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If you've been to the Grove lately, you know about the American Girl Doll phenomenon: 7 year old girls dragging around $86 dolls with matching clothing that sells for about $80 per outfit for the girl (and $25 per outfit for the doll). Every westside 2nd grader must have a doll, and leaving the Grove without $300 worth of American Girl Place Merchandise is a cause for shame.
Despite the fact that dolls were traditionally for "kids," it seems Mattel's effort here is actually having the opposite effect. Our little American girls are worried about class, brand name, and commercialism. The priorities have shifted, and now they're turning into annoying mini-versions of their middle-class brand-whore parents who learn early that elitism is a virtue.
Now that American Girl Dolls have taken over the Westside, my guess is that every girl in 3rd grade who does not have a birthday party at American Girl Place will be ostracized by her classmates. Parents, do your girl a favor and give her the party! It's only $60 per kid to have a 90 minute birthday party, $60 x her 8 closest friends is under $500. (Or you could spend the entire day at Disneyland for the same price. You know, whatever your precious little princess needs.)
*note that to have a "hair salon spectacular" at your 90 minute party there is an additional fee, so don't forget to budget that in, thanks
The irony in all of this is that they have an American Girl class on how to make money. It only costs $24 per person, which I suppose means that anyone idiotic enough to pay for the class really does need it. Talk about a selection bias.
American Girl also has their own cafe, where you and your doll can enjoy a meal together amongst other American Girl Single Mothers. Shit, you know, when I was a kid I was happy with a burger and fries. A McDonald's Happy Meal was a once-a-month treat, and if we were extra good we could get a hot fudge sundae with nuts on top though I usually had to share that with my sister. Since the American Dream is to make sure our children have more than we had at their age, check this out: The dolls get salad nicoise. Can the kid even SAY "nicoise"? And tell me, what 8 year old kid likes portabello salad and artichoke dip?
Okay, okay, I know. I'm a rude bitch. This because when I was 8 years old, I didn't have the American Girl manners class. I'm hoping for $90 a person they will teach me that it's rude for an American Girl to want to have a career or be independent, and that proper manners include not thinking for oneself, falling victim to out of control marketing schemes, and pressuring others to spend money so that you can have anything you like. I also hope they eliminate that pesky imagination that kids have, and hopefully naturalize them into the submissive position of proper womanhood.
While it may be "fun" to watch your $86 doll be pampered in a doll sized chair with a doll sized comb and a doll sized water bottle (a facial can be added on for only $5!), I'm feeling rather certain that the 8 year olds who are indulging in this luxury do not have this much disposable income. Which leads me to believe that there are parents (and not just a few) who are out there spoiling their little girls by teaching them it is okay to spend $15 to have someone else put a ribbon in your pretty princess's hair, which translates to: It is more special to have other people do things that you could otherwise do for yourself and that's okay because money actually does grow on trees and is harvested into Mommy's purse and that's why consumerism brings happiness.
These are the prices for the American Girl hair salon at American Girl Place.
For the girl who wants to do it on her own (God forbid girls do anything on their own these days!), she can pay $27 (per person) to learn from an American Doll Stylist how to put your doll's hair in a ponytail. Please note that it is a 4 part class, and $27 for EACH PART. Various parts include "5 minute hairdos" for when your doll is really in a rush to get to the mall and just doesn't have time for the braids, and "fancy up-dos" for when your doll is invited to a formal event or wedding (which won't happen, since there are no male dolls for them to marry).
And I wondered where MTV found all of those people to be on "My Super Sweet Sixteen." Silly me.
photos by me, Malingering
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You've made the big time, Mal. :) And a very good bite you've taken. In my day, kids learned to french-braid hair for free from their friends who knew how on each other... the dolls (typically Barbies or anything lying around) often were missing their hair. :)
Completely absurd and not very surprising.
Wow, awesome write-up Mal. We need to remind our kids that being a kid is supposed to be FUN, not EXPENSIVE.
