I've been trying to put my finger on why this is. And I think I still that Barbie is for girls and so is Ken. I don't mean this as a way of enforcing gender but as a way of understanding how she and Ken differ in the cultural understanding. Barbie is for girls to practice performing girlhood through, Ken is for the parts of girlhood which require a boy. This isn't about girlhood and boyhood always existing in this relationship but delving deeper into the genre of man as canvas for working out femininity. Men as girl dolls. I'm sure the male my little pony suffer a similar fate.
I've been trying to put my finger on why this is. And I think I still that Barbie is for girls and so is Ken. I don't mean this as a way of enforcing gender but as a way of understanding how she and Ken differ in the cultural understanding. Barbie is for girls to practice performing girlhood through, Ken is for the parts of girlhood which require a boy. This isn't about girlhood and boyhood always existing in this relationship but delving deeper into the genre of man as canvas for working out femininity. Men as girl dolls. I'm sure the male my little pony suffer a similar fate.