The new doll line in question is of course MGA's Bratzilla line. Now before you assume anything, no I am not bothered by them being on the "spooky" side and "stealing" the idea from Mattel. You can't steal a theme. MGA clearly saw Mattel was doing good with Monster High, so they came up with witches. Fine by me. Now, what bothered me was their music video for the Bratzilla line. Take a look at it.
Ok, so maybe it's just me that's bothered by this, but if you look at the picture above, you will clearly see that Sashabella Paws, Jade J'Adore, and Yasmina Clairvoya are clearly girls of color. Sasha has always been of African descent, Jade has always been of Asian descent, and Yasmin has always been of Hispanic descent. Yet all the girls in the music video above are Caucasian. Now I am usually not a big pain over the major whitewashing in the media, but this really just upset me. What are girls who are of color going to think when they see this video and don't see a girl like them representing the dolls that look like them? Sadly, I think they are so used to the world being whitewashed that they don't notice, at least not according to the comments under the video that were all beaming about the video. One person even wanted a full length movie with these same girls.
Like I said, I am usually not big on the lack of people of color in the media, but these dolls I've mentioned at clearly not Caucasian. It just makes me wonder why they didn't have dancers of the proper race dancing for the characters. I think this is why Monster High is so accepted, these dolls tell the world it doesn't mater who you are or what you look like, you are still awesome. Take a look at the video for Monster High and see the difference.
See how you have people of all kinds represented and how it's more of celebration of being who you are no matter...well no matter who you are. LOL! Now the Bratzilla video is sending a mixed message. I wanted to get some of these dolls because of their eyes and how they would fit well with my web-comic I am going to work on, especially if they make the guys too, but this just made me feel funky about the line. I'll probably still buy it because they are beautiful dolls and will fit perfectly with my story, but I am still so disappointed in MGA. They dropped the ball in my eyes when it comes to this video. The girls in the video are very talented and very pretty, but it didn't represent those three characters at all and was a major distraction for me.
Am I the only one bothered by this? Should I just get off the soapbox and calm myself? Or is anyone else out there just a slight bit put off by this video? So many people love Sasha, Jade, and Yasmin, and I know MGA could have found dancers for the video who were of color, so what gives? Feel free to tell me your thoughts down below. Ok, getting off my soapbox now. Returning to article writing and then going to start sewing for Christmas. Blog post about that coming soon. Ok, bye for now peeps.
Thinking 3 hours of sleep was not enough, it makes her cranky,
Michelle
I think it's great that you are pointing this out. It is a little disturbing and hard to justify their actions.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved Bratz for their diverse characters. Even though I'm white Jade's always been my favorite and Sasha is a close second. I'm also pretty upset they didn't use dancers that fit the characters, it makes it seem fake, like they're not really the Bratz.
ReplyDeleteThey're all painted pale white to match their artwork, which utilizes selective coloring :P None of the dolls' art has their skin colored in, and on the older art, not even their hair is colored.
ReplyDelete