this is our fucking monster high blog we guess

tamagotchiqueen:

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:57:54 -0500

so what is the new monster high episode about?

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:36:55 -0500

I wish I could tell you, but we haven’t seen any recently. Funds are low and we’re moving, so dolls are on the backburner at the moment.

Hey, I have a Jackson Jekyll Gloom beach doll and I was wanting to re-style his hair. But it's got some sort of gel in it? I can't really do much with his hair because of whatever is in it. If there is a safe way to wash it out, how would I do it? I've heard just hot water but I don't want to ruin him.

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:35:47 -0500

Hey there,

If you’re leery of hot water, which is understandable given the great glue leaking debacle, see if you can’t find a metal eyelash comb or, hilariously, a metal flea comb (unused, of course). Anything metal and fine-toothed, really. In my experience, plastic fine-toothed combs just bend and tangle. But be careful when using a metal comb so you don’t rip the hair. You might want to mist it with tepid water to make it easier to work through, always start at the ends, and detangle with your fingers as much as possible.

it is not fucking it is beautyful can i see the hole entire piture?

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 12:52:16 -0500

What are you talking about.

Commission - Robecca for Erica by Retrograde Works

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:27:56 -0400

come back we miss you :C

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 21:17:00 -0400

sorry, perfect storm of IRL stuff going down has got both your mods down for the count. we’ll get the queue up and running soon.

a few housekeeping notes

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:04:56 -0400

we have been slacking on captions and we know it, we’ve both managed to get sick and busy at the same time. we’re going to try to go through the backlog soon and add captions to old posts and resume embedding them in new ones or otherwise adding them beneath, depending on the picture size. apologies for the recent lack of accessibility.
we’re gonna put together an FAQ, cuz we noticed we get a lot of similar questions, particularly on which non-brand clothes fit monster high dolls, what materials to use in modding, what customizers we recommend, where to inexpensively buy the dolls, how to accomplish certain modifications, where to find tutorials, etc. etc. i’m not sure when it’ll be up since we have to go through the whole blog to gather links and such but we’ll let you know when it is.
further asks on how it is omg so wrong and scandalous for 15-year-olds to wear short skirts will be deleted. instantly. especially if they’re anonymous. especially if the poster is trying to make ridiculous false equivalencies along the lines of how saying “it is wrong for a mother to slut-shame her child or otherwise hold them responsible for their own slut-shaming at the hands of society” is, in effect, somehow, slut-shaming the mother, or just as bad as? yeah, no. delusional nonsense of that caliber has no place on this blog. take it to your own space.
another block of customs is on the way! we’re going to slow down and stagger the queue so it’s a bit more regular.
since i am finally on the mend, the ball is rolling again on custom shoes and the like. just have to get my workspace set up and then i’ll have more info for you shortly. and hopefully a proper etsy shop!

Okay, your opinion post about the dolls and slut-shaming was incredibly brilliant. I even forwarded a link of it to one of my teachers who I've been having a continuous debate over the idea of sexualized dolls with, specifically in Monster High. Please continue to be great, please and thank you.

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:24:00 -0400

Aww, thank you very much! I’m glad the post resonated with you. idk if my yelling and swearing will get through to your teacher anymore than you have already managed, though, but here’s hoping. :D

Frankie Stein is 15. That is nowhere near old enough to wear a short skirt. Just sayin'.

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:54:00 -0400

lol are you for real. I almost did not publish this because it is so absurd. Look, if a parent doesn’t want their kid wearing a short skirt at 15, that’s for them to duke it out with their kid. But I would hope that they, and for that matter you, could put that argument against it forth in a way that didn’t boil down to “because it is your responsibility not to expose your body in ways that have been inherently sexualized against your will.”

If you could additionally explain why it was OK when I ran track and field back in high school for the dudes on the team to wear short bike shorts and no top in hot weather and have absolutely no one bat an eyelash at it or think of it as inherently sexual, but if I wore a mid-thigh-length skirt to school, I was the eeeevil school slut for a week, that would also be cool. Not to make this shit all personal, but there’s an IRL example for you of why this paradigm is busted as fuck. They were wearing even LESS clothing at the same age, and didn’t get even a fraction of the flack. Or any, for that matter.

I mean never mind that, if you’re a girl or a femme, at the same time that you’ve got people shouting at you to never expose your body, you’ve got the same number of people shouting at you that the only way you’ll ever get any love or acknowledgment is to expose your body.

