From her debut in 1959 right up to the present, Barbie has meant a lot to the queer community. She’s a symbol of the possible, a subversive reminder of how awesome life can be when you own your own pink convertible and Malibu dream house.
But of course, she’s more than that: for queer people, dolls carry a lot of meaning, especially in those lonely childhood years when we’re desperate to project our fantasies onto something or someone.
For Doll Week, we’ve curated an in-depth look at what Barbie means to the culture, including a walk through the history of the gay obsession with dolls, a treatise on Ken’s inherent gay sadness, and a case for Barbie as a queer icon. We hope you’ll enjoy reading just as much as we enjoyed putting it all together.
Henry Giardina
INTO Editor-in-Chief
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Gays and Dolls: Inside Our Queer Campy Obsessions with Barbie, M3GAN, & American Girl
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The Barbie movie has been a long time coming. And now we’re finally getting the star-studded, Greta-Gerwig-directed, feminist vision we deserve. And “we,” of course, mean “the gays.” There’s no question that hot pink femmes with Malibu dream homes and sportscars don’t exactly feel like the product of a straight, hetero imagination. And that’s very much on purpose — and part of a long lineage of queer doll-centric obsession.
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The Low-Key Sadness of Gay Ken
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After discovering a Barbie Dreamtopia Merman doll at Walmart, nonbinary/trans cartoonist, illustrator, and writer Jett Allen began collecting Ken dolls. INTO commissioned the artist to explore their relationship with Ken, who they describe as “a little gay and a little sad.” This multi-panel illustrated feature explores Ken’s origins, that famous c*ck ring necklace, and whether Ken will ever embody “the beauty and glamour of gay femme men living their lives.”
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A Case for Queer Icon Barbie
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Writer Marcus J. Hernandez suggests that Barbie can be both an unrealistic ideal and a feminist icon: “Honestly, maybe she’s both,” Hernandez writes. “Yes, Barbie is inherently shallow, but she is also dynamic. Barbie can embody both because she reflects us. She is molded by social ideals and reflects social desires.”
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Actress Sofia Sanchez Pays a Pink Carpet Tribute to the First Barbie with Down Syndrome
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Fourteen-year-old Ukranian actress Sofia Sanchez, set to star in the upcoming The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, absolutely slayed on the pink carpet wearing a replica of Mattel’s latest Barbie release, the first-ever doll in their collection with Down Syndrome. The doll is part of Mattel’s new Fashionista line, including 175 dolls with diverse skin tones, body types, and abilities.
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Want more doll stories? Check out INTO’s Doll Week
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