A Boy’s View of “Girl” Toys
In my book I stress the importance of talking to children about the gender messages in the media they see, and I practise what I preach.
Every year at this time I look at the toy catalogues that enter our house and I talk to my older son about them. (I haven’t yet started this practice with my younger son, but I will soon.)
I asked my son to look at the toys on the pages marked “Girls” in the most recent Toys R Us catalogue. I’m sharing his 9-year-old perspective because I found it interesting.
About Monster High (designated a “hot toy” by Toys R Us) and Bratz dolls, he said they are “pure creepiness.” He noted their “bulging eyes,” “humungous eyelashes,” “pale skin,” and “hair almost as long as” their bodies. He thought they were wearing too much make-up and said they “look like the living dead,” which, I suppose is the point for the Monster High dolls although I cannot really see much difference between the denizens of Monster High and Bratz. I asked about the way they were standing and he said they “look like cheerleaders.”
Bratz doll from Bratz.com
Monster High Doll from Mattel.com
He also said that their clothes were “weird” and that he had “never seen someone wear clothes like that.”
Journey Girl doll from ToysRUs.ca
He contrasted the Monster High and Bratz dolls to the Journey Girls line (a Toys R Us creation), shown here. He said they were better because they look “more real.”
Unlike most girls, my son has not been subjected to the onslaught of marketing messages from Mattel and Bratz, delivered via television, websites, and toy catalogues.
I wonder if girls had been granted the same separation from the marketing messages that surround these dolls as boys, would they still love them, or would they too find them creepy and weird?
My daughter has just turned 10 and she pretty much described bratz and monster high the same way as your son did. When she was 4 or 5 she told me that Bratz dolls look like mean girls and they had angry eyes. I am pretty selective in what she watches and we do not watch commercial tv. I also talk to my daughter about the catalogs. Great post.
Thanks for your comment. Keeping kids away from commercials is, clearly, the best way of avoiding these marketing messages. When my son was younger, he never watched commercial TV either. He watches a little now, but not on the kids’ channels where he gets toy marketing messages. He does, however, watch some football and baseball, so he gets the “macho” ads aimed at men and the ridiculous blather of the sports commentators, which are bad in their own way, and which I also discuss with him. Always vigilant!
My sons don’t watch commercial TV at home, but the occasionally catch commercials at daycare in the morning before the TV is shut off for the day. But there was one occasion where I was watching the news, and my older son, age 6, came in to hang with Mom. A Pantene commercial came on featuring a sexy brunette with long, silky, shiny hair (that she was continually tossing around while pouting at the camera), and after watching that commercial, my son turned to me, looked critically at my shoulder-length hair, and said, “Mom, you should let your hair grow longer.” I thought, *wow* — 30 seconds of visual commentary on the nature of beauty and my six-year-old is turning judgmental. Needless to say… although I do not watch much TV anyway, now I *only* watch it when the kids aren’t around.
I understand what you are trying to prove here, but in doing what you’ve done, you are teaching the child to look at people superficially, to Judge people by how they look and dress instead of actually getting to know someone.
My daughters are no fans of Bratz but they are fans of Monster High, both toy series portray girls in physically unrealistic ways, very true, the physicality of the dolls is simply a stylization to set the Dolls apart from other dolls, the same way Anime is stylized to be set apart from American Animation.But if you judge the characters based only on their physical attributes, then you are teaching the child that what is inside a person is not important.
The theme in Monster High is to embrace your differences, each of the main characters is completely different from one another (A vampire, Frankenstein, Werewolf, Sea Creature, Mummy, Zombie and Gorgon) All different, all friends and all helping each other out. Sure they do Girly things, it’s a Girly series, they also do sporty things, and brainy thing. But you look at the toy and you dont get that. because you a judging the show by how the characters look.
People need to take an active role in their children’s lives, I try to learn as music as possible about the toys, cartoons and anything that my girls are interested in, if the Monster High dolls showed bad role model behavior, then I wouldnt let my daughters play with them, but they dont show that behavior. In fact because of the toy and cartoon show, my oldest in now interested in sports (because her favorite character “Lagoona Blue” is sporty) and my Youngest like to write journals (Because her Favorite character, Frankie Stein, writes in a Journal all the time)
Take an active role in your children’s interests, Toys are not babysitters they are a learning tool, Allot of parents do not see that, They buy a toy for their kid in the hopes that the child will leave them alone for a bit so they can have a little time for themselves. They are not involved.
Instead of asking your son to Judge the toys by their physical features, ask him to get to know the characters. Ask him to watch the animated series (Found on the website it does not play on TV as far as I know) then asking him to tell you about each of the character one on one. I bet his responses will be different.
Tharsos
Thank you for your comment.
I certainly have never taught my son to judge anyone by their appearance. I approached this toy as I would any other. I have asked him similar questions about superhero action figures. It’s about helping him decode the messages sent by toys and other areas of pop culture.
Like it or not, the physical appearance of these toys does send a message about the associated characters. You noted that Lagoona is athletic, but that is not the message I get from her, dressed as she is in heavy jewellery, sky-high heels, barely-there shorts, and fishnet half-stockings. And it is certainly not the message my son got.
My intention was to get an outsider’s view of these toys to see what someone detached from the marketing thinks of them. And the marketing is a major area of concern. One of the early commercials for Monster High includes phrases like the following: “Frankie’s electrifying, stitching with style…,” “Clawdeen’s killer boots, fantastic smile…,” and “Get your fashion freak on. Wicked styles so good, it’s scary.”
As far as judging people by their appearance, the theme song is all about boys judging girls. It is sung by a male and includes lyrics about the females: “Frankie got me falling apart. Draculaura stealing my heart. Clawdeen Wolf makes me howl at the moon. Lagoona, you’re the finest fish in this lagoon…” And that is just the part that is heard in the show’s opening. The full song begins with another verse that says “You’re drop dead gorgeous, drop dead gorgeous.” (Lyrics here.)
