Breadwinner Barbie: a doll of independent means
Barbie built a $3 billion brand; can Ken handle being a kept man?
Apr 4, 2011
When Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT) unleashed Barbie© on the world in 1959, they could not have known the full impact the little blonde bombshell would have on generations of girls around the world.
From the outset, Barbie was an easy target for feminist derision, with her ageless face, enormous designer wardrobe and her impossible proportions. When her boyfriend Ken© was introduced in 1961, she could have easily become “the little woman”, cast in stereotypical, supportive and subservient roles, while he became the star.
As we all know, the opposite happened. Barbie has never given little girls the impression that she needs Ken to achieve anything, whether it’s getting her dream house or earning a billion dollars in sales. Barbie is the antithesis of the Hollywood damsel-in-distress
Ken, on the other hand, would be nothing without Barbie. The toy-boy just turned 50, having weathered a mid-life crisis (“Sugar Daddy Ken” 2009 and his Bichon Frise companion, really?) and finally winning Barbie back after a seven-year relationship hiatus. Since his cameo in Toy Story 3 last year, Ken has brushed up on his branding and was recently featured in a wildly popular online television series called “The Genuine Ken”. Not since the new Starbucks logo has a makeover commanded this much attention.
So what is it about Barbie that keeps Ken coming back? Whether you love her, or love to hate her, here are five reasons to respect the alpha-doll.
- Barbie brings home the bacon. Since Barbie’s arrival on the toy scene in 1959, she has created a $3 billion brand, according to Mattel. Analysts estimate that Barbie is responsible for about $1.2 billion of Mattel’s annual sales, with Ken responsible for less than 10 per cent of that.
- Anything Ken can do, Barbie can do better. While both Ken and Barbie have had diverse careers, outfitted as pilots, doctors, dentists and Olympians, Barbie has had more than 125 careers, compared to Ken’s 40-some. While Barbie was busy being an astronaut (1965), race car driver (1998) and computer engineer (2010), Ken has reverted to his happy place as a beach bum at least 22 times.
- Hillary Rodham Clinton has nothing on her. Barbie has run for President four times. Neither Republican nor Democrat, Barbie ran as an Independent, representing the Party of Girls. Yeah!
- Barbie calls the relationship shots. In 2004, after 43 years of dating, Barbie kicked Ken’s butt to the curb. Perhaps he had been taking her for granted. Barbie turned to Australian surfer-boy Blaine© for comfort, but it was just a fling. Earlier this year, Ken made a highly-publicized effort to win back Barbie. On Valentine’s Day, Barbie acquiesced and made it official by changing her status on Facebook to “in a relationship.”
- She’s a single lady. While many criticize Barbie as a symbol of antiquated traditional female values, Barbie has never married nor been pregnant. She has modeled wedding gowns by Vera Wang and other designers, but for more than five decades, she has been a doll of independent means.
So now that Ken and Barbie are back together, will it last? Well, they are anatomically compatible. Yet a recent study in Germany concluded that relationships where wives earn more than their husbands have a higher risk of divorce than those where the husband is the breadwinner. According to a 2006 Statistics Canada report, many employed husbands reported a lower quality of marital life when their wives began to out-earn them.
As much as we’d like to think our society has progressed beyond traditional gender roles, when women earn more than men, ego issues, spending patterns and household decisions all seem to get a little more fraught.
Nevertheless, with or without Ken, Barbie seems to be doing alright. As Jane Austen wrote in her 1815 novel Emma, “a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable”. We’re not sure what Mattel has in mind, but we think it would be nice if Barbie & Ken could set a good example of the couple of the future: a successful, top-earning wife and a happy, devoted husband, driving off into the sunset in (her) pink Corvette.
