Seemingly Mundane.
It's amazing how you can not realize something about yourself until you're annoyed that someone else is doing it.
My mom is getting my niece an American Girl Doll for Christmas, which is nice. A grandmother wants to give her only grandchild a (very) nice doll - there's nothing wrong with that. In my not-so-subtle attempt to subvert the Disney-Princess brainwashing that has already done its evil damage on her kindergarten mind by suggesting to Ma that she not get her one of the traditionally "pretty" one (Kirsten, Felicity or Emily), but the Southwestern Mexican girl. You know, someone local - they live in Arizona - get her interested early in learning about local history. Give the girl a doll that looks nothing like her, the one who does not share a history with her and get her interested in it and, in turn, that might get her interested in her own personal history. She's already curious/frustrated that she doesn't know, or spend much time with her father's family -- I guess I just don't want her to lose that. I can see it slowly slipping from her interest until the point where she doesn't even have a relationship with any of us, not even her grandparents.
Anyway, while my mother is debating/talking herself into buying this doll that is reccommended for ages 8+ for her 5 year old granddaughter she consults the child's parents. My brother is useless and isn't unaware whether or not his daughter has one of these dolls (trust me, this is something you would remember); and her mother, who knows marginally more about them - mostly because I had one and she remembers when I got it - Ma suggests that she take a look at the website and then call back and let her know. Well, she looks at the website . . . with Briana. Seriously. All that friggin planning right down the fucking drain! My darling niecie, being the princess-obsessed little girl she is, gravitated toward the "pretty" doll with the pretty clothes: Felicity. She even has a pretty name. Of course the little white girl is going to like that one better than Josefina or Kaya or Addy!
So we ordered her Felicity. At least she'll learn something about the American Revolution through her. See, the really cool thing about these dolls - other than the pretty clothes - are the books. They're written for a third grade reading level with beautiful illustrations and they give a taste of American history. Felicity is the American Colonies girl at the brink of the American Revolution, Kirsten is the Swedish immigrant settling in the upper mid-west and having to learn a new language and start over completely, Samantha (my doll) is the wealthy New England orphan in the early 1900s learning to be a progressive woman and what costs there are for progress, Molly is a pretty average girl during WWII whose father is an army doctor over in Europe, Addy is a runaway slave dealing with a life of 'freedom'. I don't really know much about the other ones since they came around after I was too old for these things (aka, reached a higher reading level and therefore was no longer interested), but there is now a girl from pre-European colonization - some kind of Plains Indian, a girl from the Depression era, and another one from the 1970s, as well as Josefina the Mexican girl in New Mexico from the 1820s.
I guess the point is, she picked Felicity because she liked her clothes. Both my mother and my sister asked me yesterday and today why I chose Samantha and I honestly couldn't say. I was dead set on Samantha from the time I was Briana's age or younger, even. I liked Samantha. Granted I only had Samantha, Kirsten and Molly to choose from. I think I rejected Kirsten because of her hair. So yellow. Never really been a fan of the blonde blonde. I like Samantha better because she has dark hair, but I'm not sure what turned me off of Molly. I didn't have glasses yet, so the fact that if I ever wanted a look-a-like doll that we could just get Molly wasn't the issue. Honestly, I might have liked her clothes. But here's the thing: when all you've seen are the dolls and their stuff, how are you supposed to make a decision? I hadn't read any of the books at that point, neither has Briana. In that situation, of course, you're going to pick the one you think is pretty!
I suppose I'm annoyed because they let her look at the dolls and pick one. I mean, ok, so I got the chance to pick one, too, but we had the damn catologues hanging around the house all the time. I looked through them whenever a new one came even though the stuff rarely changed. I still wanted to look at the shiny pretty dolls. She doesn't have that. They're not getting the catolouges sent to their house every quarter. It would be so easy to not give her a choice and just foist one upon her.
Oh well. I guess I can hope there is some of the Pilling mentality in the kid and she ends up enjoying one of the other stories more than Felicity's. Don't get me wrong, Felicity's story (minus the first one) is dead fascinating. But, as much as I love Samantha's story, it was really Molly's story that captured my heart. (I have not read any of the new ones since Addy joined the crew, so don't ask me about them).
It's just so obvious that Briana is going to have the typical, mundane American Girl experience that I had, that her mother had, that the majority of us have. And the annoying thing is no one is going to do anything different about that. And yes, she's growing up half an hour from Mexico and she's learning some Spanish at school and she calls her mother's sister 'Tia', but if things continue the way they are she's going to have that average, middle class, Christian, ignorant, white experience.
Who knows, maybe I'm worrying for nothing. I don't know what her Christian school is like. Maybe there are more Mexican kids in attendence than I'm assuming, maybe she'll get involved in local activities and meet diversity. Maybe she'll get interested on her own or through school. When she gets old enough I'll start sending her books to expand her mind and direct her toward things like the BBC, alternative music, obscure authors and subversive webcomics. Hopefully my role as 'aunt' will still mean something by then.
