Why I'm An Outsider: Part Eight: Summer Chaos in AG > 18 and Persona Non Grata, or How I Got Banned (Temporarily) From A Goddamn Community I Started

Felicity in a flower garden. I need all the floofy pictures for this one.

Good lord it's almost October. Where did my month go? Oh, right. Seasonal Affected Depression. Or something like that. Fall comes on and I get moody and sad like a punk. Pbbbth. Well, that should be the best time to pull this painful tooth of my time in the AG fandom in the late 2000s, right? Right.

I've been trying to do my posts in chronological order, which is why this one has been hard to get to. Which is probably why I've been putting it off forever, even though I wrote about it once before. But not in a huge public format like this. But I can't get to the garbage that happened to me on AGPT if I don't get through the garbage that happened to me by my then-best friend in the fandom. I honestly thought it had happened after my AGPT shit, but when I started to dig through the archeological mess that is my recordings, I found out that no, this happened first. Fun. Welp, can't have my arsenic til I have my strychnine.

So, the setup, for those new to the Outsider Series who will later go back and read the other seven posts.¹ By summer 2007, there were two major American Girl groups to participate in, not including flittering  message boards which were the way tweens and teens begged for fandom attention before bokeh pictures with song lyrics on Instagram. The first major gathering of AG fans--called, appropriately enough, AG Fans MB--was slowly dying after restricting everyone from the group that didn't fit into their doorways, because you can't live when you close your communities to a small faction. But I was beyond them for the most part. I was part of two major AG fandom communities. AG Playthings was the big, open forum gathering, like the main hallways of a high school. AG >18, which had been started in summer 2006, was the back woods near the school where we smoked, drank, talked shit, and shipped queerly. They worked in balance with each other: AGPT was the public place found when searching for American Girl collectors,² and AG >18 was sort of an open secret place where you could talk some shit and not get hit. I'd started it with my then best friend, PNG, whose name--online or otherwise--I don't use. AG > 18 was doing pretty good at that time. That April, we'd installed two new mods: Bean and Colette. This took the modship of AG >18 to a grand total of four, including me and PNG. We were a self-running community, so we didn't need huge amounts of moderating. At most we were just semi-public figures, who if some one needed some business taken care of beyond public work, we did it. But we were all friends of varying levels, and PNG was my closest friend. To the point she had my address and even my phone number. She complimented my sewing. She praised my Fel-Beth shipping--I was even writing fic.

So that's why it hurt like a motherfucker when, in the summer of 2007, she stabbed me in the motherfucking back.

Prologue: Not Such a Sweet Baby Face
Part One: Finding AG Fans, or How Periods are Bad For Children
Part Two: There's Fundies in My Fandom
Part Three: The Wicked Witch of Customizing and the Birth of AG > 18
Part Four: Halloween is for Jesus, or How Otters Offended a Nation
Part Five: The AG Fans Revamp: No Pagans Allowed 
Part Six: The Great Mass Banning of Aught-Six
Part Seven: The Rise of AG Playthings  

Why I'm An Outsider: Part Seven: The Rise of AG Playthings

And then there were six--at least, until that spring. 

The next chapter of my time in the mid-Aughties of the American Girl Fandom--circa 2006--follows the last chapter of my connections (for the most part) with any and all membership at AG Fans. They had pulled a Charles Lee/John Adams and shat the bed. A whole mess of people from AG > 18 had just been banned from their prohost boards in the wake of the moderating staff overreacting to the idea that there were people in the fandom--nay, in the world herself--that were not 100% Christian, straight, or monogamous, that they were doing their own thing and being happy about it, that we were looking at them or participating in their community, and/or and that some of them, someone, somewhere, might be talking about them behind their backs in an unflattering way. And then tried to feed us some lines about trolling.

