rosejailmaiden

  Went in Claire's today to pick up a second pair of clearance harlequin checked OTKs. I'd bought one pair, plus a pair of striped/frilled ones, for $2 on Monday, so I figured since harlequin otk socks don't usually come cheap I'd buy a spare pair. 

It turned out the sale was off and they were now $4.25. Still the cheapest I've ever found them, so I went ahead and bought them anyway. 

On the way to the checkout counter I noticed a Nefera doll. There seemed to be another doll behind it, so naturally I went over to take a peek. 




There was much squee and flailing, and I am now the proud owner of an Operetta doll. She was only $25 too, I have no idea when Claire's stopped marking up their Monster High dolls. Considering Walmart, Target, Meijer, etc don't even have any decent stock, I'm amazingly lucky to have found one just sitting there in Claire's. 

Months after release, people are offended by the Monster High line because of Clawdeen.

okay I know, Moff's Law and stuff, but seriously? It's humor. Clawdeen's message isn't "girls, you have to shave to be beautiful", it's a joke because werewolves are furry and it's poking fun at that. This looks like one annoying author  trying to sell her book, and if she actually took the time to see that the whole message of the line is to love yourself for who you are and accept others for their differences.

Australia annoys the shit out of me sometimes.

One thing that really gets me, that I've noticed about Monster High as I slowly get into the developing fandom, is that both the comment threads on the two scifi blogs that posted about them- Topless Robot and Bloody Disgusting- are full of MALE fans complaining about the line being horrible and "oversexualized" and fearing for the little girls that will inevitably fall in love with them.

To these guys: drop the "oh noes the little girls!" act and just admit, you don't want the opposite sex playing in your sandbox.

The line being unoriginal and Hot Topic makeover Bratz? The only "goth" dolls in the whole line are Draculaura and Frankie. The others are styled like the average high school girl. And the Bratz comment is utter BS and twaddle. The only thing they have in common with Bratz are the similar faces (which makes sense, given they're an anime-esque line) but even then you have MUCH smaller eyes and unique head sculpts and face-up on the dolls, unlike Bratz which seemed to be the same doll with different skin tones.

If anything the dolls have more in common with Japanese fashion dolls (unique face-up, joints, bodily proportions) than Bratz or even recent  Western fashion doll lines like Liv or Moxie Girlz.

As for originality? Right, name one more doll line with the premise of "the children of horror movie characters in high school". One that's an ORIGINAL PROPERTY no less. Any comparisons to Living Dead Dolls are invalid since those were more action figures than fashion dolls in that they were one-off characters and didn't have alternate outfits to dress in.

Oversexualized? I won't deny that the dolls ARE sexualized to some degree- they're fashion dolls first and foremost, after all. But certainly not to the degree that Bratz ever was, and not really to the Barbie degree either, given their relatively flat chests. They have long legs and wear short skirts, yes, but in all honesty they look to have more in common with a lot of shoujo art- their proportions in particular- than anything else. And the Monster High characters are actually fleshed out and have personalities, backstories, and ambitions, to the point they have a diary right in the box to tell you the story behind the character and set up their place in the universe. Bratz had maybe 2 or 3 "main characters" and then just a bunch of throwaway ones for that line. The YouTube shorts have cute little morals, too, like caring for animals, standing up for what's right, and helping friends. Hell, Draculaura (daughter of Dracula) is best friends with Clawdeen (daughter of the Wolfman), despite the animosity between their races, and in her diary she says she maintains the friendship even in the face of disapproval from her father. Overall it's a FAR more positive line than Bratz and shouldn't ever be mentioned in the same breath as them.

It seems like most of this criticism is coming from males who hate the idea of a line that appeals to TEH WIMMINZ and might get a few girls into the sci-fi/horror treehouse they're running. And their manhood is apparently threatened by this. Grow the fuck up. That goes out to you, moron trolling the Facebook group discussion (who prompted all this). It's a big treehouse, and there's room in it for all of us.