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| Happy New Year! |
Actual review tomorrow, I'm a little tired. And it's not this outfit, but don't worry--I'll be reviewing this one soon. Prepare for a fresh year of reviews, bitching, information, and learnings.
And a whole year of giving WonderBread the side eye. Look, if I don't like you, you get a snarky nickname and that's it. McSeattle got one, Chipolte Mayo got one, and now WonderBread the Ballerina joins their bland, flavorless ranks. She even has a cat, oh god are you biting EVERYTHING off of Marisol, you little punk. Even members of the target audience aren't impressed: 10-year-old petitions American Girl for disabled doll.
"For once, I don't want to be invisible or a side character that the main American Girl has to help: I want other girls to know what it's like to be me, through a disabled American Girl's story," Melissa's petition says. And the 10 year old's reaction to this new character?
"My sister was like, 'Wow, another blond girl who's a dancer,'" YingYing said.
But I'm sleep though.
The petition is here to sign: American Girl: Release an American Girl with a disability and, as of today, is up to over 13K signatures--including my own with the reason: "Representation matters for everyone. For the past three years AG has focused on able bodied white children for their Girls of the Year. Able bodied white girls are not the only people desiring these dolls, and so should not be the only people who should be considered when AG wants to telling stories to a diverse audience."
May you take more risks than AG did this year, s'all I'm saying,
--Neth
I signed that petition, and I've been all over AG's Facebook page today, part of a fairly vocal minority (people of all colors) that's criticizing the ridiculous whitebread lineup they try to pass off as "diverse." It's bad for girls' mental health, especially if they are girls of color, like mine, who unfortunately has already picked on the idea that white dolls are to be valued over anything else. I wanted to take her to an AG store for the bonding experience but now I just don't know.
ReplyDeleteHip Neth, signed the petition here. That gorgeous little girl had a major point. It would also be great to see an Asian American historical girl with a strong story and not relegated to be a footnote to another white character. My dd was born in China, the little girl in the vid on the petition page made me cry. Bless her heart, thanks for writing about this, it's really important.
ReplyDeleteI had to have a good laugh that even the cat is white and bland.
ReplyDeleteAgree--agree---agree !!!!!!
ReplyDeletepetition signed!
ReplyDeleteI've also considered writing to Mattel to express my hopes that the next Historical Character will be a Girl of Color. She could be a Japanese girl whose family is affected by WWII Internment Camps, a Chinese girl who comes to the US after the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, a Mexican girl whose family comes to the US as part of the Bracero Program, or whose family is pressured to "Repatriate", as many Mexican-American families experienced during this time.
realistically, by now they already have the next Historicals selected, designed, etc, but I feel that expressing an interest in this might encourage them to quit being so mayo-centric.
How about an Indian Girl who immigrates to America?
DeleteFor some reason, I felt like ranting about this in your comments section, so forgive me if it's... I dunno... but there's a person (who theoretically *did* sign) who is spewing such bigotry and bullying (and ironically goes by the screenname Chrissa Maxwell. Yeah.) that I want to punch her in the face (though her grammar and concerns make me think she's probably not much older than Melissa).
ReplyDeleteSigh.
I meant to sign. Also, I've been wanting to ask--what ages is this blog for? PLEASE answer if you have the time!
ReplyDeleteI cuss like a motherfucker and bring down adult hell, so if you're old enough to sign up for a site you're old enough to read.
DeleteI really need to catch up. Doh! The petition was closed, about 5000 short of 150,000 signatures, and I couldn’t sign. But I would if I could.
ReplyDelete