actually, at least the monster high thing talks about diversity and all. my nieces watch it. what little i've seen them watch, they talked about how "we're different, and that's okay!" etc etc

It's hard for me to think of original Nova/Yuki as terribly BESM compared to her modern 2199 copy:

Yeah, and it's crippling the industry here in Japan and in the US.

I think there's something to be said for the popularity of anime possibly influencing the design. Take a look at early Barbie dolls from the 1960s. They are drastically different from 1980s Barbies to 2000s Barbies. Their looks reflect a style that was popular in movies and TV at the time. I'm specifically thinking of…