In case you aren’t familiar with American Girls, it’s a line of rather pricey dolls, along with a complete line of AG merchandise, including accessories, books, a magazine, and even a few giant stores in major cities like NYC and Atlanta.
Each doll represents a different period of history, with the idea that girls will not only enjoy playing with their doll, but will also want to learn something about that doll’s era. My favorite American Girl is Kit, the plucky 10-year-old who faces the trials of the Great Depression with gritty determination.
Other American Girl dolls teach their young owners about important stuff like slavery, Native American heritage, life on the homefront during WWII, and living as an orphan during the Victorian period. The dolls, along with the books that come with them, really do manage to teach some history as they entertain little girls.
Now there is a brand new American Girl, whose backstory is set in 2008. Her name is Chrissa, and she’s dealing with….”relational aggression.”
“Relational aggression” is apparently a fancy term for bullying, and bullying is certainly a Bad Thing. However, bullying is nothing new. I’ll bet that Depression-Era American Girl Kit dealt with bullies, even as she also watched her father lose his shirt in the stock market, and take that third job at the candle factory to keep food on the table.
Isn’t there anything more notable about our era for girls to learn about than “relational aggression?” How about some politics or history or economics or feminism that could be rolled into this new doll’s lifestory, like the stories of the other American Girl dolls who hail from earlier historical periods?
I mean, “relational aggression?” C’mon.
UPDATE – More on the same topic from another blogger.
20 Responses to “Great Depression vs. “relational aggression””
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I like the ‘bullying’ theme, but I wish (though I admitedly know very little about this doll’s storyline) that there was a more controversial reason FOR the bullying. How about making her overweight, or gay, or a super-nerd? She seems so ordinary, what’s to bully about? Maybe that’s their point? I don’t know.
Anyway, I think that this subject is a good one. There is such a spirit of competition, social hazing and enmity between young girls today that I think it’s great that they are addressing this topic.
yeah, it would be nice to think that people who are bullied maybe “deserve” it in some way. Or that the bullying could be an object lesson about how being gay is OK or that even overweight women are beautiful so there is no need to diet for your health or anything or to push the achievement goal with the nerd girl. You could kill two birds with one stone, ya know??? Can you tell the sarcasm dripping here?
The problem is, that some kids ARE bullied for no other reason than that they have the misfortune to be the new kid who shows up once all the cliques are formed. Some kids are bullied because they are somewhat passive or do not pick up on social cues as well as other kids. Or they inadvertently piss off the wrong person. Some kids are bullied for just about any reason in the book you can think of. I, for one, like the idea of this girl being bullied for something that doesn’t carry along a PC agenda issue tagging along with it. I think that may have been EXACTLY the point is that she is an ordinary girl and she still gets bullied.
I don’t think if you ever experienced this that you would be so dismissive of this theme. I cannot tell you how much it pisses me off when they make a big fuss about “not picking on the gay kids”. How about not picking on ANY kids for ANY reason??? Or does everything have to be attached to a political agenda. It hurts just as much to be picked on because you accidentally said “hi” to the popular girls crush as it does to be picked on for being a nerd or being thought to be gay.
If I’m reading correctly, she’s just a doll of the year, not meant to have the same standing as Samantha or Felicity or Addie or the rest. If I’m wrong about that and she’s a full-fledged replacement for Samantha, then I definitely agree that there needs to be more to her than just “relational aggression.”
Perhaps they are calling it “relational aggression” to bolster the image of bullys. You know, like “sanitary engineer”.
“watched her father lose his shirt in the stock market, and take that third job at the candle factory to keep food on the table.”
I’m not sure that there were 3 jobs available during the depression. I think that was the point. Heh. I just finished the History Channel’s 4 part series on the depression from AppleTV. It was some grueling stuff.
If only there were some major conflict affecting the western world today, like some kind of intercultural battle over freedom of religion, or perhaps some kind of economic crisis…
Bullying (even when it’s given the laughably-PC name “relational aggression”) isn’t, and shouldn’t be treated as, an unavoidable or necessary part of growing up. Being assaulted isn’t an unavoidable or necessary part of being an adult, so why pretend it “builds character” when it happens to a fragile child?
For many girls, dealing with being assaulted is a far more pressing need than learning how great-grandma made it on a pound of sugar a month.