Keep telling it like it is. :-D
Bill S.
as usual, malingering has precisely shown us the superficiality of our mindless world...simply by providing a window. and i would not be surprised at the indignant howls of protest from some quarters that she doesn't understand what these übermoms are providing for their children. a pox on these parents who substitute money for love and engendering imagination
fifteen bucks for "all down!" how much for the class in "unlaced shoes?" next up: blow by blow reporting from the build a bear workshop.
I think the creepiest sight I've seen is the American Girl doll store window at Christmas time. A few of the dolls were mechanized so they 'danced' in the window. Then an audience of dolls 'clapped' after the performance.
I have to commend whoever thought of this 'doll hair salon'... they must be making millions off this useless service.
Great article, Mal. It's nice to know that others share the opinion that our children should not have to surrender their imaginations to a corporation that wants to decide all of that for them for a buck.
love you malingering!
okay, fair. i agree with the prestige that goes along with expensive dolls and so on. but--i don't want to start a melee, just hear me out--BUT compared to every other doll on the market american girls are a godsend for little girls.
because they look like little girls.
they don't look like big-eyed, made up, sexed-up nineteen year olds like pretty much everything else there is to choose from. you want girls gone wild? let's start with bratz. american girl dolls don't encourage little girls to shake their asses, starve themselves or start believing that the highest value they can acheive is having a boyfriend.
i do agree with all your points on class, status and rampant consumerism. i think it's gross and i think it's a huge shame that american girls has turned into this, because originally pleasant rowland (the founder, who's since sold the company--obviously) started it to make a toy that would let little girls BE little girls, and to encourage scholarship and literacy. all the classic dolls come with a series of BOOKS. the magazine isn't your typical teen beat crap, it actually assumes that the girls are smart and want to learn about things. i am going to outright disagree with the comment "I'm hoping for $90 a person they will teach me that it's rude for an American Girl to want to have a career or be independent" because i think that's exactly what the company set out to avoid; it was created to encourage girls to be smart, independent, and rely on their brains above their boobs.
like i said, it's a crying shame that it's become such an upper-class empire, and that people are ignoring a chance to teach their daughters to save up for something they really want, but please don't write off american girl dolls across the board. there are a lot worse things to idolize.
Without resorting to starting a sentence with "when I was young", I still want to quip about how this level of consumer-tisfaction is being taught so young. $10 to put a doll's hair in a ponytail? What does the kid get out of that? It's certainly not money well spent.
Sorry, I may have missed the part about how teaching girls to spend their parents' cash so they can keep up with the latest schoolyard fad teaches them to be independent because I'm not seeing it.
yes, write american girl off across the board...there is no redemptive value in the company or in what it is teaching the girls, overtly or subliminally--none
why succumb to what this company, whose interest is making money, has to offer behind its trench coat...it is soulless and teaches soullessness
I'd rather teach my kid to be smart, independent and to rely on their brains without a doll's help. And without a huge price tag attached to it.
"My name is Talky Tina, and I love you very much!" - June Foray
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
Great Article! It really makes you think.
The dolls aren't that bad though. They are very high quality compared to most of the junk being sold today. It's teaching a good lesson in buying a quality product built to last. It's all the add-on crap they sell that is the problem, and also where all the money is made. It’s the old Polaroid marketing scheme.
If you brought your new "friend" home, loved it, make it clothes yourself and played with it, it would be a wonderful thing. The American Girl mantra though is, "IT MUST BE AMERICAN GIRL ZOMG!"
They make the clothes, tell the girls how to wear them and when. They sell everything you need to not lift a brain cell while in the store. The clothing and accessory products of other companies that while slightly lower quality… it’s a fucking doll dress, who CARES? The American Girl! That’s who.
I had a Felicity doll as a child, and the majority of her clothes and things were homemade or bought from garage sales. Not only do all these girls have these dolls, EVERYTHING from the hair ribbons to the socks came from their stores. It’s mind-boggling.
If my kids ever ask for an American Girl doll, they will get a doll. Period. There's still a few good core American Girl products like the books and basic dolls but the stores with all the superfluous crap are so scary and cult like.
