Kenergy Aside, Revisit Terrific Facts About Barbie & Her Man, Ken

Everyone seems to be high on Kenergy these days, drunk on Ryan Gosling's pink-clad Ken and Margot Robbie's Barbie feet. The dolls are nothing new but Greta Gerwig's take on the movie, "Barbie" with Ken going through an existential crisis is certainly a new angle. On that note, do you remember these weird facts about these dolls?

Barbie was the brainchild of Ruth Handler, incidentally married to Harold Matson, and the couple later also went on to form Mattel. Now Barbie wasn't quite the original doll many have come to believe because she was, in fact, loosely based on Lilli, a German doll based on an erotic comic strip, called "Bild Lilli." Barbie's creator, Handler confessed that she found the doll at an adult toy shop in Switzerland, but did not realize that Lilli, was in fact, a young call girl with BDSM tendencies because she never saw the comic strip.

While the American doll has long since tried to be an icon for young girls and come in many forms, taking on the faces of real-life famous and inspirational women, the origins are quite the opposite. Here's Lilli (right) meeting the American Barbie (on the left!)

Nope, not the direction you need to go to. It's just that when Ruth Handler dreamed up Barbie or rather decided to make a doll inspired by Lilli, she gave it her daughter's name, Barbara. The real Barbara was 18 at the time and hated the attention she got when people came up to her for an autograph, remarking how she was the "real" Barbie. Of course, the dimensions were not hers but rather modeled on Lilli.

When Handler decided to create Ken for the female doll, the only inspiration was Barbie, so Ken was born from Barbie's rib (sorry Adam and Eve!). Again, she named the doll after her younger son, Kenneth Handler who was equally unhappy, if not more, about his fame as a doll that was little more than an accessory for Barbie.

BTW, the full names of the dolls are Kenneth Sean "Ken" Carson and Barbara Millicent "Barbie" Roberts.

Here go the many, many Barbies & Ken, and apparently, plastic can be jealous too!

In the beginning, men did not like the doll much, given her curves, and felt it was not a child's toy, and yet, when it hit the shelves, it flew off faster than you could say please. Barbie was often shown to be a career girl, via various costumes and later, playsets, and in the same way, Ken was given various professions as well. That said, in 2004, the two called it quits and Barbie dumped Ken on Valentine's Day after dating for way too many years, circa 1961.

In 2011, they were back on, and it seems they are staying that way, at least for the movie, because Ken, is coming with, and that's that!

A man in pink, and a strong career woman - for years, many have believed that Ken's sexuality may be in question. In 1993, Mattel released "Earring Magic Ken" and it accidentally fit into every gay stereotype of its time. Since then, many have believed that Ken is actually gay and confused about Barbie.

Meanwhile Barbie too, given that she's a strong, independent woman is thought of as pansexual. And this narrative will only take off from Ryan Gosling's portrayal along with the other Ken characters in the movie.

Meanwhile, can you ken this Ken's angst?