Barbie and Ken, Together Again

We recently found this article, written by Michael Barbaro, in the New York Times A Makeover of a Romance. Here is an excerpt of the article.

It was the breakup that shocked legions of fans. She was the image of perfection dressed in Pepto-Bismol pink, with a dozen movie credits under her Size 2 belt, several best-selling advice books and a line of accessories that bore her name…

He was her dashing playmate in short shorts, with a washboard stomach, a killer smile and a pampered life of tennis, surfing and roller skating…

Now, after a heart-wrenching, two-year separation – for the record, it was her idea – Ken and Barbie are headed for a romantic reunion, according to their handlers. Ken’s new attraction? A makeover, set to be unveiled today at a news conference in Manhattan, that finds him sporting a more rugged jaw line, wearing cargo pants and listening to Norah Jones…

Like a desperate publicist trying to revive the moribund career of a Hollywood star, Barbie’s manufacturer, Mattel, is pulling out all the stops to put her back on her feet. For nearly 50 years, Barbie has been at the heart of Mattel’s success, but now the very qualities that long drew girls to her – a squeaky-clean image and virtually no electronic bells and whistles – are turning them off…

Barbie’s dream house is in disarray. Sales have plunged, retailers are cutting back on shelf space for her and, for the first time, a competitor has edged her out as the No. 1 fashion doll in the United States…

Bratz, a line of dolls with pouty lips and big heads, manufactured by MGA Entertainment, a privately held company in Van Nuys, Calif., said yesterday that it overtook Barbie in the fashion doll business in the 2005 holiday season – a remarkable coup for a brand introduced just five years ago. MGA cited data from the NPD Group, a market research firm…

Barbie’s midlife crisis holds wide-ranging implications, not just for Mattel, where the buxom doll accounts for 20 percent of sales, but for the entire toy industry. Barbie has long been the best-selling toy brand in the world and retailers ranging from Wal-Mart Stores to CVS devote millions of square feet of space to her wedding dresses, lunch boxes and convertibles…

It is good to see that Barbie and Ken are back together, at least for the moment. What with all the breakups raging in the tabloids, Jen and Brad, Jessica and Nick, it is encouraging that one of the more enduring icons of fashion and romance has reunited with her handsome beau. Here, after all, is is the doll that was arguably more popular tha one of our most popular Presidents. Ronald Reagan may have been instrumental in bringing down the Berlin wall, but it was Barbie the East Germans clamored after on their first visit to West Germany. That is drawing power.

But like most celebrities her famed waned and Barbie was nudged ever more closer to the kind of obscurity where you are condemned to modest digs in the Valley for twenty years or so before a nostalgia revival drags your aging visage back into the spotlight. Barbie was forced to reassess her values, and after an unremarkable affair with the Austalian surfer, Blaine, she realized regaining even a sliver of public approval meant at least a temporary reunion with Ken. She would not only have to reinvent herself; she would also need to reinvent Ken as well.

Ken, for his part, had responded to the breakup by traveling the globe in search of personal growth and enlightenment. Unlike many celebrities, he eschewed the tabloids in favor of solitude and self-discovery, ignoring claims that he and Barbie were sexually incompatible. Unlike other celebrities he refused hang out his laundry on any number of television talk shows that would have gladly had him as a guest. He didn’t talk trash about Barbie’s habits, and he didn’t pretend he was in love with someone else. He didn’t argue with talk show hosts and speculate on the proper treatement for his mounting depression and sense of inadequacy. After all, anyone with any sense knew that any couple deprived of the basic package of sexual organs can hardly claim they are doing much screwing.

We had a chance to glimpse Ken on TV in his latest incarnation. Ken has been reoutfitted, presumably to make him appear more contemporary. He is wearing designer Italian jeans and a leather jacket. Unfortunately for poor Ken he looks more like Donnie Osmond when he tried to look tough and contemporary, or like a denizen of the Castro District up in San Francisco. It is one thing to own the new fashion and another to wear it comfortably. Ken doesn’t look very comfortable.

But unlike the majority of us out there, Ken was cool enough to ride out Barbie’s romantic meanderings. Despite his purported stiffness and his outdated fashion, he stuck it out long enough to woo back his girl. And now here they are, together again, facing their waning popularity with savvy aplomb. Perhaps Ken knows he is paired with a perennial. And whether or not they can make it back into the big time they can dwell forever on their former glory in offbrand and overstock houses that permeate the geography of their loyal supporters. It’s only a glimmer of their former fame and glory, but it is a living. Can a duet in Branson be far away?