the downfall of girly media

 i was working on this document for sooooo long its crazy and i think i eventually might make this into a video or maybe a slide show, im not to sure but here it is

What is girly media?

Before i get into the topic of this it's very important that i first define what exactly is girly media

I define girly media as art or entertainment with a target audience of girls, young women or just women in general AND any piece of art or entertainment with a hyper feminine aesthetic even if the target audience aren't specifically women.

The birth of girly media

So in order for me to talk about the downfall it's important for me to briefly touch upon the roots.

So because of how broad the definition is it's hard to specifically pin point the beginnings of girly media. For as long as art and entertainment has existed there have always been things created for girls and things created for boys. So due to this i’m just going focus mainly on tv shows, movies, cartoons, games, books, and toys, as these are the most popular forms of art and entertainment in general, and this would be more relevant to what i’m talking about because if i were to include paintings, fashion, music and etc this would be so ridiculously long i’d be like 90 by the time this was finished. Also i’m only going to mention the significant stuff because there is alot of girly media in the world and i can't possibly mention them all, i’m going to mainly mention the stuff that have defined eras and i may or may not mention copy cats.

Without further ado lets talk about the “birth” of girly media 

So i’m going to say that girly media as we know it didnt really start till like the 1800s- ish to 1930s ish!~

There were alot of notable things that happened this era

As mentioned in jordy mcneill’s video “the evolution of online dress up games” there was little fanny in 1810 who was the first manufactured paper doll

There were also porcelain dolls that were popular in the 1800s to around the year 1900,

Apparently rag dolls have been a thing since the 1st to 5th century AD

But yeah dolls have been around for a longggg time even in the BC’s thats how old dolls are in general 

The cute but also unsettling kewpie dolls were created this time as well.

Now lets talk animation, betty boop, minnie mouse and daisy duck would be created during this time as well.

In terms of books there was little women, the wizard of oz, alices aventures in wonderland, anne of green gables, pippi longstocking, pride and prejudice, the secret garden, nancy drew and etc.

I’d argue the most significant girly film made during this time was “it” it's free on youtube and personally i found it very enjoyable and i wasnt expecting to like it because it's a silent film, but it wasnt too hard to get into it as it stars the legendary clara bow

It's really hard to define this era, as there wasnt alot of multimedia franchises yet and there were alot of silent films being made as “talkies” were not a thing yet. I will say, that it's interesting how alot of the popular girly stories focused alot on the perspective of girls or teen aged women. In terms of toys it was really just focused on baby dolls and etc. the girly media of this time seems to really focus on gender roles and alot of the stereotypes people have about women and how they are expected to act can be traced here and even earlier! there also wasn't lots of media created for adolescents, you were either a kid or an adult. We will come back to this!

Baby girly steps (1940s-1950s)

The reason why i'm calling it that is because this era really is when companies started to realize how profitable girly media could be. And lots of future iconic/ legendary girly media were born this time

Some of the most significant girly media created this time were

Paper dolls were in as Jordy Mcneill puts it there “golden age”, which is very important as paper dolls are basically the grandmother of the online dress up games we know and love

Disney princesses like snow white (even though it was released in 1937 it's impact is more felt in this era than the previous), cinderella and sleeping beauty really changed things not just for girly media but also for animation as a whole

The very legendary and also notorious 1939 live action wizard of oz movie was released 

Barbie!!! Barbie really changed the game when it came to dolls and is one of the earliest fashion dolls, she was released at the end of the era but still is considered a staple of this era despite that due to her debut being a huge success 

Wonder womens first appearance would be in october 1941

This era is notable as girly media was sort of trying to find it's footing and lots of successful things got their start during this era and this was the war/ post war era so that definitely influenced tv and movies 

The rise of kawaii culture (1960s-1970s)

This era saw a notable amount of kawaii girly media being created

Some of the most significant girly media created this time were

Bewitched was a popular american sitcom that was released during the 60s and is very important in the history of girly media as it was the show that would inspire the creation of the entire magical girl genre with the first magical girl in literature being Himitsu no Akko-chan or Secrets of Akko-chan being released as a manga in 1962 and the first magical girl show being Mahoutsukai Sally or Sally the witch released as an anime in 1966, both creators of each have stated that the show bewitched inspired them to make it, which is really interesting how the magical genre came from the witch trope/ character type

The 70s is when sanrio started to establish itself and hello kitty was created in 1974, this coincides with the rise of kawaii culture and the rise of shoujo anime

During this time barbie was having alot of rip offs and copy cats trying to achieve her level of success, none of her copy cats or rip offs would really make an impact at this time. Barbie was also being criticized by some feminists that said that she represented a rigged version of what a girl is supposed to be and she would only show one type of femininity, i would say that at this time these criticism were somewhat valid as barbie wasnt yet as progressive as she would be later on.

Sabrina the teenage witch was also created during this time

In movies there was obviously girly media but one i find personally notable is carrie because it's very popular girly and horror media

In 1976 the wonder women tv show was released

And In terms of books the very notable ramona quimby series was created

This era is very important as it saw the rise of the magical girl genre which is a staple of and one of the most popular genres in girly media, it also shows early signs of feminists and their critiques and future hatred for girly media. Also before we move forward i do want to say i do not hate feminism, i think most people would and most importantly should agree that men and women should have equal and equitable rights, and that is at the core of feminism however there are different types of feminism and some types of feminism i don't really agree with, but we will talk more about this later as the clashing of “feminism” and girly media becomes a huge deal in later decades.

