Barbie and Ken

Barbie and Ken (also known as Ken Carson) are two lovers Mattel toy doll introduced in the early sixties as the fictional boyfriend/girlfriend. Similar to his female counterpart, Ken had a fashionable line of clothing and accessories. In the Barbie tales, Ken and Barbie met on the set of a TV commercial in 1961. Since his debut, Ken has held at least forty occupations, from Olympic gold medalist to hair stylist in a span of four decades.

The unrealistic physiques of these two caused comment in the past years. Yale University psychologist, Kelly Brownell, observed that to match up to what Barbie looks for in a mate, a man would have to grow 20 inches taller and add nearly 8 inches to his neck circumference, 11 inches to his chest and 10 inches to his waist to resemble the muscular Ken.

In February, 2004, the doll company Mattel announced a split for Barbie and Ken, with its vice president of marketing Russell Arons, saying that Barbie and Ken felt it's time to for them to spend some quality time apart, Like many other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance. He also hinted that the separation might be partially due to Ken's reluctance to getting married to Barbie. In February, 2006 however, a revamped version of the Ken doll was launched, and it appeared that their relationship was official again.

These characters are named after the names of the children of its designer Ruth Handler. Early this year the media reported on the publication of a book entitled Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel by Jerry Oppenheimer. In the book, Oppenheimer claims that Ken Handler "grew up embarrassed and humiliated by having an anatomically incorrect boy doll named after him with no hint.

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