The Barbie Tapes: Battle of the Bulge

California Love

LAist Studios

Music

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For Barbie, the cultural upheaval of the 60s and 70s incites one identity crisis after another as Mattel tries to keep up with the times. On top of that, she has a new boyfriend to deal with. Ken's creation is a big hit for Barbie fans, but he’s facing a few growing pains of his own. In this episode, we investigate Ken's origin story, delve into the inner workings of Mattel, and hear how Barbie's inventor, Ruth Handler, was ousted from her own company.

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Transcript

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0:45.3	How many kens do you have?
0:48.6	Oh, I liked Ken a lot more than Barbie, so I have a whole bunch.
0:50.2	And this is baseball Ken?
0:52.5	This is, yeah, this one slightly later.
1:02.7	That was the original Ken from 1961. But this one is Ken and the baseball outfit with the enormous bat, one of his phallic props and the chipped hair.
1:12.5	He's not wearing, I think, what he came within the box. I don't think they came quite that baroquely cross-dress. No, I got these out of storage.
1:16.0	Ken is wearing solo in the spotlight.
1:18.1	Oh, Charlotte's one of Charlotte's favorite designs.
1:27.4	Barbie's slinky black chanteau's outfit with a tutu that was originally, and on Barbie, a tutu at the ankles.
1:31.0	But here it sort of falls more mid-calf on Ken.
1:35.0	Most of us never knew of a time when there was just Barbie.
1:39.5	No Ken, no Midge, no skipper, just a gal on her own.
1:43.3	And Ruth Handler, her inventor and co-founder of Mattel,
1:46.0	really didn't want a boyfriend for Barbie.
1:52.3	Barbie was intended to be about that period, you know, in a girl's life or a young woman's life,
1:56.9	with no relationships of responsibility, no parents, no kids.
	...

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