The girly franchise boom (1980s)

The 80s saw a rise in the franchise, franchises were everywhere especially when it came to toys.

Some of the most significant girly media created this time were

My little pony made it's debut with the toy my pretty pony, and after that MLP gen 1 was born!!! And my little pony obviously turned out to be a huge success.

Care bears created by american greetings would be a huge success spawning tv specials and lots of merch

Strawberry shortcake was also created by american greetings in the 70s but would be a total money maker in the 80s with stickers, bikes, dolls, tv specials and etc

In 1984 hallmark released rainbow brite, rainbow brite was allegedly created to go up against strawberry shortcake, unlike most of the things on this list, rainbow brite was really popular in the 80s but failed to be popular in other decades with consistently failed reboots

She-ra the sister of the iconic he-man (which i used to watch both on qubo night owl when i was veeeeeery little) made it's debut in 1985 and was one of the first action figure type shows designed for girls

Jem and the holograms created by hasbro also released in 1985 was a huge success, so successful that in mattel would release barbie and the rockers in order to directly compete with jem, and in this case, jem would end up becoming more popular than barbie and the rockers, it didnt end up becoming more popular than barbie as a whole but at least it managed to survive mattels attempt at basically destroying it. The wiki stating “Mattel rushed the Barbie and the Rockers line into production, with Mattel's line reaching store shelves before Hasbro's Jem products could; rumors have circulated for years as to how Mattel was able to beat Hasbro to the punch (one theory involving corporate espionage in Hong Kong, where both companies had toy factories in close proximity).” 

Also in 1985, nintendos Princess peach was Introduced

In literature the iconic babysitters club books written by ann m martin were released in 1986, 

There was also the aurora and spectra dolls that were space themed and they were allegedly rivals but none of them made a huge impact on girly media but it is notable how doll vs doll rivalry was starting to bubble up

This was also the era when the term chick flick was “born”, chick flicks have existed for a long time as i stated there have always been films made for women but this is when the term started to be used more commonly, and the term initially and you could argue that to this day, has a pretty negative connotation. A chick flick is basically a movie that is mainly marketed to women and focuses on themes that are traditionally associated with women. The term was used in a negative way and movies labeled as chick flicks were considered to be worse or not as good as male centered movies, chick flicks are almost never thought of as prestigious and don't really get respect mainly for the fact that it's FOR WOMEN, not because they are bad but because it's for girls it's automatically not as respectable or as good as male centered movies. Chick flicks are a staple of and very important to girly media.

Some of the popular chick flicks during this time were, sixteen candles, pretty in pink, when harry met sally, Steel Magnolias, Working Girl, Dirty Dancing, and Flashdance.

I would also say that elvira, annie, fatal attraction, heathers and the princess bride were some notable girly movies.

The 80s really laid the groundwork for future girly media and how girly media is marketed, especially for young girls, this era saw the rise in creating full on movie or tv shows in order to market their products, they were basically big budget ads, but i don't like to say that because i still see them as real shows and alot of these shows at least what i grew up with was pretty good in my opinion (and i'm not talking only about the 80s i mean like monster high and mlp gen 4 and etc). This era also foreshadows the future rivalries, and sabotage between companies. Another thing this foreshadows is all the copycats that were created in order to compete with all the popular girly media. And unfortunately for the majority of art and entertainment, the works that were created for and by men have almost always been way more respected than the works created by and for women, but unlike back than, the 80s were a bit more progressive so they wouldn't admit it out right so instead they created a term that would basically be a way of someone telling you a movie is bad because it's girly without directly telling you that, we will come back to this.

The start of Girl Power™ (1990s)

Girly media during this time had a huge theme of empowerment

By far the most famous magical girl of all time sailor moon debuted in 1991 as a manga and in 1992 as an anime, sailor moon is one of the most popular and earliest examples of magical girls being superheroes and being more distinctive than witches, sailor moon revolutionized the magical girl genre, shes the first person you think of when you think of magical girls

While she isnt the most famous she is definitely among the most famous magical girls ever, Cardcaptor sakura debuted in 1996 as a manga and as an anime in 1998

Another thing released in 1998 was The Powerpuff girls tv series, this show was compared to sailor moon and buffy the vampire slayer for having a “girl power” theme, however on powerpuff girls wiki it states “Craig McCracken argued that he did not create the show to fill a gap in the market encompassed by the "Girl Power" slogan, but that its true vehicle was "good, strong characters" that made for good storytelling. However, he did believe that it gained momentum from being considered a "girl power" cartoon, and that it became successful among boys and girls for the inclusion of action scenes.” 