My mom is getting my niece an American Girl Doll for Christmas, which is nice. A grandmother wants to give her only grandchild a (very) nice doll - there's nothing wrong with that. In my not-so-subtle attempt to subvert the Disney-Princess brainwashing that has already done its evil damage on her kindergarten mind by suggesting to Ma that she not get her one of the traditionally "pretty" one (Kirsten, Felicity or Emily), but the Southwestern Mexican girl. You know, someone local - they live in Arizona - get her interested early in learning about local history. Give the girl a doll that looks nothing like her, the one who does not share a history with her and get her interested in it and, in turn, that might get her interested in her own personal history. She's already curious/frustrated that she doesn't know, or spend much time with her father's family -- I guess I just don't want her to lose that. I can see it slowly slipping from her interest until the point where she doesn't even have a relationship with any of us, not even her grandparents.
Anyway, while my mother is debating/talking herself into buying this doll that is reccommended for ages 8+ for her 5 year old granddaughter she consults the child's parents. My brother is useless and isn't unaware whether or not his daughter has one of these dolls (trust me, this is something you would remember); and her mother, who knows marginally more about them - mostly because I had one and she remembers when I got it - Ma suggests that she take a look at the website and then call back and let her know. Well, she looks at the website . . . with Briana. Seriously. All that friggin planning right down the fucking drain! My darling niecie, being the princess-obsessed little girl she is, gravitated toward the "pretty" doll with the pretty clothes: Felicity. She even has a pretty name. Of course the little white girl is going to like that one better than Josefina or Kaya or Addy!
So we ordered her Felicity. At least she'll learn something about the American Revolution through her. See, the really cool thing about these dolls - other than the pretty clothes - are the books. They're written for a third grade reading level with beautiful illustrations and they give a taste of American history. Felicity is the American Colonies girl at the brink of the American Revolution, Kirsten is the Swedish immigrant settling in the upper mid-west and having to learn a new language and start over completely, Samantha (my doll) is the wealthy New England orphan in the early 1900s learning to be a progressive woman and what costs there are for progress, Molly is a pretty average girl during WWII whose father is an army doctor over in Europe, Addy is a runaway slave dealing with a life of 'freedom'. I don't really know much about the other ones since they came around after I was too old for these things (aka, reached a higher reading level and therefore was no longer interested), but there is now a girl from pre-European colonization - some kind of Plains Indian, a girl from the Depression era, and another one from the 1970s, as well as Josefina the Mexican girl in New Mexico from the 1820s.
I guess the point is, she picked Felicity because she liked her clothes. Both my mother and my sister asked me yesterday and today why I chose Samantha and I honestly couldn't say. I was dead set on Samantha from the time I was Briana's age or younger, even. I liked Samantha. Granted I only had Samantha, Kirsten and Molly to choose from. I think I rejected Kirsten because of her hair. So yellow. Never really been a fan of the blonde blonde. I like Samantha better because she has dark hair, but I'm not sure what turned me off of Molly. I didn't have glasses yet, so the fact that if I ever wanted a look-a-like doll that we could just get Molly wasn't the issue. Honestly, I might have liked her clothes. But here's the thing: when all you've seen are the dolls and their stuff, how are you supposed to make a decision? I hadn't read any of the books at that point, neither has Briana. In that situation, of course, you're going to pick the one you think is pretty!
I suppose I'm annoyed because they let her look at the dolls and pick one. I mean, ok, so I got the chance to pick one, too, but we had the damn catologues hanging around the house all the time. I looked through them whenever a new one came even though the stuff rarely changed. I still wanted to look at the shiny pretty dolls. She doesn't have that. They're not getting the catolouges sent to their house every quarter. It would be so easy to not give her a choice and just foist one upon her.
Oh well. I guess I can hope there is some of the Pilling mentality in the kid and she ends up enjoying one of the other stories more than Felicity's. Don't get me wrong, Felicity's story (minus the first one) is dead fascinating. But, as much as I love Samantha's story, it was really Molly's story that captured my heart. (I have not read any of the new ones since Addy joined the crew, so don't ask me about them).
It's just so obvious that Briana is going to have the typical, mundane American Girl experience that I had, that her mother had, that the majority of us have. And the annoying thing is no one is going to do anything different about that. And yes, she's growing up half an hour from Mexico and she's learning some Spanish at school and she calls her mother's sister 'Tia', but if things continue the way they are she's going to have that average, middle class, Christian, ignorant, white experience.
Who knows, maybe I'm worrying for nothing. I don't know what her Christian school is like. Maybe there are more Mexican kids in attendence than I'm assuming, maybe she'll get involved in local activities and meet diversity. Maybe she'll get interested on her own or through school. When she gets old enough I'll start sending her books to expand her mind and direct her toward things like the BBC, alternative music, obscure authors and subversive webcomics. Hopefully my role as 'aunt' will still mean something by then.