Face it, femmes cannot win. And fifteen? Is a vulnerable age. The skirt is not the problem here. And telling teenage femmes not to wear them won’t make the exploitation and abuse of their bodies go away. Telling the rest of the world to stop goddamn exploiting and abusing their bodies, though? That’s a start.

anon who sent the three-part message:

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 04:16:00 -0400

We did not get your first ask, just the second and third! Please resubmit the first part, if you can/want to! (and let us know if/when you do? in case it doesn’t go through again.)

oh it is about to get all sorts of serious business up in here.

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:22:00 -0400

[Content Warning: discussion of slut-shaming, rape culture, forced sex work, body-shaming, sizism, eating disorders.]

For context, see strawberry-cupcake-kitten’s post on a particular parent with some very strong opinions on Monster High, but not too much in the way of logic to back them up. I refuse to directly link to that woman’s blog and provide her with additional traffic, plus this is sort of a general tirade, hence the new post, but that was the kicker for it, so.

Let’s talk about Monster High critiques. Now, I got no vested interest in protecting Mattel’s profit margins. I have an interest in Monster High, obviously, and Mattel makes the line, but they’re a big company, they don’t need me protecting them. So I’m not personally offended on their or the doll’s behalf when people say busted shit about them. I’m more concerned with the actual people that are hurt by the following bullshit “critiques” that I have seen over and over and over again:

The dolls dress too slutty:

Look, I get it, you’re coming from a place of not wanting impressionable kids to believe that the hypersexualization of their bodies is an inevitable fact to which they must submit. You want their sexual growth to be healthy and happy and do you know the best way to accomplish that? It’s not by teaching them that there’s something intrinsically sexual or wrong about wearing a short skirt, that’s for fucking sure. It’s teaching them that no one, fucking no one has a right to dictate their bodies, what they put on them or the “meaning” of what they put on them. You teach them that they are too young for very short skirts, but Frankie Stein, who is old enough, wears them because she likes them, because she likes the way her legs look in them, because she likes her body, because she has confidence and self-love and you teach that self-love to your fucking kid. You don’t teach them that short skirts = slut and you DEFINITELY do not teach them that slut = bad, my fucking God, this is such basic shit.

The rest is going under a cut for the sake of length, and because the points on dolls looking “like sex-workers” or “like they have an eating disorder” may be particularly triggering for some folks. Proceed with care.

The dolls wear too much makeup:

There is no such thing as too much makeup. There is exactly as much makeup as someone wants to wear because it makes them feel good. Just like with clothes, there are social pressures in place that tell certain folks “WEAR MAKEUP, DO IT” but ultimately, the choice to wear it should be an individual one, and not shamed one way or the other. Countering shame with more shame doesn’t work. Again, it is totally a parent’s call whether their kid is too young to wear makeup but there are practical reasons that don’t invoke slut-shaming or femme-hate for this that you can give your kid, like how messy it is, or how they could get it in their eyes and stuff. Teaching them there is something inherently bad about makeup, or indeed any femme activity is not revolutionary and it doesn’t solve shit.

The dolls look like sex-workers:

If you have to resort to demonizing sex-workers to make your point, if you’re really such a hateful, shitty, ass-backward person that you can’t for a hot second stop and think about the fact that the majority of sex-workers in the world are forced into that position either out of desperation or are sold into sexual slavery, and those that do sex work by choice have MADE THE CHOICE TO DO SO, because it’s a profession that is fulfilling for them, you are beyond the reach of any logic. At all. Why you would be discussing sex work at all with a young child, I can’t imagine, but I should hope when they were old enough to understand its complexities, it would be a subject you treated with the fucking sensitivity it deserved, instead of vilifying a group of people already greatly at risk for violence.

The dolls look like they have eating disorders:

The thing about eating disorders? They don’t “look” any particular way. You cannot look at a person and instantly know if they have an eating disorder. Someone can be fat and have an eating disorder. Someone can be fat and have an eating disorder. Someone can be fat and have an eating disorder. Repeat that to yourself until it sinks in, and don’t you dare open your mouth about body politics again until it has. I will be the first to say: it is a problem that the dolls all represent just one type of body. That is a thoroughly valid critique of Monster High and indeed, FAR too many doll lines, that they all represent the same skinny bodies. WE NEED FAT DOLLS. We need them desperately, and this is something worth talking about. But you are not helping by saying the dolls are “too” skinny, because you may just be critiquing the dolls in your mind, but there is someone out there with those proportions or similar (well, not the head, I imagine) whose body you are also saying is “too” skinny.