In the wake of the Great Banning of Aught-Six, the new hub of American Girl fandom became AG Playthings. As people left AG Fans and their madness to wither like a neglected avocado plant in the harsh winters of Alaska, they went to the open doors of AG Playthings.¹ And you know, for a good long while, AG Playthings was pretty okay to be at. With AG Fans locking down, AG Playthings was the place for news, sports, and weather Buy/Sell/Trade in the American Girl Fandom. It had its nasty aspects, and I plan to talk about them in depth in this and future posts. But they at least didn't start that way. They started as an open, accepting AG community that allowed dissident opinions, complaints, and even calling the mods out on their shit without the fear of being throw out on your ass to bounce down the road.²

Brief discussion of the Gang Situation. The AGGiR--for we were still living in Redmond--was now one member larger by that Giftmas, with the addition of Felicity Merriman, with all her pretty tribadism and her missing her Elizabeth--and not wanting the blonde one. She was best friends with Naomi, close to Addy as another Historical even though Addy had to school her on why her grandfather's plantation was an issue and Owning Slaves Was A Bad Idea, and had a crush on Marisol that Marisol didn't even get a whiff of. Yes, Lissie liked Brunettes, and a whole photostory was made about how she did and how the gang didn't judge her one bit for being queer. As Otters said outright: "I'm not going to give up my faith because of what other people think I should be. I'm a pagan, and I'm proud of it. Being a lesbian--a tribade--is part of who you are. Do your own thing and screw the haters." It was 69 pictures of dolls,³ full of the F word and blatant paganism, and out of respect for some of the members of AG Playthings, I did not post it there or even a link to it. But I did post it at AG > 18, and I did post Otters Teaches Paganism Part Four: Yule on AG Playthings with warm reception.

So what did I have to complain about? A lot. As 2006 became 2007 and Nicki replaced Jess, I continued to post on AG Playthings comfortably and be a content participant, work at Nintendo, and make good friends in the AG fandom. And things happened, for good and for ill. These are going to be in the order I took remembering notes in, because it was around six to seven months of AG Playthings participation mixed with AG > 18 participation.⁴ Also I have no access to anything AGPT anymore, obviously, so I can only go on my notes I've had.

None of these were big sweeping things like the Banning of Aught-Six or what would later be The Final And Complete Bannination of One, Nethilia from AGPT. But they were things that happened in, on, and around the fandom.

This one might be on the long side. Let's go. [/Alexander Hamilton]

Prologue: Not Such a Sweet Baby Face
Part One: Finding AG Fans, or How Periods are Bad For Children
Part Two: There's Fundies in My Fandom
Part Three: The Wicked Witch of Customizing and the Birth of AG > 18
Part Four: Halloween is for Jesus, or How Otters Offended a Nation
Part Five: The AG Fans Revamp: No Pagans Allowed 
Part Six: The Great Mass Banning of Aught-Six
  

Why I'm An Outsider: Part Six: The Great Mass Banning of Aught-Six

The holidays were coming, and so was the bullshit.

Depression sucks. Depression sucks a lot. You don't get anything done like you'd want, things get pilled up in piles, and all your executive function gets shot to shit. I fight major depression--and I don't mean "oh, today I feel bad" bullshit, I mean "brain no worky so I sit there and don't do anything and can't get anything done really pbbbt" depression which is a chronic illness. I've wanted to do tons of reviews--including Grace stuff, I got all I wanted from Vanilla Bean's collection I'm pretty sure--the introduction of Maryellen to the gang, and a huge helpful post about adding to the AG collection without breaking the bank that is still sitting in queue to work on and has been since frigging September.¹ And then my brain is like "no, you're going to do fuck all for weeks and weeks" and the photocorner stays a mess and leaves no room for shots. I'm not going to lie about why there's been a dearth of posts. I try and my brain chokes up. I'm going to try to do better, but every day is a struggle, and some days turn into weeks of terrible.

With that said, I hope you understand.

Before we get into the point of the post, news catch up. Yes, I've seen Lea Clark. From what I can see in her looks she's Marisol with the Hazel Eyes that AG bought way too many of, and she's at most biracial because AG can't give us a full PoC. My protest and post stands. American Girl needs to give us dolls of color for the Girl of the Year, and not just mixed ones with whiteness imbued to smooth over white racism that makes it so that characters of color have to be mixed with white to be acceptably ethnic. We'll see what her stories offer. But one character is not enough, especially when surrounded by frequent whiteness. I'm tired and you should be too. Blech.

To the story.

When we last left you at the story of AG Fandom Fucking It Up in 2006, AG Fans had just moved from Hostboard to phpBoards and taken the opportunity to do a widespread ban on Paganism and Pagan displays, as instigated by Yours Truly, the Pagan. They had also closed the board to the point that new users had to agree to the rules before they could read them. It was a nasty knot of BS, and while I had a lurker account to see the mess and get news, I was not a participant and was more a participant of AG > 18 and AGPT.  This was December 6th, 2006. I'd started working on a photostory called Naomi's Giftmas Surprise at the start of the month, which would slowly introduce the sixth member of the AGGiB,² and taught myself to restring to restring both Addy and Beth Cady (and found it a lot easier than I had thought it was).  We kept snarking at AG > 18, and newsing at AGPT.

