An assortment of Monster High and Ever After High dolls featuring, Skelita Calaveras, Frankie Stein, Clawdeen Wolf, Apple White and Briar Beauty, from Amazon.com
Ball-jointed dolls, known as BJDs to fans, have been a popular collector’s item for years. The dolls are much larger than typical Barbies and the body alone can cost hundreds of dollars — that’s doesn’t include glass eyes, wigs, clothes and other accessories. These dolls are pseudo-realistic, almost like Final Fantasy characters. Though the many online communities view BJD collectors as normal, other doll collectors are put on the same page as the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanbase.
Mattel has made a killing recently, releasing Monster High and Ever After High, two doll lines, in the past four years that have become immensely popular among kids and adults. Monster High follows the the kids of popular monsters. There’s Frankie Stein, daughter of Frankenstein, Clawdeen Wolf, the daughter of the werewolf, and Deuce Gorgon, the son of Medusa, for starters. Ever After High follows the kids of fairytale characters: Apple White, the daughter of Snow White, Raven Queen, the daughter of the Evil Queen, and Daring Charming, the son of Prince Charming. While they both follow very cliché themes, the messages brought on by both of them are different.
Monster High was Mattel’s answer to its diversity problem. Everyone knows that Barbie has one African-American friend and one vaguely Asian/Hispanic friend, who may just be a dark haired white girl. The company received endless complaints about the lack of racial diversity and Monster High was a perfect fix. The characters don’t have races. They have species. Some characters seem to have races, like Clawdeen, who is assumed to be African-American because of her dark fur and Brooklyn accent.
However, Monster High has developed other problems. The series’ motto is to be “freaky fabulous” and to embrace your flaws. Frankie is self-conscious because the stitching on her arms and legs become loose, Clawdeen hates her body fur and Draculaura (the daughter of Dracula) can’t see herself in a mirror, so she doesn’t know how her outfits or make-up ever looks. Despite all of this, some radical feminist moms still angrily blog about the fact that even though the series is about embracing one’s “freaky flaws,” the characters don’t actually…have any. All of them are conventionally pretty! They have large eyes, thin bodies, and tiny noses. Unfortunately, the answer lies in sales. Young girls, the primary target of the brand, are not interested in buying dolls that would be conventionally “ugly” and on top of that, the same moms who are blogging angrily about these dolls, wouldn’t buy an ugly doll for their daughter. It’s a waste of money!
Monster High has also come under fire from mothers, who say the line promotes eating disorders. This is because one character, Skelita Calaveras, the daughter of the Skeletons, is…well…literally a walking skeleton. Her ribs and tailbone are molded to have breasts and a butt, which parents find ridiculous. When parents are looking at these products, they’re failing to realize that these are mass produced toys. If Skelita didn’t have the molded breasts and butt she wouldn’t be able to fit into the other dolls clothes, and what little girl doesn’t like to swap clothes around? After all, girls wear shirts printed with rib cages and pants with femurs on them all the time. These fashions aren’t promoting anorexia — why would a skeleton children’s toy be?
Even though there are parents who hate the franchise, Monster High really expresses good feminist values through its straight-to-DVD movies. They teach lessons about dealing with manipulative boyfriends, peer pressure and promote being different. A personal favorite is the Friday Night Frights movie where the girls are trying to play like the boys on their sports team, but they realize that they should just play like girls — it’s just as effective!
Ever After High also promotes a message to young girls, saying they should be the ones in control of their futures. The story revolves around Raven Queen, who doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of her evil mother. She wants to be happy in the end, instead of in prison and ostracized. However, the “royals” of the school, or the daughters of all the princesses (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) want Raven to follow her mother. This creates a division between the school; one side wants their predetermined destiny, and one side wants to choose their own. This series started up in 2013, and the dolls already top the popularity charts when it comes to toys.
Monster High is popular enough to have a huge display at both San Diego and New York Comic Con, with Mattel releasing a special “comic-con exclusive” doll each time. It usually ends up selling on eBay for up to $300. One year it was a zombie girl dressed up as her favorite comic book superhero and another year it was an exclusive spider-girl crime fighter.
With dolls teaching kids important lessons like this, I certainly wouldn’t mind dishing out $25 on one for my future daughter or son.
Do you disagree? Do you think these dolls send the wrong message? Or maybe you want to show me your collection? (Please don’t ask me about mine…there are a lot. [Nervously sweats]) Comment below or e-mail me at dahrae@terpmail.umd.edu!
