Eric Siu explores gender dynamics through the Barbie and Ken metaphor, examining how women want to be valued for who they are rather than treated as objects, and the contradiction in how men value female chastity differently in wives versus lovers.
In a gross oversimplification of the issue, men typically want the Barbie doll, and that's kind of what pisses women off the most when they feel objectified, right? They want to be seen and appreciated for the person inside of the body. And women tend to want all the shit the Ken doll comes with. And on some level, the Ken doll is a cipher. It's almost like they can dispense with the doll entirely, and they just sort of want the clothes and the accessories that come with the doll.
I think the catch-22 here That's tied in with all this is that men, they want chastity, right? They want a clean mind. They want a clean body at the end of the day.
Sometimes what I say is that female chastity is something that is very ambivalently valued by men. It is very highly valued in a potential wife, and it is a frustrating obstruction in a potential lover. And women have to navigate that confusing ambivalence that men exhibit towards their chastity.
