Earring Magic Ken
Lavender mesh shirt, purple pleather vest, streaked blond hair, an earring in his left ear and a chrome ring on a chain around his neck. Mattel's 1993 attempt to make Ken "cooler" for little girls instead made him a camp icon, bought up by gay men until he sold out by Christmas.
Mattel had surveyed girls about whether Ken should stay Barbie's boyfriend. The answer was yes, but he needed to be cooler, and the company's marketing manager said they tried to keep him as cool as possible. The result, one of five dolls in the 1993 Earring Magic line, wore a lavender mesh shirt, a purple pleather vest, highlighted hair, a single earring and a necklace with a circular charm. Mattel's explanation was simple: men were wearing earrings now, so Ken should too.
The press saw something else. The New York Times reported from Toy Fair in February 1993 that Mattel was trying to "gender bend" Ken, and the gay press took notice within weeks. That July, columnist Dan Savage wrote "Ken Comes Out," pointing out that the necklace charm looked like a ring that was a gay club accessory at the time; Savage also joked that Mattel's designers must have spent a weekend dashing from rave to rave with a Polaroid. Mattel insisted the doll was designed for girls aged three to ten, though a spokeswoman also told the Wall Street Journal that the company was pleased gay men were finding something to enjoy in its products. A designer later recalled a colleague warning that the doll would "turn Ken gay."
Gay men bought him in droves. He debuted at around $11, sold out by the Christmas season, got a waiting list at FAO Schwarz in Chicago and was widely reported to be the best-selling Ken Mattel had ever made. Jay Leno joked about him, Esquire gave him a Dubious Achievement award for 1993, and toy scalpers were still reselling him at a premium years later.
The legend says Savage's column got him pulled. Mattel has said otherwise: it replaced almost the entire Barbie line every year, and the whole Earring Magic line, Barbie included, simply was not sold after 1993. Collectors note that a six-month run was normal for a seasonal fashion doll. He has since been displayed at the National Museum of Play and the New-York Historical Society, and in 2023 he turned up, necklace changed, as a discontinued Ken in the Barbie movie.
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