1 DE-FANGING MONSTER HIGH: MATTEL's (RE)PRESENTATION of AMERICAN GIRLHOOD in the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by MARY ROCA a THESIS PR

DE-FANGING MONSTER HIGH: MATTEL’S (RE)PRESENTATION OF AMERICAN GIRLHOOD IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY By MARY ROCA A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 1 © 2014 Mary Roca 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Anastasia Ulanowicz for her exceptional guidance and mentorship, as well as Dr. Kenneth Kidd for his wonderful support and encouragement throughout this project. I would also like to thank my professors and colleagues for their contributions to my growth as a scholar. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their continued support and care. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………………….3 ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………5 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: STRANGE UN-STRANGENESS………………………………..7 2 EMBRACING AND ERASING LITERARY HERITAGE……………………………16 3 TEENAGE DREAMS………………………………………………………………….29 4 CONSUMPTION-BASED GIRLHOOD………………………………………………59 5 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………73 LIST OF REFERENCES......………………………………………………………………….76 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH……………………………………………………………………80 4 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts DE-FANGING MONSTER HIGH: MATTEL’S (RE)PRESENTATION OF AMERICAN GIRLHOOD IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY By Mary Roca December 2014 Chair: Anastasia Ulanowicz Major: English In 2010, Mattel launched Monster High™, a mass-produced popular franchise with paranormal themes. The tween-focused brand features the teenage descendants of “famous” monsters, including Frankenstein’s Creature (Frankie Stein™), Dracula (Draculaura™), and The Werewolf (Clawdeen Wolf™), among others. As popular mass- produced culture, Monster High both reflects and perpetuates current conceptions of American girlhood, particularly because Mattel is one of the largest toy producers in the world. Interrogating these cultural material offers insight not only into the version of girlhood being sold, but also on how Mattel manufactures and packages that depiction. In the first chapter, I argue that part of Monster High’s appeal is rooted in its use of familiar monsters from classic literature, mythology, and folklore, which the brand severs from their origins in order to dilute, if not remove, potentially radical associations with monstrosity. Mattel can then more easily control the values promoted by this line and minimize the risks associated with launching a new brand. Interestingly, this new brand seems to promise a new approach to depicting girlhood that emphasizes female agency, self-esteem, and coalition-building. However, as I discuss in the second 5 chapter, despite its “freaky” packaging, Monster High is remarkably similar to other mass-produced girls’ series. The narratives and characters universalize white, heteronormative experiences, while encouraging girls to remain within the nuclear family and heterosexual—albeit chaste—relationships. Monster High encourages girls to be proud of themselves, but simultaneously promotes a commodified “normal” girlhood that reflects white, upper- and middle-class, heterosexual social norms. Chapter three focuses on how Mattel’s promotion of a consumption-based girlhood aligns not only with depictions of girlhood in girls’ series fiction, but also with the company’s development of a franchise model. Through Monster High’s wide range of productions and merchandise, Mattel works to mediate consumers’ interactions with these characters. And due to Monster High’s success, its franchise model can be reproduced with other content, like the Mattel spin-off Ever After High, which allows Mattel to further influence ideas of girlhood. Ultimately, my project investigates how Monster High’s characters, despite their appearances, are not really monstrous at all. Monster High has succeeded because offering monstrous characters to young girls makes it seem unique; however, the brand is actually repackaging familiar literary and cultural figures, while also patterning itself after much of the girls’ series fiction published throughout the past century. As a result, the brand does not follow through with its (admittedly implicit) promise to challenge social norms. Instead, Monster High de-radicalizes the concept of “monster” in order to be both safe for girls and for Mattel’s profit margins. 