American Girl
Nov. 13th, 2012 07:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerYou guys you guys! My professor has okayed my topic for my final paper: I'm going to write about American Girl!
This is AMAZING! I <3 <3 <3 American Girl. It's a fascinating phenomenon - and it is a phenomenon - that there's this whole sort of subculture around American Girls. There are not only books and dolls, but movies, a magazine, stores that people all but take pilgrimages to, to have special American girl teas; last year at the elementary school, we had an American Girl club and read the Kit books.
Obviously it's a commercial phenomenon, but American Girl is also quite consciously selling specific values - bravery, friendship (female friendship FTW!), breaking the rules if the rules are bad (but not being disobedient just to be disobedient). Diversity and tolerance is both apparent in the books and in looking over the variety of different girls they've included - of different races, different religions, different parts of the country, even different socioeconomic classes, which Americans often forget to think about.
Speaking of different socioeconomic classes: in the Rebecca books, Rebecca reaches her apotheosis when she gives a speech about how awesome socialism is. I am honestly astonished that conservative groups haven't noticed they should be complaining the hell out of these books.
I need to pare down all the multifarious avenues from which one could approach this topic to a single 2000 word paper. What should I doooo????
Things that are probably not appropriate topics for my paper:
- why I am still mad that they retired Felicity. Felicity is the first doll that they retired, did you know that? Why? She was the Revolutionary War girl! She stole a horse from its abusive owner! (Maybe that's why. They didn't want to encourage horse-thievery. Clearly a big problem with juvenile delinquents these days.)
- in fact, comparative analysis of why certain series work are more dramatically satisfying than others is probably off-topic in a paper that is supposed to be focused on history rather than literature.
- this means that my paper is not the place to discuss Friendship in the American Girl Books, either. Darn it! I have Things to Say. But that's why I have an LJ, right?
ANYWAY. Obviously as I'm doing a project about them, it's totally relevant for me to catch up on all the many series that I've missed. I meant to read about Julie, the 1970s San Francisco girl - whose best friend, who gets IIRC a book of her own, is Ivy Ling, who is Chinese American. Race in American Girl - possibly a good topic for my paper? Using history to inculcate the values to build a better America.
But ALAS only half of Julie & Ivy's books were in the library, so I got Kaya's books instead.
And then! I have had a brainwave. I have papers to grade, sixty-five of them. And there are six Kaya books...
So! Every ten papers, I will get to stop and read a Kaya book! And when I've finished all 65, I will read Brave Emily, which is about Molly's friend the British evacuee Emily. Did they actually evacuate British children to America? Is it really proper to call very English Emily an American girl, anyway? Details! I will indulge myself.
This is AMAZING! I <3 <3 <3 American Girl. It's a fascinating phenomenon - and it is a phenomenon - that there's this whole sort of subculture around American Girls. There are not only books and dolls, but movies, a magazine, stores that people all but take pilgrimages to, to have special American girl teas; last year at the elementary school, we had an American Girl club and read the Kit books.
Obviously it's a commercial phenomenon, but American Girl is also quite consciously selling specific values - bravery, friendship (female friendship FTW!), breaking the rules if the rules are bad (but not being disobedient just to be disobedient). Diversity and tolerance is both apparent in the books and in looking over the variety of different girls they've included - of different races, different religions, different parts of the country, even different socioeconomic classes, which Americans often forget to think about.
Speaking of different socioeconomic classes: in the Rebecca books, Rebecca reaches her apotheosis when she gives a speech about how awesome socialism is. I am honestly astonished that conservative groups haven't noticed they should be complaining the hell out of these books.
I need to pare down all the multifarious avenues from which one could approach this topic to a single 2000 word paper. What should I doooo????
Things that are probably not appropriate topics for my paper:
- why I am still mad that they retired Felicity. Felicity is the first doll that they retired, did you know that? Why? She was the Revolutionary War girl! She stole a horse from its abusive owner! (Maybe that's why. They didn't want to encourage horse-thievery. Clearly a big problem with juvenile delinquents these days.)
- in fact, comparative analysis of why certain series work are more dramatically satisfying than others is probably off-topic in a paper that is supposed to be focused on history rather than literature.
- this means that my paper is not the place to discuss Friendship in the American Girl Books, either. Darn it! I have Things to Say. But that's why I have an LJ, right?
ANYWAY. Obviously as I'm doing a project about them, it's totally relevant for me to catch up on all the many series that I've missed. I meant to read about Julie, the 1970s San Francisco girl - whose best friend, who gets IIRC a book of her own, is Ivy Ling, who is Chinese American. Race in American Girl - possibly a good topic for my paper? Using history to inculcate the values to build a better America.
But ALAS only half of Julie & Ivy's books were in the library, so I got Kaya's books instead.
And then! I have had a brainwave. I have papers to grade, sixty-five of them. And there are six Kaya books...
So! Every ten papers, I will get to stop and read a Kaya book! And when I've finished all 65, I will read Brave Emily, which is about Molly's friend the British evacuee Emily. Did they actually evacuate British children to America? Is it really proper to call very English Emily an American girl, anyway? Details! I will indulge myself.
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no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 03:27 am (UTC)I mean, really, I should clearly just do posts about each American Girl series. To get my thoughts in order for my paper, of course. :p
no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 03:43 am (UTC)Have you seen the new girl Caroline from the War of 1812? If my gosh darn kids would stop borrowing them from the library, I could check them out myself and read them! Uh, I mean, I'm SO HAPPY they're so very popular with the students at the library...
I have not seen that there's a Rebecca movie. I'm far too happy to hear that.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 03:52 am (UTC)But there totally should be. Because Rebecca is awesome!
I have seen the Caroline books! But they're all gone out of my local library too, so I don't think I'll get to read them in time for the project. They look like fun, though: lots of action! And the first one starts on a boat!
no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 03:59 am (UTC)Caroline appears to be a spy of some sort? I'm intrigued. I also haven't gotten a chance to read Marie-Grace & Cecile though those appear interesting too. I'm a bit leery of the racefail possibilities, but American Girl usually at least tries to do well.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 04:14 am (UTC)I'm cautiously hopeful about the Marie-Grace & Cecile books; I thought the Addy books were terribly well done (of course, I was about seven, but looking back I don't remember any red flags) and the Josefina books also, so the American Girl books have earned some trust, I think.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 12:53 pm (UTC)(Related: How has American Girl never been nom'd for Yuletide. I WOULD READ THAT.)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 02:04 pm (UTC)Obviously Rebecca fic would be awesome, but I'm not sure many Yuletiders will have read her books - they're out of the demographic. Felicity's a safe bet, though.