Work Text:
"I wanna put together the perfect outfit for my date with Ken! It's our forty-third anniversary!" Barbie swooned, surveying her glittery and ruffled outfit in the mirror.
Behind her, Theresa and Nikki looked at each other, confused. Barbie was only 21, and girl math only worked so much.
"Forty-third anniversary of the first time we held hands! Can't find a greeting card for that, so I made one!" Barbie proudly showed off the glittery handmade card she had created to commemorate such an important day.
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Barbie opened the door to her massive closet, Theresa and Nikki gaping at the wide expanse in front of them.
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"How much longer?" Theresa groaned, exhausted from dragging along the bag of goods she was borrowing from Barbie's closet.
Looking through her binoculars, Barbie replied chipperly, "A couple of days tops!"
~
"Alright and CUT!" The director called from off stage. "Alright everyone, good work, that's a wrap for today! Barbara, come see me before you leave, everyone else, I'll see you bright and early tomorrow."
Barbara made her way over to the director, resisting the urge to rub her eyes and ruin the caked-on mascara that the makeup team had put on her at an awfully early time that morning.
"What's up Jacob?", Barbara asked, moving next to his chair.
Jacob, the director, sighed, and focused more on the tablet in front of him than the woman next to him whom he had called over to speak to. "We had to do a lot of retakes of almost every scene with you in it today."
"Yes, I'm sorry...I-I've just had a lot on my mind-," she began.
"I don't really care, Barbie, just...there's a lot of little girls out there who are looking forward to this show. You can't fuck it up for them. Put your personal shit aside, get up there, and be the perfect, ditzy blondie you were meant to be." He said roughly, not looking up once.
"Oh, well. Sure. You've got it. Ditzy blonde Barbie." Barbara said, taking a deep breath so that she didn't explode in anger at her employer. My name is Barbara.
Jacob didn't reply, just giving her a short nod and a shooing motion without looking up.
With that abrupt dismissal, she headed to her trailer to crash for the night, thinking as she walked.
Nobody ever speaks to Ken like that about his character or his acting. Why is it only me who gets minimized to my character, but never Ken who gets minimized to his? I'll have to talk to him about that when we go to brunch on Saturday. On that note, what the hell is going on with the writing? 'Forty-third anniversary of holding hands'? Of course, all it is is the: dumb blonde femme is head over heels for the himbo blond man trope. Why can't it be gay, just for once? Or intelligent? Or at least with one outfit I would actually wear?
Maybe they'd cast me as something better if I actually decided to publicly come out. As of right now, my closet is as big as Barbie's. Or maybe I wouldn't get cast at all if I did that. Well...they cast Ken, and he came out as bi years ago. Another thing to bring up at brunch I suppose.
+++++++++ Brunch Time ++++++++++
Barbara sipped on her Mimosa with a sigh of relief, Ken sitting across from her and doing the same.
"Something's been on your mind lately." Ken prompted, concern painting his tone.
"Yeah...I've been thinking...how did you decide to come out?" She asked after a moment of hesitation.
"Oh. Wow, tough questions this week, eh? Well...I took a while to think on it, but I know there aren't a ton of bisexual men who are visible in the way that I have the privilege to be. My agent is always talking about how we are in the eyes of the children and how they look up to us. That got me wondering about my childhood and who I saw that was someone like me in the industry. I really couldn't think of anyone, so...why shouldn't this generation's representation be me? Does that make sense?" He explained.
Barbara nodded along, trying to fit his perspective to her own view. "Were you worried about your job at all? I mean...Barbie and Ken, inseparable straight couple."
He shrugged. "I mean sure, but as my agent put it: There's a version of Ken that's for the screen and there's a human Ken. It's like how you have "Barbie" and "Barbara"."
She hummed lowly as she processed that information. "I don't think they really see that difference with me. I mean, Jacob keeps calling me Barbie off-screen and I still get treated like I'm majorly ditzy all the time."
He nodded, "I've noticed that. It's really shitty."
Barbara huffed a small laugh at Ken's bluntness. "It is."
"So...Closet Princess..." he paused to let Barbara laugh. "Does this mean that the great Barbara Roberts is going to be coming out?"
"I don't know...I think so." Barbara nodded with a new resolve.
"Well...Allan and I will be there for you, whatever you decide. I think you're gonna be a great gay role model for a lot of little girls, if you decide to be."
"Thank you Ken." She said, voice a little thick.
"Anytime Barbara, you know I've got your back."
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