December 13th, 2006, is when shit really got fucked.

Prologue: Not Such a Sweet Baby Face
Part One: Finding AG Fans, or How Periods are Bad For Children
Part Two: There's Fundies in My Fandom
Part Three: The Wicked Witch of Customizing and the Birth of AG > 18
Part Four: Halloween is for Jesus, or How Otters Offended a Nation
Part Five: The AG Fans Revamp: No Pagans Allowed 

Historical Clothes Reviews: Samantha's Limited Edition Flower-Picking Set

Marisol, always looking fine in Edwardian wear.

We have less than a week until Maryellen Larkin touches down officially and Caroline Abbott leaves forever and ever and ever. AG Scottsdale, since they opened this weekend and (smartly) didn't want to set everything up for Caroline and then have to take it all down in a week, released Maryellen first, so the stuff is floating around. Good for them, allowing the new store on the block to get the shiny new stuff before everyone else who's already done this game. It's not like we can't wait a piddling week.¹ I'm still working out how to go to the ME release because I lucked the fuck out and got PAX Prime tickets for Saturday and Sunday, and Thursday and Friday are always complicated for me getting anywhere. But I will get there, by gods. Even if y'all don't see the post about it all til that Monday.

It's only been about a year since the BeForever Launch and the anniversary of the return of the line's favorite Edwardian, Samantha Mary Parkington.They're slowing down on giving her a crapton of stuff, but she's still ahead of the game in sheer volume what with the gazebo and the ice cream parlor and the easel. AG won't leave her out of a release if they don't have to, and the Limited Edition outfits gave her a spot to shine. Since Addy is no longer going flower picking and kite flying in the same dress,² Samantha has stepped in to make flower gathering a respectable task again with her Flower Picking Dress: a wrap-style calf length dress, tights, high button shoes, a hairbow, and a basket of tulips. The set retails for $48 right now but like Kit's Chicken Set, I snagged this one on sale for $38. eBay prices are ridiculous, and this set has--as far as I can remember--never gone on backorder so there's no excuse to not get it direct until it's retired. The girl's outfit--the  Lacy Tee and Lacy Tiered Skirt--I personally find utterly hideous. Nope!

Flower picking is actually fitting for the era. During the Late Victorian and Edwardian period, bringing nature into the house and prettying it up was a high class hobby, especially if you lived in a city because it showed you had the money to skip out and visit the rural life. At the 1900 Census, about 40% of people lived in urban areas like cities, and only two decades later the population would shift to an urban majority population. (Now about four-fifths of the population resides in urban areas and the percent is still going up.)³ Samantha could be counted as one of the rural turned urban, moving to NYC before the end of her series. All that squished up city living was mentally bothersome and so people would always try to bring nature into the house, though not always for the positive. And since little girls were supposed to be ladies and not go climbing trees Samantha Mary, flower picking and arraignment was a proper activity.

Marisol has graciously decided to wear this outfit for you to see; she does love the turn of the century aesthetic. She even has little pink studs to help the look. Nellie didn't model this set because at the time of the massive photography session, she was wearing the pink dress and pinafore I'd made. She'll model the next Edwardian set that looks bomb on her.

Why I'm an Outsider - Part Five: The AG Fans Revamp: No Pagans Allowed

One of these girls ain't wanted on AG Fans.

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men an' dollybloggers gang aft agley.¹ I had plans for photoshoots, my loves. Not only do I have Addy's and Kit's and Kaya's 2015 LE outfits, I had plans to snap mad pics of them and start to review the hell out of each. But my homeplace informed me that they were redoing all my windows and that meant clearing everything away from them. Including dismantling my photoshoot corner. And my altar (how very fitting for this next topic). Oh, and my body decided that functioning without another daily lifestyle med is for chumps and I caught a cold that fucked me up on the hardcore. I'm full of issues. It's like Nat Geo up in dis bitch. So rather than reviews--those can come next month--what you get is more about how AG Fandom had fucked up problems and shit. And this is one of the BIG ones from AG Fans.

Enough prologue. Let's get into this.

