Sure, Ken’s sculpted torso might look like the result of thermoplastic poured into a mould, but it’s actually down to a rigid and uncompromising fitness regimen. Don’t believe us? Just look at the variety of personas he has adopted over the years: 1981’s Jogging Ken, 1983’s Great Shape Ken and 1989’s Workout Ken reveal him as no stranger to the gym.

And it’s not just plastic Ken who doesn’t skip leg day; it turns out that live-action Ken has been putting in the hours, too. The doll is depicted in the upcoming movie by Mr Ryan Gosling, a famously good-looking man, but an actor who was 41 years old at the time of filming. Despite this, the movie appears to have captured him in the shape of his life. The results, if reports are to be believed, of a gruelling five-day-a-week workout plan. That’s not to mention the peroxide, the fake tan, the body waxing and the teeth whitening that were required to complete the look.

Is Ken someone we should aspire to look like? Absolutely not: you only need to google “Human Ken Doll” to see what happens when we attempt to replicate, in flesh and bone, a level of perfection only possible in plastic. Nonetheless, we could all learn something from Ken’s 60-year dedication to fitness and personal grooming. Indeed, far from an expression of vanity, the pursuit of self-betterment can be considered a moral imperative. As Socrates wrote, “It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

“This is a man’s world,” sang Mr James Brown. It’s safe to assume that he wasn’t talking about the Barbie universe, a place where patriarchal hierarchies are upended and male dolls act as little more than accessories to their more popular female counterparts.

Conceived by his creators at Mattel as a romantic companion to Barbie, Ken has played a supporting role from the very start, defined not by his personal qualities, but by his relation to someone else. A more fragile ego might have resented this subordinate status, but not Ken, who has lived in Barbie’s orbit happily for more than six decades, content to fill his days at the beach, at the gym, or pursuing one of his many hobbies.

Barbie is a complicated female role model, to say the least. While she may have taught little girls that they can be anything they want, in doing so providing an early precursor to the Girl Power movement of the 1990s, she has also promoted unrealistic beauty standards with her impossibly exaggerated proportions and permanently en-pointe feet.

Ken isn’t perfect, either. His recent on-screen portrayals, in both Barbie and Toy Story 3, have exposed the flaws and fragilities that many men suffer from. Beneath it all, though, he is a sympathetic character, and a model for a new, progressive kind of masculinity. Supportive, uncompetitive, willing to subvert traditional gender roles, and also really into pink. Speaking of which…

The celebrity style on show on the red – sorry, pink – carpet at the Barbie premiere in Los Angeles this month might prove to be the tipping point in the nascent Barbiecore trend, dragging it from the pages of fashion magazines and into mainstream consciousness. We’re talking in particular about the soft-pink Gucci suit and silk shirt worn by Gosling, but special mention also goes to Messrs Michael Cera and Xolo Maridueña, who both offered their own interpretations on the trend.

Barbiecore, which takes the all-pink colour scheme of the Barbie universe and applies it to the real world, follows the “millennial pink” trend of 2016 in bringing wider acceptance to what has historically been considered an effeminate colour. But while millennial pink referred to a specific shade of dusty rose – it even had a Pantone code – Barbiecore offers a much broader spectrum of colour, ranging from fuschia and bubblegum-pink to the peachy tones of Gosling’s suit. (At a stretch, you could also include the lavender jacket worn by Mr Mark Ronson at the premiere.)

While ultimately about fun and frivolity, this look is also about confidence (Ken-fidence?). The “pink is for girls” argument might seem frivolous and outdated, but it is rooted in decades of social tradition, and there are plenty who still subscribe to it. There will be haters – but what meaningful trend ever came without an element of transgression?

For a doll whose name translates to knowledge or understanding, Ken has an unfortunate reputation as a bit of an airhead. But is it deserved? Sure, he’s overly concerned with his appearance, and he does seem to spend most of his time on the beach. But look a little closer and you’ll find an open-minded character with a boundless appetite for travel and fashion – not to mention a portfolio career that would put the average Gen-Z job-hopper to shame.

Coming of age in the era of the single-company career, when it was expected of men to join a firm after graduation and remain there until receiving their gold carriage clock some four decades later, Ken chose to reject grey-suited corporate conformity in favour of a more footloose approach to employment. This has seen him turn his hand to a variety of professions over the years, including a short stint as a doctor in 1987. While Ken’s educational background is undocumented, this theoretically would have required him to spend most of the 1980s in medical school – a time when he was also briefly in a glam-rock band.

The glam-rock connection is an apt one: his talent for reinvention rivals that of legendary artistic chameleon Mr David Bowie. But has this lifetime of dabbling left Ken without a core identity? While his serial hobbyist behaviour could certainly class him as a dilettante, perhaps the best way of putting it is that he shows a frivolous interest in frivolous matters. As for the suggestion that he might be a commitment-phobe, he remains unflinchingly loyal to the things that really matter: his 60-year relationship with Barbie, and the beach.