And that’s the point here. When people say “they’re just dolls.” Well, no, not when the shit you’re spewing impacts real people, then it ceases to be just about dolls. Saying the dolls look slutty and teach bad values to young girls perpetuates the real world notion of the eeeeevil slut (madonna/whore complex, anyone?), ties into all sorts of fucked up ideals about how women and femmes are “supposed” to behave with regard to sex (“NONE UNTIL YOUR SOCIALLY NORMATIVE, HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGE TAKES PLACE, POSSIBLY THERE WILL BE A BETROTHAL AND A DOWRY INVOLVED”) and indeed HURTS the healthy sexual development of young persons.

So instead of attacking the victims of an oppressive society, the ones wearing the short skirts and the makeup, the sex workers, the folks with eating disorders, maybe we should be going after the institutions that hurt them? And vilify them. And say they’re wrong and bad. And maybe we should start with our own internalized ideas. Because you can say you’re a feminist all you want, but you’re sure as shit not on my side if your idea of feminism is not to teach your child that there is something wrong with a world that would have you believe that any femme in a skirt is a hypersexualized slut, that “slut” is an intrinsically bad thing, that they are “asking for it.” But rather, you just teach her there’s something wrong with the skirt. Hell naw.

margaritas-and-microwave-pizzas: I <3 Fashion Nefera...

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 08:06:27 -0400

margaritas-and-microwave-pizzas:

I <3 Fashion Nefera designs, DONE!

I like to think that when Nefera was a world-class model, she’d get her servants to ask (intimidate, or steal) her favorite, most silly and opulent ensembles, thus the last gown.

aghhh so perfect

I think Skelita design is awesome!! Dia de Muertos has nothing to do with religion. It's a prehispanic tradition here in México. What we celebrate on Dia de Muertos are our relatives who already passed away. Papel picado (her skirt) and sugar skulls have no religious meaning at all, they are used to represent the good and sad things in life. I know this cause I'm mexican xoxo

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 02:00:30 -0400

Day of the Dead isn't a strictly religious holiday - because of its close proximity to the Catholic holidays of All Saints Day and All Souls Day and the huge Catholic population in Mexico, many incorporate religious elements into it, but it isn't a strictly Catholic holiday. Its actually pretty secular and incorporates elements of many cultures and belief system into it - its actually believed to be based off an ancient Aztec festival for the goddess of the underworld.

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:36:59 -0400

When I first saw Skelita I thought "She's cute and doesn't look like yet another appropriative mod w/ full-on facepaint and nothing else to do with DDLM!" I don't really see her as appropriative, since she her design is only a little inspired by the DDLM imagery (and as far as I know the papel picado her skirt looks like isn't solely a religious thing). But I can only voice my opinion as a Mexican-American, and I don't know how people who live in Mexico and celebrate DDLM feel.

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:59:56 -0400

I've been assuming Skelita is based on Day of the Dead celebrations, which are different depending on the region of Mexico you are in. My family doesn't really treat the calavera decorations as religious or anything, so to me Skelita isn't really offensive. I'm really waiting on her bio so we can know more about what she's based on. But I do know people who take Day of the Dead very seriously, so I'm not sure how they would feel.

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:35:00 -0400

Is Skelita's sugar skull face awesome or appropriative? I mean she seems to be Mexican but on the other hand it's sort of religious imagery and idk idk, I'm way to white for this.

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:23:00 -0400

hey there. of your two mods here at deadfast, one of us is white (R) and the other is oneida/native (L, currently typing). so it’s not really our place to speak up definitively on this issue since it’s not part of either of our heritages.

the designer apparently based skelita on her own family heritage according to this post here, but idk what impact that has on the matter. but i’m happy to open the forum for input from people who are mexican and want to talk about this. send in an ask and let us know how you feel. same with jinafire long. anyone chinese that wants to weigh in on her, let us know. this blog will always provide a space for poc to talk about racism.

pro tip: if it ain’t your heritage in question, don’t submit. if i see the words “well, i’m white, but i think—” i’m gonna delete so fast, you don’t even know.

cleaned up the promo shots found here (thank you to...

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 04:01:08 -0400

cleaned up the promo shots found here (thank you to pocketsizeguys for the link!) and smushed them all together. here’s hoping that posting this won’t get us another ~copyright violation warning~ eh mattel?

STILL BITTER ABOUT IT TBH

passion-poison: Monster High™ - Night of a Thousand Dots (by...

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:24:43 -0400

passion-poison:

Monster High™ - Night of a Thousand Dots (by MonsterHigh)

Oh Cleo, I just love you.

oh my god look what i found in the archive

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:17:49 -0400