Tamagotchi was released in 1996 and is a staple of the 90s and 2000s

Polly pocket was released in 1989 but really made a huge impact in the 90s

American girl also released in the 80s in 1986 wouldnt really become a cultural staple until the 90s

Littlest pet shop was also released during this era aswell

The 90s was the era of the disney renaissance with films such as The Little Mermaid (released in 1989 but was most impactful in the 90s), Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Mulan being huge successes

The live action sitcom Sabrina the teenage witch would be released in 1996 and was extremely popular and probably is the most popular version of the sabrina the teenage witch story

Buffy the vampire slayer was released in 1997 and received critical and commercial success becoming extremely popular and is one of the most popular and influential teen dramas ever

Other shows that were very popular and significant to girly media in this era were: the nanny, charmed, and 90210

In 1997 the first movie to reach 1 billion in the box office and one of the highest grossing movies of all time, Titanic was released. Needless to say it's one of the most famous and probably the most famous romance film of all time and it is extremely important to girly media. The movie was loved primarily by women and this caused the movie to receive some backlash, Bob chipman says  “Let's be very honest about something. The quickest way for any work of art, fiction, or other pop culture ephemera to cease being taken seriously is for the broader culture to intuit that it was made for or enjoyable by women, especially teenage girls. This is not up for debate, we're not adding a feminist argument here, all you need to do is live in the culture and look around a little, and you already know this is a fact."

Other movies released that are extremely important to girly media were: clueless, jawbreaker, 10 things i hate about you, my best friends wedding, never been kissed and shes all that

Kiss or Kisekae Set System was really the first version of an ONLINE dress up game, you could say, the mother of dress up games. This was a drag and drop type of game and would typically feature characters from popular shoujo anime or manga

This era saw the rise of girl power, and female empowerment was a common theme in 90s, with the rise of magical girls as super heroes and female characters fighting and using powers to defend themselves and the people they love like in sailor moon, buffy the vampire slayer and powerpuff girls (even if it wasnt intentional, powerpuff girls definitely has a girl power theme). This era also saw the rise of technology and the birth of ONLINE dress up games.

The Golden Age Of Girly Media (2000s - 2015)

  This era saw the release of sooo much girly media and so many interesting concepts and ideas that it’ll be very hard to cover all of the significant stuff but i’ll try my best

In 2001 the legendary doll line bratz was released by mga and it was groundbreaking at the time for it's diversity and focus on current “hip” fashion trends

Due to the popularity of bratz, barbie’s sales and popularity was starting to decline, so as a response to bratz mattel would release myscene in 2002, myscene was very popular but it's really a product of it's time and didnt end up reaching the cultural relevance of bratz, myscene is more remembered for it's section on the everything girl website and for being a knock off bratz.

As a result of this mga would sue mattel claiming that myscene was a copy, during this time mga changed the bratz slogan from “ the girls with a passion for fashion” to “The only girls with a passion for fashion”

Mattel did not like this and decided that they would sue Mga for 500 million claiming that they technically owned bratz because carter bryant the creator of bratz was working for mattel when he came up with the concept, as a result mga would thankfully not lose half a billion dollars but they would lose 100 million and ownership of the entire bratz brand as it was now owned by their biggest rival, mattel.

As a result of this tragedy, mga would release moxie girls in 2009 in order to replace bratz

In 2011 mga regained ownership of bratz and sued mattel, mga would be awarded 310 million in damages

Honestly when all this was happening i was just a kid and i thought that all of this was just fans trying to get them to fight and i didnt like that because i loved both bratz and barbie but as i got older and found out that they legally were fighting it was interesting to me. Something very notable was since this was the age of the internet, as a result of all these legal issues fans would take sides, it's bratz vs barbie, who do you pick? This would be something that would continue and till this day, there are still fan wars.

In 2005 holly hobbie and friends was created based on the 1960s american greetings character, and yes she was popular in the 60s but i mention her now because she is more well known for her 2005 reboot and hasnt had that much impact in the 60s to be mentioned

Sonny angel would launch in 2004

Strawberry shortcake would have a successful reboot in 2003

Carebears would also have a successful reboot in 2007

And in 2010 one of the most popular girly cartoons ever and one of the best cartoons ever (and my favorite piece of media ever)  my little pony friendship is magic or mlp gen 4 would be released by hasbro to massive global success

In 2012 hasbro would release the controversial but nonetheless popular littlest pet shop tv series which was based on the extremely popular littlest pet shop toys and the less mainstream blythe dolls, this show was controversial which both fans who weren't so keen on this collaboration but it was still very popular outside of that 

In the year 2000 disney would create the disney princess line which would feature merchandise like dolls, books, games and etc based on the most popular disney princesses

In 2010 mga would release the successful fashion rag doll line lalaloopsy, 

Also In 2010 mattel would change the toy industry forever with the release of monster high, monster high was a huge massive global success, at one point the brand was worth 1 billion dollars. Like all the other popular doll lines released during this era, monster high would have lots of copy cats, however compared to other toys in this era monster high probably had the most

The two most notorious copy cats were released by none other than mga, bratzillaz which i made a video about was released in 2012 and failed to take down monster high, novi stars also released in 2012 was a bit more original but still had a similar dark aesthetic that monster high popularized but it managed to outlast bratzillaz and has a pretty strong cult following in the doll community.

Throughout the 90s and 2000s and 2010s barbie would have multiple movies released, the concept was that barbie was an actress and she was playing the main roles in all her films. In 2012 mattel would release barbie life in the dream house, which was very popular online and still is heavily used in meme culture on the girly side of the internet.

Lego friends would launch in 2012, when i first saw the lego friends show i was obsessed with the aesthetic of the world and the small town vibes. I don't know why but it feels like the boxcar children but yassified. 

American girl would launch the girl of the year campaign

Hasbro would create the successful equestria girls line as a way to expand the mlp brand and the allegedly gave them colorful skin tones in order to compete with monster high, this was a huge controversy in the fandom but again like with lps, it was still very popular especially with it's target audience. I knew about this information for a long time and i was always confused as to why hasbro wanted to start beef with mattel for no reason but as i researching about the downfall on girly media and i learned about what happened with jem, i can understand why hasbro wanted to give mattel a little more competition.