So Halloween--Samhain for us pagans--2006 had passed, and the message couldn't be clearer to me. Paganism was super offensive to those of AG Fans, enough to get an album thread shut the entire fuck down and deleted. I had stuck my neck out to test the rules on faith and demonstrating it to see if they fairly applied to me as well as others. The response had been the equivalent of a smack in the face--I had been shown in no uncertain terms that this was not to be tolerated, thank you young lady, you keep that non-Christian stuff in the dark where good White Christian God-fearing children can't see it.

November went on, with the hot mess continuing to happen. AG > 18 stayed in our corner for the most part, talking amongst ourselves and getting hella annoyed with racist and bigoted thought running unchecked and discussing the ongoing microdramas that kept going on and thinking the way people were being treated was some grade-A hot steaming load of bullshit. Meanwhile, AGPT was on the rise as the better place to be to talk about American Girl without feeling like a lesser person--the album had gone over fine there!² I was actually liking it over there, since I could be who I was--black, pagan, poly, bi--without the mod staff getting panties in the ass any time I pushed back against bigots.They had fuckups, but they were less fucked up than AG Fans, which was saying something.

As for AG Fans? Bigotry abounded, and it continued on that people were banned behind closed doors for protesting mod abuse and told things in sickly sweet language complete with condescension smilies and tone. This included statements that AG Fans was willing to look at your dolls but you had better take your goth and devil issues elsewhere.³ Posts on AGFans were getting edited to remove such subversive language as "alternative lifestyle" and replied to with saccharine sweet statements when people rightfully protested. The claim outright said by one of the mods on AGFans to someone's post was that "Would I want my eight year old to see it?" should be a good baseline for how the place was run, and since some people didn't want their eight year old knowing about certain things, it was just best not to talk about it. Would you want your precious eight year old to know about homosexuals and other non-Christian faiths?

dot dot mother fucking dot.

Okay, first of all eight year olds shouldn't be on the internet unsupervised, so there's that shit to start. And second of all, yes. I don't want my theoretical eight year old to become a goddamn prejudiced asshole who thinks that it's okay to be a homophobe and that talking about alternative lifestyles is so goddamn taboo that the mods have to ninja edit posts lest a kid read the word "girlfriend" spoken by a girl and instantly stop going to church and embracing witchcraft and lesbian acts.⁴ I plan to also teach my kids about paganism and any other faiths out there--even that it's okay not to have one at all--what their reproductive organs are for beyond "naughty things we don't touch and talk about," how to buck against an unfair social system, and how to curse out every other kid on the playground if they need to. Don't expect me to muffle myself because you're too fucking ignorant/lazy/stupid/bitchy to parent your child. Because last I checked, no one's crawled kicking and screaming out of my uterus yet--and not from lack of wanting to carry a child. REGULATE YER OWN DAMN KIDS. If you're that damn concerned, take your eight year old off the internet--and probably put them in a tiny box somewhere until they're married or run away from home.

Back to November 2006. I had gotten the message that my pagan albums weren't wanted, and that should have been the end of it, right? The pagan had been told, she had been told very blatantly, and she knew to keep her filthy heathenish ways away from good people. And that was that.

Nope. Nope, there was still fall out to come, and oh was it coming and it was going to be nasty.

Prologue: Not Such a Sweet Baby Face
Part One: Finding AG Fans, or How Periods are Bad For Children
Part Two: There's Fundies in My Fandom
Part Three: The Wicked Witch of Customizing and the Birth of AG > 18
Part Four: Halloween is for Jesus, or How Otters Offended a Nation

Why I'm an Outsider - Part Four: Halloween is for Jesus, or How Otters Offended a Nation

And then there were four. And the drama really started.

I was enduring the American Girl Fandom in August 2006 a lot better than I had been earlier in the same year. Firstly, AG Playthings was a up-and-coming board to counteract the super repressive fundamentalism of AG Fans. The mods allowed open discussion, and challenges to people's opinions. So I could talk about my sexuality, race, and faith a lot more openly than I ever could at AG Fans. (That is, at all.) And AG Over 18 was the LiveJournal based spot that we jokingly called the space behind the main school where the "bad kids" gathered to snark on bullshit, think critically about American Girl beyond the squeal and the buy, and watched Felicity and Elizabeth make out, and offered the idea that Kit had the possibility of growing up to be a fine young man.