I'm slightly confused about your comments about food. My child isn't allowed MacDonalds because it's overpriced. He isn't allowed to eat off kids menus, because he's old enough for real food. Anything which encourages eating proper food rather than junk, and that this is normal and enjoyable, is surely a good thing?
Yes, the clothes are overpriced. The dolls, however, are about reasonable from where I'm sitting. A high quality product, a one-off perfect present? It's expensive, but not a rip-off.
Also, since when did dolls=no imagination? Dolls were always classed as imaginative toys where I come from, and in my child-care training.
(No, my son doesn't have an American Girl doll. I do, and if he wants one, he can have one. He has a different doll, though.)
It isn't that "dolls=no imagination": it is that "American Girl Dolls=no imagination". My daughter has a fine time dressing her own dolls (not a single AG doll in the bunch, and there won't be either), doing their hair, and generally interacting with them and with other kids with their dolls. They have their own private tea parties (or whatever the kids are calling them now) in the living room - cost to parents - $0.
Now THAT'S cost-effective and imaginative.
Bill
It isn't that "dolls=no imagination": it is that "American Girl Dolls=no imagination". My daughter has a fine time dressing her own dolls (not a single AG doll in the bunch, and there won't be either), doing their hair, and generally interacting with them and with other kids with their dolls. They have their own private tea parties (or whatever the kids are calling them now) in the living room - cost to parents - $0.
Now THAT'S cost-effective and imaginative.
Bill
There,s nothing wrong with girls playing with dolls and there is nothing wrong with girl,s dressing up.
Maybe its just you rednecks who can't afford to do this.
Too true! When I was a kid we made do with rocks and pine cones, and furthermore WE LIKED IT! Toys spoil kids, good quality toys even more so and we have to make it stop.
i think there missing out on not havng dolls that "wet". diaper,s are so cool and when you take them off they make reallycool squirt guns. great fun ofr girl's and don,t forget boy's to!!!1!
man.
okay, i love LAist. i do. because i love LA and because you guys publish some really interesting things. but the editors of the posts i've commented on don't seem to be interested at all in somebody else's viewpoint. y'all get super defensive and miss the point of what i was trying to say. i've seen this happen to other commenters too. and yes, i only comment if i disagree with what was written, but forgive me because i kind of thought the reason for having comments was to open one person's opinion.
""Sorry, I may have missed the part about how teaching girls to spend their parents' cash so they can keep up with the latest schoolyard fad teaches them to be independent because I'm not seeing it."
mal, tell me where i ever claimed this. i said several times that i fully agreed with you on how commercial and status-y and gross the company has gotten. my point was that, regardless of the price tag (and not all parents spoil their kids with these dolls, some teach them that they have to save up when they really want something that's exorbitantly expensive) american girl dolls have a lot of redeeming qualities, and the largest of which are a) refraining from suggesting the girls become giant sluts at age 9, and b) encouraging book reading. if you've ever read any of their books, they're all about independent, strong girls. each series has a book called "_(doll's name)_ saves the day". the magazine gives girls credit for actually having a brain and treats them as such. pick it up sometime, you'd be suprised.
I AGREE WITH YOU. okay? the consumerism is gross. the entitlement is gross. i fully agree. but the dolls themselves and the original intent of the company aren't.
and LAist, please start being more openminded. just cos someone posts something that disagrees with your (opinion!) post, doesn't mean it's a personal insult to you, or that you should fling back a snide two-line response that shows you didn't really read what the person had to say. just makes YOU sound as entitled and bossy as the west siders you hate. with all due respect, check yourself.
I could afford a whole truckload of American Girl Dolls, if I were stupid enough to buy that many (although if you go there at Christmastime, you'll see that many parents actually -are- that stupid.).
If I'm going to spend money on my kid like that, I'd rather spend it on experiences (like a good family vacation that everyone gets great memories from) than on dolls that will be stuffed into a closet and forgotten in a year or two.
