Barbie's creator wanted Ken to have more of a 'bulge' — but Mattel refused to give the doll a prominent crotch

• Barbie creator Ruth Handler wanted the Ken doll to have a "bulge," she wrote in her autobiography.
• But Mattel's "all-male" teams refused and gave him a crotch "as smooth as Barbie's," she said.
• Designs included painted-on underwear were also considered for the doll, first released in 1961.

Ken would have had much more of a "bulge" if Barbie's creator got her way.

Ruth Handler, who introduced the plastic doll to the world in 1959, wanted to give Barbie a boyfriend. So two years later Mattel started selling Ken, named for Handler's son, Kenneth.