Exit
other parents in your community about the potential impact
of self-sexualization and selfobjectification on girls’ development — including negative body
image, eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, poor sexual choices, etc. — and choose
from the many other toy options
that are rising up in response to
this inappropriate trend.
Meanwhile, Hasbro competitor
Mattel announced last month that
sales for Barbie have continued
to take a nosedive. Who’s edging
out the iconic doll? Mattel’s own
vampy teen Monster High dolls —
aka the “goth” Barbie.
The trend is marketed as an
edgier alternative to typically girly
dolls: among the “goth” Barbies
are the dark-haired Draculaura,
blue-skinned zombie Ghoulia and
werewolf Clawdeen. These toys,
companies brag, represent diversity. “The message about the brand
is really to celebrate your own
freaky flaws, especially as bullying has become such a hot topic,”
Cathy Cline, Mattel’s vice president of marketing, told NPR.
However, as Callie Beusman
counters in an op-ed for Jezebel,
the Monster High dolls aren’t all
CULTURE
HUFFINGTON
08.18.13
Trolls used to be, well,
trolls — not ‘Trollz,’ their
sexy, slim, smooth-haired
doppelgängers.”
that different from Barbie. The
“brand doesn’t really encourage individuality at all,” she says, pointing to the dolls’ “disturbing obsession with body image”:
A quick look at the “Students”
section of the Monster High website makes it pretty clear that the
brand’s message is, “Okay, girls,
let your freak flag fly! You’re free
to be you no matter what! As
long as ‘you’ is a fashion-loving,
boy-chasing very thin teenager
with the facial features of a cast
member from Pretty Little Liars.
The ‘freaky’ part is that, instead
of having white skin, you can
have the coloration of any pastel hue on the visible light spectrum.” Diversity!
Hasbro’s pony-turned-girl
hybrid evolution is just a more
glaring example of a culture that
appears to be deepening its own
body image issues in ever
weirder ways.
Jessica Samakow is the associate
editor of HuffPost Parents.