Monster High Dolls & the Right to Self-Expression

Hey, Vampire Barbie – Don’t Showcha Your Chocha.

Just kidding. This isn’t Vampire Barbie. This is Draculaura, the vegan? fashionista, and one of the birds in Mattel’s new partnership line with the author of YA novels by Lisa Harrison, Monster High.

Main character of the novels, Frankie Stein, daughter of Frankenstein, and her alternate outfit.

Jen and I have been reading about these dolls for a few weeks, and despite our seemingly long research, we’ve only come into one theory. Our first thought, and remaining suspicion was/is: these are obviously Mattel’s answer to MGA Entertainment’s Bratz dolls. Granted, there were some pretty provocative and leggy chicks in my high school, but 5″ wedges and thigh-highs (a la werewolf-princess Clawdeen) are not something that anyone’s parents would let them get away with. Not to mention a startling boot-circumference to ribcage-circumference ratio.

This is all in addition to the dolls preaching of standardized beauty procedures:

My hair is worthy of a shampoo commercial, and that’s just what grows on my legs. Plucking and shaving is definitely a full-time job but that’s a small price to pay for being scarily fabulous. [From Clawdeen's description]

And forget school clubs and sports, Clawdeen’s favorite hobby is: “shopping and flirting with boys!”

So, in being kind of irked about this, I had to wonder: what is the issue here? Is it that these girls are being presented as “role models” to girls aged 6-12? Is it that the clothing being worn is… sparse, at best, and it’s sending the wrong message? Yeah, both of those things bothered me and while my gut instinct says “Well, I ought to do something about it!” in a very Dudley Doorite manor, I also have to consider that people like Taylor Momsen, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga are all in a “role model” position, too, and have worn far less conservative outfits than these dolls, so what’s the difference? Do we have a right to be upset about this? We allowed the Perry/Gaga “role models” to be where they are, who are we to say that this is “so inappropriate”?

The 16 year old Taylor Momsen (Gossip Girl actress and lead singer of The Pretty Reckless, whose album I own) who does concerts in fishnets and lace teddies gets dismissed as “Oh, 16 year olds.” Meaning “Oh, adolescent girls.” Despite the fact that I don’t consider her a great role model, nor particularly respectful, I still helped fuel her rise to success by buying her music. Freedom of expression is something that’s really important to me as a human, woman, and (um?) adult. These musical ladies, scantily clad and questionable as role models, are practicing freedom of expression. Is preventing these kinds of dolls from being given to impressionable kids imposing a limitation on their freedom of expression, or the idea of freedom of expression? Or is it so potentially devastating to their future body image and self-perception that it should be prevented?

Do we have a right to be upset about these kinds of issues? Are these toys affecting children’s perception of the freedom of expression?

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