In 2013 mattel would release the very popular ever after high doll line but this offended disney

But in order to understand why disney was upset you have to first realize that mattel was making the disney princess dolls and after a while they started to lower the quality of the dolls and than released ever after high, so disney was very upset because mattel lowered the quality of their dolls and than released their own fairy tale inspired doll line and disney is notoriously protective of fairy tales as pretty much the entire legacy of disney was built off of it, so disney being upset and all, decided to no longer work with mattel, causing mattel to lose half a billion dollars and disney would chose to work with hasbro instead. Causing us to get some truly… in my opinion not very good looking dolls.

And disney didnt stop there, they would allegedly rush the release of descendants (which was thought of before ever after high came out) and descendants being owned by disney easily destroyed ever after high despite it being objectively worse than ever after high in pretty much every way possible.

Now lets move on to tv shows

Totally spies was released in 2001 and was a great success another popular spy show released in 2002 and that was kim possible

Dora the explorer would be very popular in this era as well another kids show sofia the first, sofia first was one of those shows that every girl acted like it was one of the greatest pieces of media ever, like that show won emmys in my house.

In 2004 one of the most popular magical girl shows winx club was released and was extremely globally popular

However w.i.t.c.h the comic book series was released in 2001 by disney italy and was also popular but not nearly as popular or as impactful as winx, at least now

Disney being disney would sue the creators of winx and accuse them of copying w.i.t.c.h. 

The lawsuit was resolved in favor of winx but the fandoms would be in war ever since

Speaking of magical girls tokyo mew mew would debut as a manga in the year 2000 and as an anime in the year 2002, tokyo mew mew is very popular in the magical girl community

The precure franchise would start with futari wa pretty cure in 2004 and would continue on till this day being a staple of the magical girl genre.

Madoka magica would be released in 2011 and is one of the most popular “edgy” magical girl shows and it's really what popularized the trend of the dark magical girl

Lolirock was released in 2014 and despite it not being a huge success it has a very strong cult following and is a great example of how vicious and extreme the fans were, as lolirock was called a copy of pretty much every single magical girl show under the sun and even ones that came out after it like star vs the forces of evil and miraculous ladybug

Miraclous ladybug and star vs the forces of evil would both be released in 2015 at the end of the era and are considered some of the most popular magical girls especially during this time.

H20 just add water was released in 2006 and was very successful spawning 2 spin offs one of them also being successful called mako mermaids

Hannah montana also released in 2006 was a huge success during this time and paved the way for other disney channel shows

Some of the most popular disney channel shows this era was shake it up, jessie, and good luck charlie

Another disney channel show that was a huge success was thats so raven released in 2003, thats so raven was very impactful during it's time and influenced many disney channel shows and movies

Outside of disney channel some popular girly shows this era were: gilmore girls, gossip girl, pretty little liars, desperate house wives, jane the virgin, downtown abbey (my mom really liked that one), scream queens, the vampire diaries and sex and the city (even though it came out in 1998 it's influence is mainly felt in this era)

Film adaptations of books have always been popular but a large amount of girly media this era was based on books like the princess diaries, cheetah girls, legally blonde, the sisterhood of the traveling pants, coraline, bridget jones diary, freaky friday and some of the most popular examples of this being the massive globally successful hunger games and twilight film series

Mean girls was based on queen bees and wannabes a book for parents to understand girl world, mean girls was a sleeper hit and would end up becoming a cultural phenomenon being one of the most popular high school movies of all time and my personal favorite movie of all time

There were also popular movies that werent based on books like 13 going on 30, jennifers body, white chicks and pitch perfect.

Mamma mia was released in 2008 and was also very succesful

Disney would really go fourth with it's girl empowerment message releasing the princess and the frog,lilo and stitch, tangled, brave, enchanted and probably the most popular girly movie of this era frozen. Frozen was a huge deal and would make 1 billion in the box office breaking records.

Wreck it ralph was released in 2012 and was a success 

Disney pixar would release inside out in 2015 which was very successful and also critically acclaimed 

This era would also foreshadow something that would later be oversaturated and turned into a huge problem, live action remakes. During this era we would see disney remake maleficent, alice in wonderland, and cinderella, 

In terms of games mobile games would be popular towards the end of the era and flash games were popular pretty much throughout this entire era, in 2001 dollz or dollzmania was created, it was reminiscent of the KISS dress up games except the art style was pixelated and had a very 2000s look to it.

Than there was roiworld and eloui that also had dress up games but with a very unique art style

Avatar star sue was also created during this time

Other popular girly flash games were devilish hair dresser and office slacking (i literally see no one talking about this game and it makes me kinda sad because i loved the office slacking games, even if they would irritate me, i loved the vibe and the game was still fun, i even beat the game once!)

The popular (even though no one talks about it) cocoplay was founded in 2013

Style savvy was released in 2008 again very popular

Animal crossing was released in 2001 and is popular till this day

Virtual worlds were also extremely popular during this era with imvu, webkinz, star stable, fantage, star doll, lady popular, barbie girls, ourworld, woozworld, moshi monsters, miss bimbo and my personal favorite movie star planet at some point i think it was the most popular virtual world for girls during this time but i'm not 100% sure.