There is precious little about diversity and acceptance in either the commercial or the song. As you suggested, I have watched some of the videos.(Hence the delay between me posting your comment and replying to it.) While some episodes include a message about unity and people embracing what makes them unique, there are lots of other messages that are not so positive. I will soon be writing a full blog post in response.
I’m happy that your daughters have gotten some positive messages from the show, but from what I’ve seen, the bad outweighs the good. More in that upcoming blog post.
If you keep looking for Negatives, you will find negatives 100% of the time. Is the media responsible for creating a negative Image of females? Yes. Will they ever change? No.
The Reason the bad outweighs the good is because you are watching this with adult eyes, and an adult mind. As adults we need to see things through child eyes and child mind, before looking at it as an adult. I went to see “The Smurfs” with my youngest a few month back, and I sat there for the first 20 minutes, my daughter laughing and grown up all around me laughing, Me, Straight faced. Wasnt enjoying it. But as I saw everyone around me enjoying I changed my own perspective, to watch it and understand it as my daughter was… and I loved it.
In looking for the negative, you are overlooking the positive. and that can do more harm than good.
Thanks. My blog post in response is almost ready. I am waiting for the Monster High website to come back online so I can watch a few more videos. It has been down most of the day.
As for looking for the negatives, yes that is an occupational hazard for me. But in my work I try to look beyond the overt messages to the more subtle ones; the “environment of images” that shows like Monster High create. The sexualized and stereotyped images of girls that Monster High promotes are abundant in kids’ pop culture and their impact is far more subtle than the positive, albeit simplistic, message about embracing one’s uniqueness.
I am not saying it is the end of the world for kids to watch a show like this. I am more concerned about the aggregate impact of things like Monster High, Bratz and films and TV shows that stereotype females. Monster High is a symptom of a larger problem. Kids might enjoy the show and learn something good from it in the short-term, but, as adults, we also need to ensure they are not succumbing to the negative messages (In Monster High and elsewhere) about how females should look and act–messages whose impact might not be seen right away but could shape girls’ opinions of their own appearance as they get older.
My new post is here. http://www.achilleseffect.com/2011/12/monster-high-positive-messages-diluted-by-stereotyped-sexualized-images-of-females/
I just want to point out that both the dolls and web series are based upon a book series aimed at pre-teens.
And it seems like MH dolls would not be pressuring any girl to live up to impossibly high female stereotypes, because the whole cast is so blatantly mythical. They, of course, have fantastical proportions: I would think that any child, even one bombarded by media, would have sense enough to know that she will not be growing into a zombie, monster, or supernatural being and thus not even be comparing her own maturing body with those of the characters.
It’d be reasonable to believe that Bratz dolls and Barbie dolls, with them being marketed to normal girls as normal girl characters, could be a potentially negative role model both in action and appearance.
Thanks for your comment. I understand that these characters are mythical and that no girl would ever believe that she could grow up to be a monster. But I have to disagree about the reason for the dolls’ fantastical proportions. It is not because they are mythical monsters–it is because they are female. For monsters, don’t you think these characters are little too human? Since when do werewolves, zombies and vampires wear lipstick and high heels and fret about their outfits? And why does Clawdeen complain in her website bio about hair removal? (“Plucking and shaving is definitely a full-time job but that’s a small price to pay for being scarily fabulous.”)
Make no mistake, the monster angle is just a new spin on the same ideas that Bratz and Barbie dolls promote–that appearance is the most important aspect of girlhood. I am discussing this show in particular because I was called out on it by another commenter. But MH is just one of many programs promoting this point of view. As I said in a reply to a comment by Tharsos:
You are talking about children’s views on these shows. Well, as I am a kid and I have very strong view about these types of things, I will give you my verdict on these shows.
Monster High is meant to be about acceptance and friendship, but I have watched a few of the episodes and the only messages I got were about vanity, popularity and romance. Most of these characters are boy, and appearance, obsessed and a few of them, just downright mean and judgemental. It looks as though the producers have spent more time on their appearances and clothes than on the script. Granted, they are a dolls as well as TV characters, but this is just rovolves around clothes and makeup. I will not critise the eyes and features, as they do not come across as inappropriate.
On a positive note, not all of the characters are totally girly and boy obsessed, bringing more reality to the show, as the show pretty much gives off the impression this is what girls are like. Unlike a lot of shows, some characters aren’t under-developed, though I cannot say that some aren’t. One of them is a ‘nerd’- a zombie with a dreary tone and glasses, just as every cartoon, or kids TV show even, portrays the clever or unpopular characters like. Though a typical way to create that sort of character, the character- the ‘nerd’- brings the friendship part of the show out more. This character is constantly being bullied, and this is true to what high school is like. Lots of bullying and arguing. Also like high school, there is your usual drama and apologies. This brings the relatity into the show- it brings aside the shopping and boys and shows what school is normally like.
Overall, Monster High is slightly unrealistic and gives off the impression that all girls are girly and look-obsessed, however some of the episodes are realistic and bring more of the friendship and acceptance part of the show to surface. If you are talking about the dolls, though, I have to say, as much as they are ‘offensive’ (quote from friend), you can’t say barbie or bratz are any better.
This is my verdict on Monster High and I will respect you view, so please respect mine and no hating please.
Thanks so much for sharing your opinion! I love having insight from people who watch the show on a regular basis. As for the dolls being “offensive”, I agree that there are others out there on par with Monster High, like Bratz and Barbie. I just singled out Monster High because my son talked about the dolls and because someone mentioned that the Monster High show had positive messages. I checked it out for myself and felt motivated to write more about it.