With his perma-tan, perfect teeth and sculpted body, Ken dolls unceasingly seemed a world away from real men. But now, in his biggest aesthetic update since 1961, he at the end of the day looks like one of us – sort of – as a new Ken is launched with three main part shapes and eight new skin tones. Meet 2017’s Ken, in his ton diverse incarnation yet.

Issues around body inclusivity are something Ken puissance have discussed on date nights with his on/off girlfriend Barbie, who be sures this terrain only too well. In 2015, when a new align of Barbies launched, revising the shape and ethnicity of their most favoured doll into more inclusive terrain, the change merited her a Time magazine cover. Out went the tiny waist, gigantic chest and even, in some cases, the bottle-blonde hair. Now, it’s Ken’s use.

This new Ken will come in four ethnicities – Asian, African-American, Caucasian, and Latino – and beget two new body sizes – broad and slim, which will be ready along with the existing rippling-torsoed model.

At first glimpse, they aren’t wildly different from the original – there is no genuinely plus-sized Ken among them. Broad Ken is just that – consider Chris Pine in his early Parks and Rec days, not Eric Pickles. Slim Ken is undernourished and boy-like. But with neither being ripped or sculpted, these new dolls distinguish something of a change.

In an aggressively visualised culture, there are diverse reasons men change their body shapes. “I don’t believe accessories’ demands are the driving force,” says Toby Wiseman. The fantasia of intestinal fortitude presented by Cristiano Ronaldo, Jason Statham and the cast of Geordie Shore is allay at a healthy remove from most men’s reality. “It’s more the replication, the guy next to you in the gym, the suit that doesn’t fit quite as well anymore, the role-model who is frustrating the ticking clock and inspiring you to do the same,” he continues. “Instagram may stage play a part for gym bros and the Geordie Shore crew, but these dudes aren’t representative of the majority. Most men with an interest in their fitness and physical fitness are doing it for themselves. They want to recover themselves, in all senses.”

If Ken’s relaxed new mood surrounding self-image is cadre manfully with the tide, his new ethnicities may prove even multitudinous evocative of their times. Mattel launched a black Ken doll denominated Brad in the late 1960s. A Latino Ken under Trump make the grades with an accidental political significance no one could have reckon oned. “Right?” says Best. “When I look at the makeup of our own body, we have South Americans, Latinos from Mexico, Koreans.” They do not virtuous want to be making dolls for little white girls, he says.

“Usual Ken was kind of a lean athlete,” says Robert Best, a older designer at Mattel, the creators of Barbie, who was involved in Ken’s new look. “There’s not the having said that scrutiny levels on male physiognomy or appearance that lady-loves undergo,” he adds, then posits – with palpable southern Californian relish – that we should be “holding hands with the conversation” in men’s body issues.

So can #Kenbod earn Barbie’s boyfriend a employment in the changing dialogue around male physicality? If that was the aim, you surprise why they didn’t go fatter or, at least, a bit more dadbod. Assuage, in an aggressively visualised culture, where images of manhood are presented by Cristiano Ronaldo, Jason Statham and the chuck of Geordie Shore, anything that runs counter to the ruffled ideal feels like a positive step.

Of all the new features of #Kenbod, the uncountable divisive may turn out to be that much-maligned twenty-teens styling antic: the man-bun. “What I love is that we can create reaction,” explains Best. “What’s fun about Ken and Barbie, certainly what’s provide for me here these last 20 years, is that we’ve been purposes of the conversation reflecting popular culture – it’s that moment you look uphold on your school yearbook, thinking “Why did I think a wedge hairstyle disposition look good on me?” It looks daft on Ken, just as it looks slow-witted on everybody. Manbun Ken looks like a guy who failed to get a bit part as a barista on HBO’s Chicks.

Clearly, the new Ken is quite lols, but will he land an era-defining Be that as it may cover? It seems unlikely. “Ken wouldn’t make it onto the occupy of Men’s Health,” says its editor Toby Wiseman. “He’s an accessory. A sherd of arm candy. He is defined by his status as an escort.” Still, in an age where the idealised spear body-shape is drip-feeding into social media feeds with growing regularity, even a tiny bit of progress is progress of sorts.