There was also the iconic but frustrating episode.

And in 2000, probably the most popular game loved by women in general, the sims was released.

And we can't forget the extremely nostalgic dress up sites that would create bootleg dress up games that we would love like girlsgogames, rinmaru games, Azalea's Dress-Up Dolls, doll divine and my personal fave starsue.net

Moving on to books there was uglies, confessions of a shopoholic, the princess diaries, twilight, hunger games, after, to all the boys ive loved before, and the clique

In 2009 the iconic dork diaries was released and obviously became very successful

Raina telgemier debuted her most popular books during this time, inspiring many people (like me) to write and create comics (even though i'm more of an animation girly, after reading her books like the baby sitters club and smile and sisters in 5th grade it really inspired me to try and create my own works even though they would turn out horrible) smile was released in 2010, drama was released in 2012, sisters came out in 2014. And as for the babysitters club books she was an illustrator for those, and she illustrated 4 of these books Kristy's Great Idea, The Truth About Stacey, Mary Anne Saves the Day and Claudia and Mean Janine, mary anne was my personal favorite. 

At the end of the era in 2015 the anti barbie, lammily was released and lammily hasnt made much impact but i mention her because her launch and other dolls like her like the tree change dolls for example, were a small signifier of the future cultural hatred of girly media.

And with that we are finally done with this section! This era was truly the best for girly media, this era saw the most innovation and experimentation with concepts and almost all the most popular girly media were original, ive talked about this in a blog video so i wont ramble to much about it here but reboots, remakes, re imaginings, re tellings and etc are not inherently bad, actually my favorite girly media mlp gen 4 is literally reboot. Not all reboots are bad but due to what would happen in the later eras is when it would gain a really negative connotation. Due to all the popular girly media out there, there were alot of copy cats and rip offs being created and there was also soooo much fighting! And i'm not just talking about fandom wars i'm also blaming mainly the companies for starting it in the first place. Instead of trying to co exist, alot of these girly companies would try to straight up try to eliminate each others brands and that caused alot of law suits and alot of money to be lost and alot of cancelled girly media. Most of these copy cats and rip offs would completely flop, i mean not every girly thing can be successful and to be honest most of the rip offs and copy cats were bad and felt really cheap, it's like they didnt even try to not feel like a cash grab. While i may not love all the girly media created during this era (miraculous ladybug) i do love most of it and i'm so happy to have had my childhood and tween hood in this era. Another thing was that the girl power movement was being put into most girly media and most notably with frozen, a huge part of frozens success was that it focused more on the love of sisters and not romantic love and that was pretty refreshing at time, i'm always open to see media talking about sisters and their love for each other especially as an older sister myself. During this era however, there was starting to be some hatred bubbling up against girly media but it wasnt fully realized yet. All in all this era was the best era to be a girly media fan as there was so much media out there and this was arguably the most original era and companies actually took risks and tried to innovate and create new, interesting and fun girly media. 

The War against girly media (2016 - 2019)

Now it's time to talk about the start of the downfall, it's really such a shame that the downfall had to happen right after the golden age because this downfall was extreme, it wasn't a slow decline it was almost immediate. 

In 2016 monster high would have it's first reboot, which was received very negatively by the fans, they basically took away what made monster high, monster high, many fans speculate that this was due to mattel losing so much money, so they had no choice but to discontinue ever after high and reboot monster high

Barbie would start to be alot more progressive during this time, including multiple different face molds, skin colors, hair textures and body types, this was a very positive thing not just for the barbie brand financially but also for girly media as it showed that there wasnt only one type of beautiful which is a good message.

Bratz would reboot at the end of the last era and that carried on through 2016, monster high and bratz faced similar criticism from fans due to how to once groundbreaking doll lines were now basic and devoid of what made them unique in the first place, 

This was not their fault completely as parents have been complaining about bratz and monster high and barbie for decades but it got really bad during this time, as there was a cultural hatred for girly media and girly things in general during this time.

than in 2018 bratz would do something that is almost impossible for most popular girly media, it would reboot and it would be a VERY successful one. The bratz reboot was very well received and helped the brand regain it's cultural influence. Usually when a piece of girly media has a failed reboot, when it reboots for the 2nd time it's usually never received so positively, usually it's received negatively like in the case of rainbow brite or it has mixed reviews like with monster high. So what bratz did is honestly very impressive, it managed to not only regain older fans but it also resonated with and appealed to many newer fans.

Speaking of rainbow brite, the brand had several failed reboots and still struggled during this era.

Other doll lines were released during this time but none of them made a very significant impact like LOL surprise. Lol surprise is one of the very few girly media created during this era that would actually be massively successful and would continue to have success till this day.

The powerpuff girls would have their infamous reboot during this time. This reboot was received very negatively by critics and fans

She ra would reboot in 2018 and was recived positively, another well received reboot was carmen sandiego (the show sounded familiar to me because i noticed that i used to watch a bit of it on qubo but not enough to know much about the lore) and also spirit riding free was another successful reboot and would go on to have 7 seasons.

Dc superhero girls was released in 2019 and didn't do so well commercially, i remember seeing a short of this on tv when i was younger and i was mostly disinterested.

Elena of avalor a spin off of sofia the first was released in 2016 and was decently popular.