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: STRANGE UN-STRANGENESS Unfortunately for the toy company Mattel, the beginning of the twenty-first century seemed to signal the end of its dominance of the fashion doll market. After a late-1990s peak, Barbie’s sales began to drop and in 2001, she faced serious competition with the introduction of MGA Entertainment’s Bratz dolls. By the end of 2005, Barbie’s revenue, which “made up a quarter of the company’s sales,” had been “down for more than eight successive quarters” (Oppenheimer 194). Bratz’s global sales, on the other hand, “had reached more than $2 billion,” which were “still $1 billion below Barbie, but Barbie sales were continuing their decline and stagnation” (Oppenheimer 196). The edgier and more diverse Bratz dolls highlighted Barbie’s age, fifty as of 2009, and threatened to replace her as the reigning fashion doll. When the American Girl line challenged Barbie’s reign, Mattel bought out the rival company rather than compete. By acquiring the Pleasant Company, the manufacturer of American Girl, in 1998, Mattel “shrewdly brought into [its] portfolio a Barbie competitor at a time when the doll was on the decline and other revenues were sinking” (Oppenheimer 166). But Mattel took a different approach with Bratz, by suing MGA Entertainment and attempting to recreate the Bratz’s appeal through Barbie MyScene and Flavas lines. These doll lines were meant to offer “a trendier Barbie— more urban, more ethnic, more bling, and hotter,” but “didn’t put a dent in Bratz’s soaring sales” (Oppenheimer 196). The Flavas dolls, even more disastrously, were criticized as “[stereotyping] young African-Americans, and [making] fun of instead of complimenting the culture of hip-hop” (Oppenheimer 198). Barbie underwent other transformations at this time as well, as Mattel began developing Princess Barbie lines 7 “in an attempt to resuscitate what was at best a tired, at worst outdated, brand” (Orr 12). Although “Princess Barbies sold better than their sexier sisters” (Orr 23), Mattel still struggled to interest the consumers who were enraptured with the Bratz doll line. The ongoing lawsuits damaged MGA Entertainment’s meteoric rise, but the edgier doll lines Mattel developed to compete with Bratz did little to improve Barbie’s flagging sales. Mattel still could not maintain girls’ interest in doll play past a certain age. While Barbie “is targeted to girls ages three to seven” (“Mattel History” 7), Mattel wanted a product line that would not only challenge Bratz dolls, but also could expand its consumer base into the tween and teen markets. Thus, in 2010, Mattel launched Monster High™, a mass-produced popular franchise with paranormal themes. The tween-focused brand features “the hip teenage descendants of the world’s most famous monsters” (“Mattel Unveils”), including Frankenstein’s Creature (Frankie Stein™), Dracula (Draculaura™), and The Werewolf (Clawdeen Wolf™), among others. Based on the dolls’ aesthetics, with slim bodies, large heads, and exaggerated features, Monster High seems to have developed from the recent popularity of paranormal adolescent cultural materials, Bratz’s success with edgier and more diverse dolls, and Mattel’s continued investment in retaining consumers as they grow too old for Barbie. Monster High marks Mattel’s first intellectual property released across “a number of diverse consumer products categories simultaneously” (“Mattel Unveils”), demonstrating not only Mattel’s investment in this brand but also the company’s foray into multi-platform storytelling and promotion. The cute, teenage versions of traditional monsters are embodied by dolls, but can also be found in two book series, online webisodes, television specials, video games, and a variety of branded merchandise. 8 When Mattel introduced the Monster High brand, the company already had partnerships in place with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Universal Pictures, Justice®, and Party City to offer “rich content and relatable storytelling via publishing, web, animation and live-action theatrical entertainment” (“Mattel Unveils”). The live-action entertainment—originally a theatrical musical through Universal Pictures—has yet to develop, but Monster High has achieved international success with its dolls, books, webisodes, and other products. Retailers, according to Target spokeswoman Erin Madsen, were “‘really excited about Monster High because it showcases the current trend in vampires/monsters…and has the great fashion aesthetics required in the fashion doll category’” (Hyland 56). While Barbie’s sales went down by 6% in 2013, “[w]orldwide gross sales for Other Girls Brands were up 25% for the year, primarily driven by Monster High®” (“Mattel Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2013”). In just under four years, the “perfectly imperfect” world of Monster High became a trend-setting sensation, spawning similar lines in competing doll brands, like MGA Entertainment’s Bratzillaz in 2012, and inspiring a Mattel spin-off, Ever After High, launched in 2013. When Mattel first announced Monster High, some industry insiders dismissed

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