You know, if you wanted to make your $15 "All Down" hair style worth it, you could really gunk up the doll first. Gum, tangles, the works. Make that "stylist" earn her pay...
Heh heh heh. See, you can still be imaginative when playing with these things...
Us rednecks buy our toddlers quad bikes and guns, not dolls.
The dolls may be high quality, but they are still made in China at what is probably a huge profit margin. Agreed that they are better than Bratz when it comes to dress. I don't know that they stifle imagination. The kids just imagine someone else taking care of their doll instead of themselves. Gets them used to the lifestyle that they might not ever be able to afford. As for the food at AG, it may be better than junk food, but it also matches the whole pompous and elitist attitude.
What a cranky article.
You seem to think that ALL American Girl moms are spending this kind of money on their kids/dolls. WRONG. My daughter saved up for her doll- and she & I both work together on making up outfits, fimo clay food, finding items at the Dollar Store that work for her girl, etc.
All I know is that quality of her play has improved dramatically. She plays with her girl(s- plural now)in a manner more befitting an 8 year old. When she was going down the Barbie/Bratz primrose path, all her dolls played at was who looked the best and who would get the guy. I want my daughter to realize life is not about that- for those who believe it is, I believe you all can show up on Jerry Springer & fight over who the baby's daddy is and rumble to the death with the other sluts after your man. I want more for my daughter. Since she has engaged into the American Girl books and dolls, she wants to watch the History Channel when their History in the Classroom show pertains to any of the time periods depicted by the girls. She reads way more, and her creativity is up.
Believe me- the $87 investment (which could be way less on eBay BTW) is well worth it!!
Normally, I'm first on the bandwagon when there's a complaint about classism and consumerism on the horizon. But to make the argument that because the dolls are expensive, that means they're unimaginative or only for the elite would be a bit of a stretch.
My family didn't exactly grow up empoverished, but we didn't have a ton of shit we didn't need. It was a big thing when my little sister and I received our American Girl dolls for Christmas as our one "big" gift. And we didn't see it as something for us to use to fit in, but a very special doll that came with historical information and books. It was our link to the American history we were studying in school.
Granted, since Mattel bought AG, there's been less of a focus on the historical line, and more of a push of the Just Like You dolls, but there is still good in the American Girl line. They are more educational than most dolls, they encourage kids to read, learn, and (as shocking as you'd find it, given your article) think for themselves. Read Felicity's stories. Hell, read any of the books. There's still room for the imaginative dreamer kids, even if a corporation is trying to push them out.
I agree with Audrey. I did not grow up rich at all and didn't own an AG doll as a child, but they are beautiful and high-quality dolls. AG historical books are popular in school libraries, and seriously, try reading them before you bash the company. Kit (Depression era) and Felicity (colonial era) may be right up your alley, and I am dead serious too. It sounds like you've spent hours at the Grove, snapping pics of people just to subject them to Internet ridicule--why don't you spend some time just looking through the historicals' stories? You make it sound as though AG sucks the imagination of out kids with their line of dolls and books, but do you actually know any children who have played with and loved these dolls? They are not all elitist "consumer whores," and if anything, having the books paired up with the dolls help to educate girls about American history as well as encourage imaginative play.
As for the price--if you are looking for a good doll that will last through years of play, AG is worth the money. I have seen cheaper dolls at Target and Michaels, and they don't seem as attractive or durable as AG's, which are--believe it or not--meant to be heirloom quality. Plus, there are other expensive dolls brands out there besides AG that are made for children (My Twinn, for example)--they can be as expensive or even more costly than AG's, so why is it that AG constantly gets the bad rap?
Be anti-brand! Encourage your kids imagination and let them enjoy the dolls but teach them that shopping for bargains is better. The product is great - the company has gone out of control with it's marketing antics geared to solely follow the dollar. Why can't we as Parents get the best of both worlds? I buy where I can get quality products at reasonable prices. Try Target Doll Products or http://www.dollsclothes-emilyrose.com
I suppose paying someone $20 to style your doll's hair does require you to use your imagination that this is money well spent and you are not a sucker.