I was starting to feel a lot better about being part of the American Girl Fandom. It didn't have to be all fundamentalism and controlled speech and "what about the children" in every corner any more. And the best part for me was how AG > 18 was just thriving. I had only thought we'd have a few people there, but we were so active and inviting. Quite a few people would join to feel a lot less pressure around them. It was a place where you could breathe deeply and not feel like you were walking on razor-blades to just talk about yourself and your dolls without getting fussed at for having such "unwholesome" things as naked doll ass, race talk, queerness, and hair streaks.¹ We were passing around older AG pattern scans, snarking on things, making non-wholesome jokes, talking about things that mattered to us, poking at Emily being the English Friend of Molly, and becoming a community. It was a thriving community I'd help start. That was a very good feeling.

I'd made a lot of friends, especially on AG > 18. PNG (Persona Non Grata) was probably my closest friend of them all.² We talked for hours. Not just online, but on the phone--to the point I ate up too many minutes on my phone plan and had to scale it back to avoid high fees. Around late July to early August, she said she'd like to send me early birthday and holiday presents. I accepted with glee--people sending me things! Wow! She went on the AG site to send me still-newish #26 in the Ready for Fun Meet set (because I was worried about the new one upcoming not being something I liked; I was right) and found Marsiol for cheap on eBay with her near complete meet set. And that's how Amber "Otters" Flynn and Marisol Luna joined up, doubling my gang in the course of a day. Only a few days later she also located and purchased Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who arrived very soon afterwards--within a week.

She...needed her hair did. So badly.

She wasn't my only friend either. In fact, the day before Otters and Marisol arrived, I'd met Colette and Inky, and we'd hung out in downtown Seattle. Not only was I making friends, they wanted to meet me!

They sat on a statue man's butt. We took pictures.

That September, I got a job--a real one, working for Nintendo Consumer Service. Nothing big, and likely not to last, I'd personally thought. It was basic customer service for the Nintendo DS--connecting it, troubleshooting, setting up repairs, etc. I did my training the first two weeks of October, started working right after my 26th birthday, and accepted that I would have to work over the holiday season--the reason I hadn't gotten the job last year was because I would be out of town over the holidays.³ My fiance was doing good in his college classes, and with me now having a job we were a little less boot at our throat for finances. I was doing well both in life and starting to do well in fandom.

And then Halloween came, and I pushed harder against AG Fans than I ever had before and blew things up.

Prologue: Not Such a Sweet Baby Face
Part One: Finding AG Fans, or How Periods are Bad For Children
Part Two: There's Fundies in My Fandom
Part Three: The Wicked Witch of Customizing and the Birth of AG > 18

Clothes Reviews: Isabelle's Separates (2014)

Marisol has, of course, always been the better dancer.

I have bitched, and bitched, and bitched about Isabelle Palmer, GotY 2014 AKA Wonderbread the Ballerina. Just search my archives, you'll know it to be true. I have bitched about her face, her hair, her whiteness, her ugly clothes covered in sparkle barf, her stupid creativity center, and her books--I'm struggling to get through Book Three because gods, does everything go her way all the time. "Look at me design clothes and dance in everything and my favorite dancer ever in the world gives me one on one time and everyone thinks my clothes designs are sooo fucking special and blah blah blah eeeen~" I'd bitch about her movie but it can be summed up as "gods, Isabelle is the entire center of everything and the best part of the movie was Jade calling her out on her self centered bullshit."¹

So yes, I hate Isabelle with the fire power of Mega Charizard Y using Fire Blast. But, like Chipotle Mayo, McSeattle, and EnviroLanie before her, I am not above jacking her shit for my own dancer needs. Or reviewing them for yours. I'm not a monster, after all. I'm just one hell of a hater. Over the course of the year, I've gotten Isabelle's Coral Sweater for $14, Isabelle's Rosette Leotard for $10,  Isabelle's Tutu for $14, and Isabelle's Legwarmers Set for $12. (I'm still debating the Wrap Sweater and dismantling her Metallic Chaos Theory Set.) I have also been able to obtain her most simple ballet shoes without having to buy that entire dance barre set for $10 and so here we will call them Isabelle's Practice Slippers. Total cost of this mix and match set? $60. I'd bitch more but all of Addy's BeForever newness (sans the two-book volumes) is in my house and waiting on review. (If you haven't noticed, my site icon is now her BeForever image. Thinking of sticking it on the side somewhere.) Come December, all this shit will pop out of stock bit by bit, get retired Dec 31st, and Wonderbread will take her place in the archives as we prep for 2015 and I get to raise my hopes only to have them smash into the pointy rocks of racism when they give me another white girl for a Connect Four Years of Failure. Plus we'll get all the fun of on the Facebook page loaded with ignorant ass parents complaining that they didn't order her in time so now Giftmas is ruined, or asking for her to be restocked.² You got three months, maybe less, maybe more when it pops up as a sale item. Get on it.

