“I am Kenough”: How the Barbie character validated my trans masc experience
Nat Fletcher, Just Like Us ambassador, reflects on how Ken’s arc in Barbie resonated with their trans-masc identity. Words by Nat Fletcher Header by Yosef Phelan If I am being honest, the only reason I went to see Barbie was because the LGBTQIA+ community at large seemed to view it as a major cultural phenomenon before it even premiered.
I don’t go to the cinema often, and had I ignored the LGBTQIA+ community’s internet-wide obsession with Barbie, I would likely have skipped what I thought was a movie giving a multi-million-dollar company two hours of silver-screen advertising.
Alas, the queer buzz and the bright colours drew me in. I never expected to leave the cinema relating to Ryan Gosling’s Ken on such a deeply profound level, with my experience as a trans man feeling validated.
Barbie reflected an experience that, for a while, I thought I had been alone in going through, and which began shortly after I acknowledged to myself that I am a trans man.