Aggretsuko was released in 2018

In 2017 brat tv released chicken girls, they would go on to release total eclipse in 2018, and crown lake in 2019

In 2018 girl from nowhere was released 

Also In 2018 the heathers reboot was released and i did watch it and i did not like it, i thought it had some potential but i feel like it didnt fully understand what the original heathers film was. The reboot was received very negatively

In 2017 riverdale based on the archie comics was released and was very popular, the show would go on to be received more and more negatively with each season

In 2018 the chilling adventures of sabrina based on sabrina the teenage witch was released, it was received  better than riverdale but it generally had some mixed reviews especially when it came to the final season 

The handmaid’s tale based on the 1985 novel of the same name was released in 2017 to critical acclaim

Also in 2017 Dynasty based on the 1980s soap opera was released.

While the previous era saw the rise in film adaptations of books, this era saw the rise of film adaptations of fanfictions like 50 shades of grey (though released in 2015, the rest of the movies were released in this era), kissing booth, and after. All of these were not received positively for obvious reasons.

In 2016 trolls based of the toy was released

During this era disney would barely release any original media , their biggest releases of this era being frozen 2, beauty and the beast,  alice through the looking glass, aladdin, lady and the tramp, ralph breaks the internet, and maleficent mistress of evil. They did fortunately release moana which was a new and original disney princess.

In 2017 love nikki was released to favorable reviews 

In 2017 wonder women was released

Also In 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was released

Little women based on the 1868 novel was released in 2019

Mamma mia here we go again a sequel to mamma mia was released in 2018

A star is born based on the 1937 movie was also released in 2018

In 2018 a film adaptation of the 2013 novel Crazy rich asians was released

Also in 2018 a film adaptation of the 2014 novel to all the boys ive loved before was released.

Some popular original movies of this era were, lady bird, lalaland, the greatest showman and the princess switch.(i know that the princess switch movies arent the best but when they came out me and my sister watched them all because we missed watching new girly stuff and not sure if you noticed but there was barely anything original during this era)

Unlike the previous era, this era focused almost exclusively on adaptations, remakes, sequels and reboots, marking an end to originality. I’m not saying that all of these reboots and such are bad but i am saying that it is a problem that it's not being balanced out. The unoriginal media shouldnt be the majority of the media released, actually the majority of the media released should be original like in other eras. The oversaturation in the golden age caused much of the girly media released that era to be cancelled and fail financially and all of the legal battles that era didnt help. As a result of this, companies became afraid of taking risks on original media and as disney has shown with the last era, remakes, reboots and adaptations can be very profitable, causing pretty much the whole era to be focused on unoriginality instead of innovation and originality like the previous era. Another huge problem was the cultural hatred for girly media. In 2016 the tensions were high and feminism was becoming more of a common ideology especially with the 2016 election. During this era disney princesses ,barbie and girly media as whole was being heavily criticized for stereotyping girls. Now as i mentioned in the rise of kawaii culture, this is not the first time that feminism has had issues with girly media, and i would even say that some of the initial complaints were very valid, however i think we as women need to have an uncomfortable conversation about how we treat girly girls and by extension girly media. The golden age of girly media showed a variety of different types of women at varying levels of femininity, yet they were still being critiqued for showing a rigged version of femininity and thats honestly insane, like for example my little pony and lego friends and monster high showed different types of girls with different personalities and interests. There were valid critiques at this time, especially with how girly media often showed only one body type, but you know what i have always wondered? Why is it always women and girly media that get criticized for showing only one body or a rigged version of femininity when male centered media does that for masculinity? The ideal man in male centered media is always a guy who is super buff and very stereotypically masculine, but no one seems to really talk about it? It's always women who get hate for it. We could even extend this to music, like in kpop for example, men always do the bad boy concept and darker concepts, but girl groups show a variety of concepts and yet, the girl groups that have cute concepts like twice are always criticized for not having a girl crush concept like black pink, but why isnt black pink criticized for only doing girl crush concepts. It's honestly so unfair that some people think that by being feminine or by liking girly media that you're holding women back and that you don't like women when that's literally not true? Why would someone who likes things associated with women hate them? It's a very weird, wrong and quite frankly an anti women thing to imply that you have to act masculine or in other words you have to act in a way that is associated with men to be respected. A women shouldnt have to be anything to get respect, you should get respect because you're a person. We also have a huge problem that I made a blog video about so go watch that if you want more in depth on this but why is it expected that women and men can watch male centered media but only women can watch girly media? That's basically saying that girly media isnt good enough or worthy enough to have anyone else like it other women, and that does a disservice to girly media and prevents it from being taken seriously. Another critique was about falling in love, it's not weak to want romantic love, romantic love, familial love and platonic love do not feel the same and different people may value different forms of love over the other, just because you don't really care for romantic love doesnt mean it's bad that someone else wants it, there is a difference between desperation and want and we shouldnt confuse the two. Girly media was being ripped to shreds during this time. Men have always hated it and now women with internalized misogyny disguised as feminism were also hating it, it was a terrible time for girly media. It honestly upsets me how women are expected to address every single societal issue and to please everyone but men are allowed to be straight up offensive and it's considered okay. If you're going to critique the poor body representation in girly media thats okay and thats valid but at least talk about the poor body representation in male centered media as well. I would argue it's more important to address issues in male centered media then girly media as most media out there is male centered. In fact you could argue there is media and than there is girly media. Because in a way male culture is the culture especially if we're talking on a global scale.

