Barbie and Ken’s History
The toy company, Mattel, gave birth to Barbie and Ken in 1959. The entire idea span from Ruth Handler, wife of Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler, when she noticed her preteen daughter playing with dolls (baby like) in adult roles. That gave her the notation that dolls similar to adults might sell to children so after convincing the Mattel corporation, Ruth began production of Barbie, who she named after her daughter, Barbara. That same year, Ken was produced and introduced as Barbie companion. Ken was named after the Handler son, Kenneth.
In the years that followed, more dolls were produced by Mattel and introduced as Barbie and Ken’s friends and relatives. Mattel gave Barbie and Ken a enriched world where they both had a dozen of friends and Barbie bounced around from one career to another. Barbie and Ken had an on/off again relationship, that a Mattel representative has excused with Ken’s inability to settle down but Barbie’s inability to stick with one career shows that she must have had the commitment issues instead of Ken.
If Barbie was named after the Handler daughter and Kan was named after the Handler son, then does that mean that Barbie and Ken are sister and brother? Is this the real reason why Mattel never let Barbie and Ken get married or introduced children for Barbie and Ken? So is Barbie and Ken related?
Now you see why I never matched Barbie with Ken as a child.
Barbie and Jordan
When I was a child, my Barbie doll never was into Ken because she had a thing for Jordan. Jordan was a doll (the size of Ken) inspired by Jordan Knight from the New Kids on the Block. Jordan and Barbie had an on/off again relationship throughout my entire childhood: they would get together, have a fight, break up, make up, and repeat the entire process all over again. They even killed each other and then they would came back to life as zombies or ghosts when I was using them as actors for my horror/suspense play along with Barbie’s friends and stuff animals (I was a very imaginative child). Neither were good actors because they lacked mobility but they were the best I had.
Barbie and Jordan did have children but they weren’t equipped to raise kids because Social Services would come and take them away every time they had any but that didn’t bother them at all. Barbie and Jordan enjoyed ‘just the two of us’ time together and kids subtracted from it. They weren’t good parents.
Although, Barbie and Jordan never got married, they did live happily ever after as zombies.
Barbie and Ken Again
As for Ruth Handler, she just thought it would be a sweet concept to name both dolls after her children. There was probably not any incest in the Handler clan. This piece does have a few historical facts but it was written purely to give everyone a laugh.
