No, Mattel Did Not Make a Pregnant Ken Doll

There have been many "controversial" Barbie dolls since the popular toy was introduced by Mattel in 1959 including Totally Tattoo Barbie and Slumber Party Barbie, which came with a tiny pink scale.

However, many on social media are now fuming about a reportedly new item in the collection — the pregnant Ken doll.

"Mattel introduces Ken, the pregnant man doll. I am slowly, by degrees going insane, with long intervals of ghastly sanity," one person tweeted on X, before another added, "Children must learn to realize these dolls are very very mentally sick. They all need medical help."

Sadly, many on the social media platform did not realize the post announcing the pregnant Ken doll was satire.

It all started when the Babylon Bee, a satirical entertainment news website known for "fake news you can trust," released a video in January 2023 announcing the release of a pregnant Ken doll.

"Barbie's boyfriend is getting a much-needed and way more inclusive makeover," the fake ad for the new doll shared. A song can be heard in the background with the lyrics, "He's a man with a baby / he's definitely male and not a lady."

Babylon also captioned the video, "You've heard of Pregnant Barbie, Midge. Now Mattel has released its first-ever pregnant man doll: Pregnant Ken! You can have all sorts of fun with the clearly MALE Ken doll and his pregnant belly! Available wherever non-gender-specific toys are sold."

Despite it seeming very obvious the video is satire, it has resurfaced on social media, with many not understanding that it is not a real doll.

X even added a disclaimer to tweets claiming the doll is real, which read, "This image and “news” are from a satirical article by Babylonbee. Matel also denied this news which is corroborated by Reuters."

At the time of the video's release a Mattel spokesperson told Reuters, "A pregnant male doll is not a Mattel product."

However, as one person pointed out, "Who knows what is satire and parody vs reality in 2024."

Lesson of the story: don't believe everything you see on the internet.