I posted a long response to a blog post about abusive treatment of child in the NY AG Place, which is a blog entry from March 2007, Fake, Out! by One of Those Moms blogging here, the horrifying story of taking a six-year-old child into the AG Place in New York where the child was subjected to a lesson in marketing through intimidation dosed out by not only the shopgirl but another parent waiting in line, wanting to get something, other than opportunities to spend more money, for all the money she'd spent on the doll, so she took it out in self esteem, which she gleefully sucked from the child.
I have pasted my response below, as I have more formatting choices here, on my own blog page, and because the response is very long, pulling in a lot of doll issues
(note: Big Red reminds you again and once again: the word issues generally refers to topics of discussion; it otherwise refers to bodily fluids or solids coming out of your body; they can also be, formally, children, as in "God has not granted the king male issue." The word issue has become devolved into a prissy euphemism for problems; if a person is said to have issues, he/she has problems indeed! I've seen children with issues: leaking from every possible orifice at once, eyes, nose, mouth, and no need to look further), it became a culmination of a lot of thoughts about those particular dolls, marketing, and "branding," another oh-so millenial word -- it was even applied to child actors on "I Know My Kid's a Star" as one of the challenges to the parent and child teams . . . .
The blog post to which I am responding, here instead of there, is a truly outrageous story about those merchandising geniuses behind the American Girl doll (what a neanderthal: see photos here of comparison of Battat Our Generation to AG body). The post has got a bunch of us hot under the collar, "us" being people who see the whole AG thing as a very nice idea at one time that has run way out of control in terms of people falling all over themselves to spend more than their neighbors on those tubby little things.
I think I feel about the same way toward the AG line as I initially did about Barbies: my only interest in having one would have been to do rude things with her.
My response:
Recent American Girl Dolls have been made for people with more money than imagination, and your little girl Etta should be proud that her doll is indeed a real doll (as opposed to a "real" doll), as her doll was bought and paid for honestly, the hard way and invested with the imagination of a little girl who chose her own doll to create an identity and backstory for on her own.
She has just been introduced to the capitalistic bullying that is a component of artificial exclusivity, which is based on marketing rather than on true value. If one has to be made to think something is exclusive, it isn't; exclusivity comes from the innate value of something recognized by someone with a mind of his/her own, which definition, Etta's doll is the exclusive one, not the clone dolls whose features and hairstyles and clothes are all picked out from catalogs ". . . and they all look just the same." Many people find great comfort in uniformity; "exclusive" neighborhoods exist, and in those one must have a garage door the same color as all the neighbors' and may not leave that garage door open except for certain hours during the day . . . . The list goes on.
Check out this little 18" beauty, slimmer and more elegant than the portly AGs Madame Alexander: Real Dolls for Real Girls: this is an eBay listing for one of the best 18" play dolls available, made by the oldest continuously-operating doll company in the United States (we might even say in the Americas). Not many people know that tradtionally, all well-brought up little girls had a Madame Alexander Doll; the others were considered newcomers, imitations, and for the blue collar masses.
Please pardon me for saying these things -- I am not sniffing at "the blue collar masses," just those people who make snide comments like, "Hmmpf, probably couldn't afford one of these." Nouveau-riche Biedermeiers who "know the price of everything and the value of nothing" and don't think their blue collars are sticking out all over the place.
Nothing wrong with blue collar people: I love them. I just have a problem with people who go about thinking that a financial windfall turns their blue collars to blue blood and who then turn on the good people from whence they came, as did the phony woman who directed her disdain at a six-year-old for practice.
This post affords me the opportunity to point out that "traditionally, all well-brought up little girls have a Madame Alexander," as it is something one does not say in public, for fear of making someone who doesn't know that feel bad. It is, however, something that should be made public to counter the insidious "Hmmpf, probably can't afford one of these [monstrosities]" mentality."
The Alexander Dolls were always expensive and were also not heavily marketed. One was not paying for the marketing but for the quality of the doll.
Today, Madame Alexander has produced some lovely little playdolls, and the 18" girl doll is one of those; again, retail, they are not inexpensive, although you can get them reasonably on eBay: they've been discontinued. Too few people today trust their own taste and judgement in the face of what marketers tell them, and marketers tell them that the American Girl is the doll to have. Gak.
I bought a couple of Our Generation Dolls by Battat (what your daughter has?) to have one the same size as the AG. I would not think of spending that amount of money on a mass-produced piece of marketing genius. I would not have bought a doll that size at all, however, were it not for the people standing in line with fistfulls of money for the AG. I needed a fitting model so that I could test out clothes to make sure they fit the AG. I sell on eBay.
Since that time, however, I have also come to realize that many of the AG buyers can't make a move unless it is an official AG one, as in purchasing clothing. Grandmothers, however, are another story. The best thing to come out of the run on the AG dolls is that, because the clothing is so expensive, moms, aunts, and grandmothers are sewing doll clothes again, as we did in the past.
I hope that your little girl's doll will find herself outfitted with the nicest, most beautiful, hand made clothes -- Doll Couture, my dear, not OTR (gasp!)!
(one more note, another lovely 18" doll are the Magic Attic Club dolls, who also have books with their stories in them and have a much nicer face and body than the AG type: they are slimmer and their head is more in proportion to a fifth-grader's body. The AG, at at 4-1/2' or 54" tall, about the size of a 5th-grader, would be a 1:3 scale doll, which means her waist would be a whopping . . .
well, a picture is worth a thousand words. On this page here, scroll down to see photos of body comparisons between the West Coast Kids (more expensive than the American Girl, so "Hmmmph" to the snide motha in line, feeling so foolish wondering why she was there and why she had spent all that money when a nicer-looking doll that wasn't a "real" doll was within range of a child's savings that she just had to snipe), Magic Attic Dolls, and what can be plainly seen to be rather Neanderthalish – not even that more like a sack-butt ape -- an American Girl doll.
