Storie gotiche e alienazione sociale: Lo strano caso di Barbie e di Monster High

The core issue that characterizes Gothic tales is represented by the paranoid component. The scenario that emerges is an hostile, distressing, and out of control world, that undermines the ontological security to existing. The subjective experience is to be in the middle of a nightmare: it results to be distressing not only because it undermines the integrity of the self, but also because of it is crazy and unreal. Insanity, loss of contact with reality, inability to distinguish between internal and external world, characterize both paranoid instances, both the most successful gothic tales. In this framework, Gothic Self becomes minimal, with very little possibilities of action being reduced to two alternatives: a burst of unconditional aggression that takes on the traits of psychopathy, and an escape from reality towards dissociation and schizophrenia (Punter, 1996). The integration in the social world thus emerges as senseless, or as a possibility propped up only from falsehood and hypocrisy; the only real alternative is the one that goes toward alienation, toward the gap to each system of values and every human aggregation (Moore, 2004). Today, these instances are visible in the so-called Gothic Identity Pattern (GIP). GIP derives from characters of Gothic Novels (e.g., ghost, vampire, zombie, the psychopath, femme fatal), and gives shape to current youth look, fashion, and lifestyles, defining specific subcultures (e.g., “Heavy Metal” and “Goth”) (Baddeley, 2006; Martín, 2002). The GIP has been neglected by academic psychology, while it was clearly faced in Folk Psychology that blames Gothic subculture for increasing young people’s propensity to both internalize (e.g., depression, substance abuse, self-injury behaviors, and suicide) and externalize problems (e.g., aggression and antisocial attitudes) (Cohen, 2002). The aim of this study was to analyze social representations of GIP, referring to popular dolls that are sharply Gothic (i.e., Monster High by Mattel) compared to other sharply classic dolls (i.e., Barbie by Mattel). Monster High, along with Barbie, are present in all the department stores and shopping centers that provide an effective space for toys, as well as in small retail outlets such as stationers. Our research question was related to the different narratives that these two kinds of dolls carry within them, and might suggest in a symbolic or sociodramatic play. More specifically, we aimed to investigate whether and how Monster High, as opposed to Barbie, activate allocation of a Gothic identity model, in which social alienation and detachment are central. 91 young adults (56 girls, M age = 23:30 years, SD = 1.96 years) were shown two dolls (e.g., Barbie and Monster High) using a randomized order, then they were asked through a questionnaire to recount tastes, interests, activities, and personality characteristics of the two dolls. Results seemed to confirm that Monster High, as compared to Barbie, was able to elicit specific Gothic patterns: Barbie was told as a young woman, full of relational interests, linked to fashion activities and to a privileged economic status; otherwise, Monster High is identified as a teenager, with psychological characteristics that markedly connect her to the period of adolescence (e.g., difficulty in expressing own emotions to others, interest in solitary activities, preference for activities that elicit strong emotions). While Barbie is centered in the achievement of her long-term goals because she knows what she wants, Monster High is the teenager who feels the change that is going through and she lives this condition as an emotional confusion, trying hard to hold together the different parts of the Self.