MH Catty Noir - Racist?

[LittleSpiffy]

I just started collecting Monster High dolls and fell in love with Catty Noir.

I just added her to my collection today.

A showed a picture of the doll to a friend of mine and she thinks the doll is racist...because she is black, has a tail, and is dressed all glitzy (?!)

I tried my best to explain that it is an anthropomorphic black cat who is a pop star like Katy Perry or Niki Minaj.

I am just so flustered.  I'm not racist, the doll isn't racist, what the heck?!

edit: changed the title

[Strawberry Swirl]

I'm not a MH expert but can you show me a picture of the doll?

I'm sure it's not racist (if it were, how would they be allowed to be sold?) but there could be some underlying aspects that
we're unaware of.

[Bekuno]

I think she may be confusing it with 'black face' which is where a person of ethnicity other than african-american paints their face in a 'stereotypical' fashion to represent an african-american person. They often make their skin dark, too dark, and give them large lips. It's very offensive. You can learn more on wikipedia.

Is Catty Noir supposed to represent a black cat? I'm no MH expert (only own one doll lol) but I looked up photos for her.
I think you might just want to explain that Monster High has to do with mythical monsters and superstions like Black cats, werwolves, vampires, etc. and that she is just a black cat.

[LittleSpiffy]

I'm not a MH expert but can you show me a picture of the doll?

I'm sure it's not racist (if it were, how would they be allowed to be sold?) but there could be some underlying aspects that
we're unaware of.

Here's something I found on Google:  http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/akbETLe8ql4/maxresdefault.jpg

I think she may be confusing it with 'black face' which is where a person of ethnicity other than african-american paints their face in a 'stereotypical' fashion to represent an african-american person. They often make their skin dark, too dark, and give them large lips. It's very offensive. You can learn more on wikipedia.

Is Catty Noir supposed to represent a black cat? I'm no MH expert (only own one doll lol) but I looked up photos for her.
I think you might just want to explain that Monster High has to do with mythical monsters and superstions like Black cats, werwolves, vampires, etc. and that she is just a black cat.

Ya know, I wasn't thinking of black face - I can totally see how someone could think that now.

I did my best describing  MH and pulled up a pic of Clawdeen Wolf and asked "do you think this is racist?"  "no...she doesn't have a tail." (???)

Ah well, yeah, I can see how someone who doesn't have a clue what MH is could think Catty was black face inspired :/

[Strawberry Swirl]

Seconding Bekuno's statement. I can see how your friend confused it with blackface, though-

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I think she's pretty cute myself, but the pink lipstick was a poor choice.

[NinaMarie]

What confuses me is how Catty Noir having a tail makes her a racist doll....

Honestly you have nothing to worry about because this person is obviously a nut.

[Razena]

Monster High also made a white werecat named Catrine.  Since Catrine has a tail does your friend think she is racist as well?

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[dragonlady]

Your friend is reading into it a bit too much; as the others said Catty is an anthro cat girl, no more, no less. She's only black as Mattel was playing with the "bad luck" theme with her; her boots and bodice resemble broken glass and she was released on a Friday the 13th.

There are also 5 other cat girls in the line (well 4 and a create a monster) and they all have tails. I wonder what she would think of Wydonna who's a black spider girl?

[MikeysGrrrl]

I don't see anything racist about any of these dolls, I honestly think that some people just have to look for something to complain about, always trying to find fault with other things (no offence to your friend).

Mind you, I do own about 23 of them, which may make me seem a little biased towards them lol,  sadly I don't have Catty or Catrine

[LittleSpiffy]

What confuses me is how Catty Noir having a tail makes her a racist doll....

Honestly you have nothing to worry about because this person is obviously a nut.

  Or she was just messing with me

[Strawberry Swirl]

I wonder what she would think of Wydonna who's a black spider girl?

Probably the same, to be honest. She has red lipstick and a solid black skin color, so I can see how she'd be mistaken for blackface.

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As I said with the previous doll, I think the red shades of lipstick were a poor choice, but otherwise I see nothing wrong.
Heck, I might start collecting these things now. They're really pretty. ouo

[barbgirl1999]

I think even the blackface thing is pushing it.  When you take .3 seconds to actually look at the dolls, instead of immediately jumping on the offended bandwagon, you can easily see that they aren't in blackface...they are black.  Black cats are a thing, as are black spiders with red markings, lol. 

[OLumeVaSti]

Maybe she is thinking the tail is like a monkey's tail. I can't remember what doll it was years back caused a bunch of problems with the PC police. People like to make something out of the little things.

[Taxel]

This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day. o.o

[AnnetheCatDetective]

I... guess I could see how at a VERY quick glance it could be mistaken for blackface, but only if you didn't see the ears. I think Catty is very obviously a cat, and not racist (I'm not sure how they could have done the lips to avoid that potential issue without making her look weird/throwing off her color scheme... maybe giving her silver lipstick instead of pink? The only other way would be to give her a cat mouth, but all the other catgirls have human-style lips...)

Personally I don't think she (or Wydonna) really resemble blackface that closely, but she does have very full lips, and perhaps if you were looking at a blurry/small picture that throws off your perception, and if her hair was hiding her ears, you might miss that (though there is certainly nothing stereotypically racist about her hair)... But, I have to admit that I am not as tuned into that as someone who would have been hurt by racist imagery in the past, and that can also affect what someone sees when they look at these dolls. So I would never want to try to invalidate someone's feelings if they are coming from a place of hurt, especially because I have not experienced that firsthand.

I think Catty is really a lovely doll in hand, and I only ever saw a cat when I looked at her-- I am sure that the manufacturers only ever intended for her to be a cute kitty girl doll, and that no one on the design team would ever want to put out something hurtful like that.

But if someone feels differently and they are honestly offended, then I could only try to explain as best I could-- without telling them their feelings were wrong-- that I think they've seen something that was never intended, and that it would be a misinterpretation to view Catty as if she was a human.

(here's an owner picture where you can see how her hair sometimes kind of tries to hide her ears, which is one thing that could complicate things if someone saw her and didn't understand she was a cat I guess? Compare her to Toralei, who is also a catgirl-- well, weretiger-- and has similar features but her fur isn't black)
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