Post 9: Response to “Becoming My Own American Girl “
Oh, the American Girl Doll cult. My sister and I had 2 dolls when I was younger- Molly and Samatha, and I remember playing with them for hours upon hours at the base of my stair case. Our dolls could go from presenting at the school science fair during the day to winning the gold medal in figure skating at the Olympics that night. They could be walking on the moon, dancing at the ball with a prince, performing a surgery, picnicking with their best friends, and then solving world hunger. Molly and Samatha could do anything.
There is something so special about these dolls. Unlike, the classic Barbie of our time, these dolls were not restricted to pink dresses, yellow poke-a-dot bikinis, and gossiping with their friends. American girls dolls had props and outfits for everything under the sun- from ballerina to doctor to protestor, these girls had the opportunity to do what ever they put their minds too. The dolls broke the barrier of having to”sit still and look pretty,” and they were fundamental in shaping what a girl thinks she is capable of.
When you are 9 years old you don’t look at these dolls as “barrier breaking women” (or little girls) in the world. Unlike the ways the American Girl Doll Company tries to sell and advertise the dolls to parents of young children, I didn’t see them as “great role models” or “inspirational figures.” These dolls were my best friend. The activities I did with the dolls- exposing space, fighting for women’s rights, and preserving wildlife- it didn’t feel out of my reach, or something unfamiliar to me. They were just things I was working towards with my best friends- it was as if changing the world was a everyday activity.
And this is how it should be at 9 years old. If we are isolating the actions of the dolls to the very prestigious, very smart, and very daring girls, we are isolating boys from girls. We are saying the average boy can do all of the things the America Doll can, but only the best of the best girls can.
When I little boy gets a GI Joe they don’t advertise them as being inspirational. No, they just become a normal part of the boy’s life, something that lights the path of “men’s work.” This is what we need to do with the American Girl Dolls. Because when you tell a girl she “can do anything,” we must actually mean that any girl can do anything.
The dolls I have been exposed to have been part of the Historical Line- a line of dolls in which the company has idolized their character, making there action feel out of reach for the average middle class girl. Since then, the company has made efforts to make each doll appear as more of a friend to the girl, a person she can grow up and find herself with.
In 1995, the company debuted a contemporary 18-inch doll line that has since evolved into Truly Me™. “The line encourages a girl to express, explore, and discover who she is right now — to find the confidence to be her true self.”
In 2001, American Girl introduced Girl of the Year™, that gives voice to a diverse range of personalities and backgrounds through “inspiring characters that offer girls a broader worldview and help teach acceptance.”\
American Girl Dolls are amazing at showing little girls what they are capable of. But instead of idolizing this behavior, I think we should normalize it. It should be “a thing” that girls are accomplishing big tasks, or making political statements, or doing things that men are supposed to do- it should just be a normal part of her life. Because having a life’s mission is not isolated to men. By normalizing the actions of these dolls, we can breed a generation of little girls that truly believe they can do anything.