Plus, the older Magic Attic Dolls have click-n-bend knees, so much more fun for posing.
I'd love a West Coast Kid, but for now, I am happy with Mattel's 16" jointed Teen Trends Dolls.
As to my most expensive doll, it is a Dollfie Dream -- I couldn't afford a Super Dollfie, the same size, so I got the DD for an eighth the cost and painted and wigged her myself; her body was what got me in the first place -- not a doll for children. The 22" Super Dollfies go for $1200 and up (so "Hmmmpfh" once again) and there is an exclusivity to those: they have adoption ceremonies in Japan and special parties for SD owners, much more exclusive than the AG "do"s in malls at the customer's expense. Sorry, I just had to put exclusivity into perspective here, back to that exclulslive club of blue collar nouveau-riche price of everything and value of nothing lot.
Too bad your little girl didn't have at the tip of her tongue for the sniper, "Yes, a fool and his money are soon parted.," with a sweet smile. Hey anybody, how about an anti-merchandising movie in which the cool kids all have things that are unique and the plastic fantastics all have the same thing and try to bully the other kids into wanting it too . . . . (The American Girl Movie is coming out soon).
This is so long that I'm going to have to move it on over to my blogspot here, which I opened while participating in Project Dollway online last Fall and Winter.
I really must stop here; I went to find out what kind of doll hair AG uses and stumbled across this looking to see what kind of synthetic hair American Girl Dolls have, and so far all I have found is "There hair is made out of really good fake hair (it's suposed to be made out of the best kind of fake hair that there is. Or so I've heard)." Ahhh the power of marketing.
It seems to be just plain old nylon, which is used on most dolls. Saran, which I love, has a weight to it like real hair and is smooth and shiny, like a waterfall of hair. My Fleur Delacourt doll (customized Susie from RanD or R&D doll makers) has beautiful white saran hair that flows like a waterfall down her back, just as it was described in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Last, there is Kanekalon hair, a "wrinkly" and a smooth, which I use for rooting dolls' hair.
Actually I get hair from all sorts of places, as long as it looks and feels good, I trust my own judgement (and some background research before I try it).
Now, that all said, I suggest that you, mom, hold a nice Dolly Tea Party at your home. Spend some time collecting small dishes for the dolls and the girls, and they don't have to match and really shouldn't be Spiderman Paper Party Plates or any such brand mass-production nonsense -- nice little ceramic and porcelain items. If you have silver or silver plate, use that too. Prepare some fun finger sandwiches, fancy frilly cookies, hit the bakery for some special nice cookies -- more adult than child cookies. Aim for grown up girls' sophistication.
Embroidered or appliqued napkins, white linen or cotton w, embroidery or applique (shabby chic stuff). Flowers on the table, and a bunch of books that star dolls, like Dare Wright's Books, Edith The Lonely Doll and others; maybe a Magic Attic Book. Maybe a photo album of your daughter's doll visiting different places . . . go one-up on all the bs.
Have the girls do a little sewing project for their dolls.
Think old-fashioned, real, personal, natural, sunlight and girly.
Be sure to invite your daughter's friend with the AG doll -- the beauty behind thio ugly experience is that the brand of doll made no difference to the girls; it was simply the shared love between them and for their dolls.
See if you can round up four to six girls for (weak) tea with milk.
Last, the reason I was researching exactly what kind of hair the AG dolls have is that I put together a booklet on Doll Hair care plus some clean up tips as I saw a lot of people looking to give old Barbies new life. Then I saw the outrageous exclusivity "It can only be done here" nonsense of the American Girl Dolls, who seem to actually have rather weak heads, heads that damage easily: I have seen numerous people needing replacement heads for them and trying to find a less costly fix for the repair process which entails shipping to the hospital and back, at least a six-week stay,
and the purchase of a whole new whatever -- head in this case -- rather than a repair. Add to that an outrageous price tag for repair of something that shouldn't damage easily. For the "Hmmpfh she probably couldn't afford it" types with more money than taste or tact, so what. A sucker is born every minute.
Hoever, little girls see other little girls who become infected with that virus and then begin to desire the dolls too -- for no reason other than "so and so has one and [boasts] about it." Parents then pony up for one and then grandma wants to buy some outfits and sees the price and decides to sew some and then is desperately looking for a "cheap used" one . . . and on and on.
Seeing those nice people looking for help led me into checking out the AG dolls to see if all I knew about restoring vinyl and/or resin dolls and their hair would be applicable; if it were, I could help a lot of people save money and gain knowledge and power and at the same time get a small amount of the money swirling around these dolls in return for expertise.
Alison Wonderland's Home Doll Spa Booklet: Dedicated to Putting Knowledge in Your Hands to Enrich Your Life, Not Corporate Pockets
My doll spa instructions have been going well on eBay, and they come with free technical support (from me) as well as updates, and today I was double checking the AG hair. I've experimented on two Battat dolls and their hair is gorgeous.
The first doll I ever restored hair on was a Barbie I found across the alley from a nursery school, trashed with about six other dolls who had all been lying there in the rain and wind and sun for a while. If I can restore that, I can restore anything, I figured.
So "one of those horrible moms," send me an email, contact me through my blog here on blogger.com
I might be able to come up with something nice for your girl and her doll, would love to, actually, to welcome her to the larger community of real doll people, a community that is so exclusive that no one even knows it is.
