Introduced by Mattel in 1961, the Ken doll quickly became a symbol of idealised masculinity. With his blue steel gaze, sun-kissed glow and beach-ready body, he was a Californian take on the Marlboro man.

But resembling the lost Beach Boy didn’t cut it for some, and his unrealistic body type was problematic. So, following in the footsteps of his de facto life partner Barbie, Ken has had an unofficial makeunder with a more realistic body shape.

Artist Nickolay Lamm says that he made the doll, called Boy Lammily (whose mass production is currently being crowdfunded) in order to highlight male body issues. He proportioned Lammily “according to average proportions and BMI” for a 19-year-old man, and his physical appearance is “typical but not muscular.” Well, typical in so far as he looks like Richard Linklater without nipples. Still, with body image an ongoing concern for men, the importance of Boy Lammily cannot be understated.

“Men go through body-image issues relating to their height, hair and weight and they are not supposed to talk about it,” he says. “I’m trying to bring awareness to male body issues.” Lamm says social media has only made things worse. “Nowadays when we talk about body-image issues, we’re not just speaking about pictures in magazines; we’re talking about men wanting to be muscular for Instagram.”

No word as yet on what Mr Linklater thinks.

To help crowdfund the Boy Lammily doll go here.