It sounds like you've spent hours at the Grove, snapping pics of people just to subject them to Internet ridicule--why don't you spend some time just looking through the historicals' stories?
I've looked through the stories. The illustrations are mediocre and the stories pale in comparison to non-doll associated books that can be found in the local library. Plus I was rather turned off that they have runaway-slave Addy and New Mexican Josefina with her weaving business and Kaya the woman warrior and Felicity, Elizabeth, Samantha, Nellie, Kit, Molly and Emily the White girls who enslaved and oppressed the aforementioned minority girls (but didn't really enjoy it), but there is no Asian-American Girl to be found.
I'm considering a lawsuit, but I'm so busy exploiting people and subjecting them to internet ridicule I don't know how I'll find the time.
they could atleast make a chinese doll, since all of the merchandise in the store is Made In China. sweatshop susie or something.
They do have an oriental featured Girl of Today- and its rumored the new historical doll coming out later this year is Asian- American.
Maybe the lack of an Asian (oriental... hahahahahah) doll is to teach girls about the Exclusion Act. A fine history lesson indeed.
You're forgetting something rather important in your article. Yes, the company has set up these AG Places where kids and their parents can go. But some of us don't live anywhere near them, and we seem to be doing just fine with our AG collections and NOT shelling out $20 for a hairdo. You CAN like American Girl and never once set foot in an AGP. Don't bust the balls of a company that has pricy items just because it has some expensive shit. I'm willing to bet that the stores you get your clothing from use sweatshop labor and sell at an increased price. And yet, you still purchase them.
I shop online at close-out and discount stores. Sure, they are making money from items that are probably made in Bangladesh, but they aren't trying to sell me $10 ponytails and a $20 lunch at the same time.
Sounds like they should have AG dolls in classrooms. Who needs a teacher or a library when you have AG. They may be good at getting kids interested in the history and culture of the doll's made up back stories, but keep in mind that this is being done by a company that is making a profit from it. They aren't doing this out of the good of their hearts. If people weren't buying into the marketing, they wouldn't be selling the things. Then how would your child learn?
That said, I'm don't see a problem in having one of these dolls and getting creative with it like some of the people mentioned above. I think the focus of Malingering's article was the over the top stuff (classes, hair styling, meals, buying so much you need a bellhop, etc.) that she saw at the AG Place at the Grove.
'orientals' are rugs, not people.
I like the AG Brazilian.
american girl dolls are evil, period. The whole thing is a setup designed to extract maximum dollars out of parents by addicting kids to a consumer product with no redeeming value.
I totally agree with you all. Dolls are so evil. Clearly the downfall of our society. Especially American Girl dolls that put an emphasis on historical education. The devil's work, these dolls.
> Clearly the downfall of our society. Especially American Girl
> dolls that put an emphasis on historical education.
If only "education" was still the emphasis. That was true in the beginning when it was only books and dolls. It's all that other nonhistorical and noneducational (unless you consider paying to discover how to braid doll hair a learning experience) crap which the article here is about. But thanks for playing, Moogly.
George Carlin once said, "If you took two things that had never been nailed together before and nailed them together, some schmuck would buy it.".
Mattel is one of the biggest companies to shamelessly exploit the interests of our children to fill their coffers. Yes, my daughter has Barbie dolls - because she can buy them for $3 apiece, her mother already has tons of clothing and accessories that she gradually collected over the years from lawn sales and such. Can you say the same thing about these overpriced, overblown dolls? I think not. Personally, I would cringe at the thought of giving a child younger than 10 a doll that costs more than $10 to play with. I have no problem with other people spending their money how they see fit. But don't spit in my ear and tell me it's raining.
Welcome to the machine.
You know, the argument that American Girl is better than a Bratz doll doesn't really hold much water with me.
Smallpox is better than a Bratz doll.
I think the idea of American Girl's is a good one. The doll and all of the accessories encourage creative and imaginative play. I agree with an earlier commenter who said shop online. We get great stuff at much cheaper prices at TARGET and Emily Rose Doll Clothes