by Jessica L. Vega
"Be yourself, be unique, be a monster!" or "Where Screams Come True!" are just some of the typical slogans of Monster High. This is the newest Mattel product. Five supernatural girls who are daughters of horror icons such as Dracula, Frankenstein and The Werewolf. These girls go to an abnormal high school, have eccentric pets and possess a dark and horror-themed fashion which nowadays is highly appeling for little girls.
Monster High products go from fashion dolls, sticker albums and magazines to a web series, special TV episodes and DVD films. This variety of mechandising surrounds little girls who are fascinated by these “new” dark likeable girls that day by day become more and more consumed.
This dark wave had a great impact not only in the market but also in the media. Monster High got to many girls’ houses fastly and powerfully not only because of its huge quantity of products but also because of its sympathetic unnatural web episodes which are seen several times a day by spellbound young girls. These episodes seem to contain a new kind of girls: modern girls who have different interests, different appearance and a different life from those traditional ones. But not all the dark tone and innovation of the world could cover the real message: even though its supernatural and horror style, Monster High web series does not get rid of traditional beauty stereotypes.
One of the most obvious points to the eye is the girls’ body. Despite they have unlike and unusual colours in their skins, they still have the typical “dream girl” shape. This means that their bodies are extremely skinny but their breasts and back sides have a considerable size. When little girls are exposed to this, they get a wrong message since they believe this is the ideal body to achieve. What is more, little girls may be not able to realize that it is not a real image, it is not a real body but it is just a stereotyped body.
There is a stronger and even more visible point in this web series, the supernatural girls’ fashion and appearance. Even though these girls are supposed to break the standard boundaries of beauty by their unique dark style, they simply do not break it. It is true that their clothes have dark and deep colours and also unusual patterned such as skulls, crosses and blood drops. But it is also true that these monsters wear very short skirts, tight t-shirts and high heel shoes; and they possess hundreds of purses, watches and odd sinister jewellery which mark a clear passion for fashion and at the same time, they stereotype this passion as a typical feature of an ideal girl to be.
This passion for fashion is accompanied by the constant worry about appearance. The girls in the web series show an incessant obsession for making up perfectly, that is to say, in their freaky world, keeping blood red lips all the time, having their eyes deeply delineated and walking with a delicate style. Once again, the show is centred on girls’ physical appearance and in the beauty standard. This transmits an incorrect message of how a beautiful girl would be to the series’ young female audience.
Eventually, Monster High series has nothing new to offer to its young audience since behind its supernatural characters, freaky clothes and fancy fashion, there are no more than simple and fake beauty stereotypes. Beauty stereotypes that little girls acquire as a pattern to follow are what have to be stopped. This generation of girls must be saved from ruining their minds with this absurd beauty standard of girl to be.
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