The girl ghetto page on tv tropes says “There is a prevalent Double Standard most people have regarding media: that women's entertainment should only be enjoyed by women with no crossover allowed — despite it being okay for women to watch shows primarily marketed towards men — keeping in mind almost all media is male-focused. Not to mention the stigma that media specifically tailored for women is 100% guaranteed to be of inferior quality, no exceptions. This line of thinking is very clear in most creators and executives' minds. Men and women could watch shows meant for men/starring a man, but only women could like a female-centered, never mind "girly", show. Watching and enjoying a "girl" show would be unmanly and be subject to ridicule, which brings in homophobia to the mix. Most shows with merchandise usually focus on the male characters being represented way more than female characters due to the double standard…Women-targeted entertainment also has a reputation of being worse than other shows…” 

The end of the dominance of original media, oversaturation and the cultural war against girly media caused a significant change in the amount of girly media created and the risks that companies would be willing to take 

The girly drought (2020 - present)

It's sad to say but after the war on girly media things didnt get much better

In 2020 mga released rainbow high and it was very popular however it seems like rainbow highs popularity has dwindled in recent years as i don't really hear many people outside the doll community talk about it and i feel like it hasnt had as much cultural relevance as the girly media we got in previous eras. Even lol surprise is more popular than rainbow high. I hope in the future rainbow high will be large enough to make a notable impact.

Rainbow high had 2 spin offs, shadow high and pacific coast high, both got cancelled when rainbow high had their slime magical girl reboot and fans are very upset, i'm not even sure why rainbow high rebooted but i think it might've been for financial reasons.

In 2022 mga released mermaze mermaidz and it had alot of hype in the doll community, however when it launched i guess it wasnt very successful, i personally had high hopes, i loved the design of the dolls and i was disappointed when it was cancelled, i really liked the concept and i feel like there is not much popular mermaid media except for the little mermaid and h20 so this was a pretty interesting and creative concept

Another mermaid doll line mermaid high was released a year before in 2021 by spin master, i really thought that mermaid high and mermaze mermaidz were going to be to the next barbie and bratz and i thought that they were going to be huge deals and extremely popular and that it would be the golden age all over again, needless to say i'm way to optimistic for my own good sometimes. As mermaid high was also quietly cancelled

In 2022 monster high would reboot for the 2nd time and this reboot would split the fandom in half, some giving it a chance and liking it and some absolutely hating it.

Also in 2022 hasbro would release my little pony make you're mark or mlp gen 5, this version of mlp has had very mixed reviews, some people hate it, some people like it and some people hate some aspects and like other aspects, it's a very mixed bag

In recent years the blythe doll has been having a resurgence in popularity, the dolls are popular with the coquette community and the doll customization community. 

The owl house was released in 2020 

Strawberry shortcake: berry in the big city was released in 2021

Mermaid magic released in 2024

Totally spies returned for their 7th season in 2024

The live action winx club reboot released in 2021 to extreme negative reception from fans and critics alike

An animated winx club reboot is expected to come out in 2025

Even though euphoria was released in 2019 i feel like it's impact is mainly felt in this era than the previous one

Same goes for sex education which also came out in 2019

Bridgerton came out in 2020 and has been extremely successful

Emily in paris also released in 2020 has negative to mixed reception

Never have i ever again came out in 2020 and was received well and very popular, it's one of my favorite shows ever

Ginny and georgia was released in 2021 to mixed reception, the show has gained a reputation for being “cringe”

In 2022 the summer i turned pretty, based on the novel was released

Also in 2022 probably the biggest show of this era so far, wednesday was released to record breaking success

Disney would notoriously release lots of unoriginal media this era to varying levels of success like mulan, inside out 2, the little mermaid, cruella, the terrible rise of red, a frustratingly successful moana 2 and an upcoming controversial live action snow white, an upcoming live action moana and a potential lilo and stitch live action

However disney would release some original media this era like encanto, turning red, raya the last dragon, and the very poorly received wish

There were also some superhero movies released during this time like wonder women 1984, and birds of prey

There were 2 major biopics released this era the bad one being blonde and the really good one being priscilla

2 remakes that stuck out this era were west side story and mean girls

Alot of the fanfiction movies from the past era were having sequels like after, the kissing booth, and to all the boys ive loved before and i know it's not a fanfiction but it has similar tropes and the sequels were received very negatively because in all honesty they were not good

A fourth hunger games movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was released in 2023

Enola holmes based on sherlock holmes was released in 2020 with it's sequel being released in 2022

Barbie was released in 2023 to massive global success, it unfortunately may be getting a sequel, i actually enjoyed the barbie movie but do we really need a sequel? I think if they make one I won't watch it.

Wicked based on the musical, based on the fanfiction, based on the 1939 movie and the 1900 novel was released in 2024 

It ends with us based on the novel also released 2024 to very mixed, mostly negative reviews, the criticism came from not just the way the film handled such a serious topic but also the way it was marketed as something else. The writer of the novel colleen hoover was also getting hate during this time

Anyone but you was released in 2023 to mixed reviews, i thought it was okay and maybe kinda bad, it's definitely not the best but also not the worst thing, it's whatever i don't really care for it,

Some popular well received and original movies of this era are promising young women, anora and the substance

In 2020 animal crossing new horizons was released

The sims 5 or project rene is yet to have a release date

The undeniable biggest girly game of this era, dress to impress was released

I don't know if anyone has noticed but ive been seeing recent videos by people talking about how they want to create a new girly game and these videos have gotten surprisingly popular, with the creators gaining a relatively small but very loyal fanbase, ive only seen it happen twice but i think it's really interesting

Dibyoshree sakar posted a video in october 2024 talking about how she wants to create a game that will be inspired by her favorite flash games, she wants a dress up game and a cooking game and another mini game i think. It's honestly a really cool idea and she already released the demo of the dress up game. I have been wanting to create a dress up game but it's so much more work, than I realized and it's honestly really cool to see someone else who misses these old girly flash games.

