbie and Ken. Meaning that Ken was her accessory. It was just simply the truth of the doll and what Mattel was doing with her. Ken wasn’t important. Ken’s job is beach. Barbie had more important things to do like go to space or become president or fly planes—beach could be for Ken.
**Spoilers for the Barbie movie ahead**
In the movie, every time Gosling’s Ken tries to take their relationship to the next level, Barbie doesn’t understand why. He goes to kiss her and she stands there and stares at him. When he asks if he can stay the night because they’re “boyfriend-girlfriend,” she doesn’t understand why that’s something he’d want to do. Not because Barbie is necessarily a sexless entity (even though both Barbie and Ken famously do not have genitals) but because it is revealed that Barbie doesn’t love Ken. Don’t get me wrong, she cares for him and how he’s feeling but she isn’t in love with him.
This leads to a moment in the movie that is one of my favorite pieces of Barbie lore: When Barbie dumps Ken. In the movie, she tells him that it is time for him to discover himself and work on who he is. Just as Barbie took the time to figure out how she doesn’t feel like Barbie anymore. This moment is beautiful in their journey but also is rooted in the doll Barbie’s own history with Ken. Yes, remember the good ole days of Barbie and Ken?
Barbie dumped Ken
On Valentine’s Day of 2004, the news broke: Barbie had dumped Ken (who has a last name? Carson?!). It rocked the world. For then-12-year-old me, I was ecstatic. I bought a shirt that said “Barbie dumped Ken” and wore it well into college. It’s a shirt I miss desperately so if anyone wants to recreate it for me, please do so, I miss it so much. This was a moment in time and history that meant a lot to me as a fan of Barbie.
So when the film Barbie was released and had a scene where Barbie really does dump Ken, I got my entire Barbie wish come true. It’s not that I don’t want love. I very much would love to find the true love version of the Ken to my Barbie. (Sorry to Blaine, the Australian doll Barbie temporarily dumped Ken for.) The reality is though that we constantly saw Barbie and Ken together and never really saw anything that would make them love each other. That’s just the way it was.
So when Barbie dumped him, it was great! It wasn’t a mutual thing, it was Barbie’s choice. To me? That’s incredibly cool and why I ended up loving her so much more than I already did.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