Wow. I guess I’m naive, but I think dolls should be fun and encourage an escape and imaginary play. I don’t think I would have enjoyed playing with a doll that was about bully’s. My own daughters loved reading the AGD books and pretending with the dolls. It’s not that I don’t encourage them to face the truth about the world in which we live, (and believe me we have practiced and preached about personal safety) but I really don’t think they need a doll to teach them about bullying, assault, or domestic abuse for that matter. Sometimes kids just need to have fun.
Actually, I’ve heard from teachers that bullying is getting worse and worse, especially among girls. I’m not sure why this would be, but it is extremely serious for both the bullied, and the bullies themselves.
I am reasonably successful. I’ve had to deal with female bullies in the course of doing business–but rarely for long. They usually go down and go down hard, the skill of catty female bullying isn’t appreciated in the real world.
Girls who are nice tend to rise much higher.
Addy deals with a mean girl in her stories too; it’s not like the historical stories never have family or friendship themes. Anyway, Leslie’s correct that Chrissa is a Girl of the Year, not a historical girl. Mia, the 2008 girl, was all about ice-skating, and the year before that it was a girl going on a research trip with her parents to the Amazon. 2010 will have someone else, and Chrissa will be gone.
I’m looking forward to seeing the movie, and my 8yo is begging for it. She, at least, is very interested in the whole issue. (And she asked for Kit for Christmas.)
How about a really representative american doll called “slut feminist”‘a kind of steinem- madonna -spears, hybrid,who gets drunk copulates, takes drugs, hates men,and winds up living on welfare on a trailerpark,and voting for Obama.THAT would be realistic!
“Actually, I’ve heard from teachers that bullying is getting worse and worse, especially among girls. I’m not sure why this would be, but it is extremely serious for both the bullied, and the bullies themselves.”
Zero tolerance perhaps? Both parties are punished equally and the bully then escalates the behavior or involves others as retaliation. The victim is forbidden from fighting back, something that usually stops the “relational aggression” in the first place.
Robert: “It was some grueling stuff.”
Robt., you sure it wasn’t just grit-ty? There was a lack of social hominy. We talked it
over, until we had sor ghums, if not mol asses. Not to be [oat]mealy-mouthed about it,
but that system could break–fast. And had that happened, we’d all have been toast.
The saying at the time was, “If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs–if we had eggs.”
Hope I didn’t scramble that too badly. It could come out, well, syrupy.
To be quite honest, I don’t see where this current crop of young girls has much in the way of any serious generational challenges, not in the same way as other generations had, which is maybe the (unintended) point. This generation is coddled, self-absorbed, and generally rather wimpy compared to what we’ve had in the past. (Look at the nature of its teen idols, for example.)
Because teen idols reflect much besides what record companies want to push? It’s not like 10yo girls are going out and choosing their ‘idols’–as always, kids (and adults) buy what companies push.
I feel that girls are facing some serious challenges these days. No, we haven’t got a world war or a depression (yet), but there’s plenty of difficulty to go ’round in the form of sexual pressure, overwhelming and unprecedented commercialism, etc. Don’t fret, the current crop of kids has plenty to worry about.
It is funny how everybody always looks at the generation coming up as worse than the one before it. I am a gen xer and and we were supposed to be total slackers and now here we are all grown up with mortgages and responsibilities just like everyone else. This current crop of kids are not anymore self absorbed than the kids that came before them. They have their own set of challenges to face and will come out just fine just like the generations before them.
Sarah, I did not say the current generation is the “worst,” but it is coddled, no doubt about it. I don’t quite buy “dangermom”‘s opinion, for example, that “unprecedented commercialism” qualifies as a hard time. Pullease. And yes, Gen X turned out to be better than expected, but you can’t seriously say they’re exactly setting the world on fire. I’d rank them as a 5 out of 10 in terms of accomplishment.
Dear Katie, let me just say first that I really like your writing. Coming from another country, I find the concept of American Girl quite interesting, especially as it is also about a learning experience, if I understand it correctly. I agree that there may be other topics to adress for this modern day doll, and yes, bullying is not new. As a matter of fact, I too was bullied while at primary school, I was a timid child who did not know how to stand for herself. These were terrible years and I never told anyone, because I was certain I would be blamed myself for it. I wish I knew then that this was not happening only to me. Now, if exposure of this problem through Chrissa doll helps one girl (or even a boy), I’d say it’s worth it. Weather this is an appropriate way to shed light to this problem and help children (the bullies and the bullied), I don’t know, especially if it is taken so lightly that people believe it’s not even worth the attention of a toy brand.
Liz,
I guess the bullied has become the bully.
what are you talking about Suzanne???