Sophie stardrop posted a video in december 2024 talking about how she wants to create a yandere simulator type of game, and honestly again it's a really cool idea, i hope her game doesnt end up like all the other yandere simulator inspired games because these kinds of games notoriously flop like really bad or they get into some legal beef with yandere dev because hes a weirdo.

This era has pretty much the same problems as the last, with unoriginality dominating girly media and in general just not alot of it being made, it does make me sad to see that some of the girly media with real potential get cancelled or rebooted already. I'm glad that there is some new original girly media that is gaining popularity and attention but it's still not the majority and still very uncommon. The companies are no longer taking huge risks when it comes to girly media, and it seems as though being an independent creator might actually help you when it comes to girly media. Feminism and girly media have been getting along during this era, thank god. Alot of women are learning to unlearn their internalized misogyny and we are becoming more aware of how we treat others who don't fit into our idea of femininity or our idea of a “good” feminist. Lots of stereotypical girly styles have been trending and women feeling comfortable in their femininity and embracing it. However there has been alot of discussion around tween culture with many saying that tween culture is gone and due to the lack of tween culture tweens have to either consume childish media or mature media and most tweens will consume mature media and thats not good as now were seeing them trying to act older than their age and thats not very appropriate. I haven't seen many people talking about how the downfall of girly media has undeniably contributed to the death of tween culture. I mean lets think back to golden age and the two decades before that, alot of the popular girly media created was not too mature to the point where only adults could watch it but it wasn't too childish to the point where teens would feel weird watching, it was in between, which is perfect for older and younger audiences but even more perfect for tweens. Nowadays it seems like the birth of girly media all over again, where tweens and early teens have to choose between acting childish or growing up to fast, you're either a kid or an adult no in between, and thats really unfortunate.

The main issues we have this era are the lack of originality and the lack of girly media in general, we need companies to take risks, because as long as women exist there will always be demand for girly media, always.

Conclusion

And with that we are done with Summing up the history of girly media and it's tragic downfall! But now it's time for predictions! I'm going to give 2 different ones, i'm going to give a positive prediction and a negative one and i also want to know what you think will be the future of girl media

I always i prefer to get the bad news out of the way first and end on a good note, so were going to start with the negative prediction. I think if we keep going down this path, girly media might become a rarity, more so than it already is, because lets be serious, alot of people recently have been talking about how nothing original is coming out, like lottts of people it's a very popular discussion, but you want to know why these companies still do it? Well thats because they keep making money! If you say you want original media but than flock to the theaters when moana 2 is released or any other sequel or remake, you're just all talk! Because the companies don't care that you're saying you don't want anything unoriginal, they only care when it starts effecting them financially, so if you say you hate sequels and remakes but you pay to see them anyway, you're supporting the very thing you allegedly hate. And i'm not saying that reboots and remakes and etc are bad, I'm just saying that if you want less of them, and if you truly want original media to be the norm you have to stop funding it, you have to stop paying for it. Because if you don't were going to be in nostalgia bait hell for a long time and i have feeling with all the recent successes of some unoriginal media that we might be in nostalgia bait hell for decades. Because honestly whats going to happen when the shows from this era end and get cancelled? Their will be no more girly shows, and these companies already have a bias against girly media and they think that girls don't like watching tv, or cartoons or playing games and etc. also it's really bad if the popular girly media is not good, we have to stop accepting these fanfiction type of shows/movies because even if it's the only piece of girly media out, if we make it so popular the companies wont put effort into the girly media that they create and if we reject it itll make them think that we just don't like girly media and thats not true, we just don't like bad girly media. Honestly it's kind of a trap, if we keep going down this path we are going to trap ourselves. Because it's either we except the slop they feed us, and that makes them think we want more slop instead of thinking maybe we would want real food, or we reject the slop making them think we don't want to be fed at all. It's a lose lose scenario, which is why i think something needs to happen or we may sometime in the future enter into the death of girly media.

Now for the positive prediction, i think with the recent popularity of anora, the substance, bridgerton and girly aesthetics i think that this might encourage companies to take risks when it comes to girly media, i don't think itll be an immediate change but i could see a positive change happening slowly as the years go on, as i previously said that there will always be a demand for girly media as long as women exist. I also think with the rise of independent creators and indie animation, that someone could create a new niche girly show or film that could become very popular or at least earn a cult following. I think relying on companies to listen to us is too risky and i think if a storyteller or a creator had a decent budget and maybe someone to help with advertising that they could make their own girly media online independent from a company and maybe we could see another popular indie animated show but one thats girly. And i think that would be so inspirational and so cool to see for those who are a fan of girly media and for those who maybe want to create girly media some day, i just hope that we will go down a more original path and seeing independent creators talking about their own girly projects that they want to create is so cool and inspiring and makes me a little bit hopeful for the future of girly media.