Marisol, the resident Dancer of the AGGIB, is here to show off how all this looks 200% cooler on her tan skin. Also, partially through we get some modifications because fuck your design style WonderBread, that's why. Since these items are sold separately (with the exception of the tights and shoes), they will be reviewed and graded separately, then get the end overall feels. While the closest I have ever gotten to dancing is the Get In Shape Girl Workout Bar playset³ I sorta love the sport-slash-art of ballet and read hella books about it.

Pet Reviews: Coconut (2002), Honey (2009), Chocolate Chip (2011) and Himalayan Kitten (2014)

AG has made a lot of small animal things.

American Girl has always had a level of pet to its collections, starting with the release of the birthday collections for Molly and Kirsten. Samantha, who apparently was too posh to pet, got a teddy bear as her "pet" until Jip came out with her first revamp, and it may be likely that she'll come back with a pet. A very early issue of AG Magazine¹ focused on girls and their animals. And I more than anyone went through a pony stage that has never ended, thank you Almighty Hasbro and your one true Creation, the My Little Pony. Overall, girls and pets generally go together. And since AG knows girls like animals, and AG likes money, AG has released a lot of pets. Every historical at some point has had a pet from Addy's bird in a cage to Felicity's huge-ass horse. Even the Girls of the Year are getting in on this pet action and have since the days of Kailey.² And of course, there is Coconut.

A short intro about the Coconut Gang. PC had a rather pitiful showing for modern pet sets: Baxter the Bunny, a husky dog to pull the AG sled, and Penny being made to be the stand in horse outside of her collection. Then in the year 2000 Mattel--now fully in charge of this crazy shack--came out with Coconut, a white Westie dog. Male initially, Coconut flipped to female in 2001, got dress up sets, and started showing up on moddie outfits. In 2003³ Licorice--a black cat--was released to become what would be the first of many pets based on and hanging around with Coconut, most with food-based names and appearing on clothing options for the moddie on the go. Several pets have come and gone, but they've all had a base in a little white fluffy dog that has been around for fourteen years.

I've had a few pets in my life--birds, cats, a couple dogs--but I've never really had a love for Coconut. I'm more of a cat person. However, my husband is allergic to cat fur--like, his eyes will crust over and his throat gets all coughing and wheezing allergic--and we don't have much space for pets anyways in my house, AG collection notwithstanding. So my pet options right now are limited to nothing, stuffed animals, cursing out the squirrels outside, and small AG animals. Over the years I've managed to get four official modern AG pets:

• Coconut v.2, that ran from 2001-2004;
• Honey, a golden retriever released and retired in 2014 with the pet revamp;
• Chocolate Chip, a Labrador retriever released and currently only available in the Service Dog Set;
• And most recently, the Himalayan Kitten released in 2014. 

This has resulted in me having at least one of every major "pet shape". These reviews are both coverings and going into some of the variations on Coconut pets we've had over the years. I'll talk about how I got each one; only one so far has been purchased direct from AG.

Before I dip into the pet reviews, just a thing. You may notice a Paypal donate button to the side. That's recently added. Here's the thing: I've been unemployed for well over two years and come from generational poverty. I do write books--and will probably put another of those up on the Createspace--have a modest etsy account which needs more AG stuff, and my man keeps me on my feet. But for the most part I don't have a steady income and we live in a capitalist society until the revolution comes. So if you like what I read and would like to toss a couple bucks my way in appreciation, that would be boss. It's of no obligation to anyone; at no point will there be a cost to hear me bitch and ramble and scoot around on my side.

Anyways, on with the reviews!

AG Complaint Department: I'm a Mattel, I'm a PC Part 1

Marisol's a "Mattel", Josefina's a "PC". I don't care.

If you're part of the AG Fandom--and honestly, 90% of the people reading this blog are part of the AG fandom, it's a niche topic I'm talking on here--then you've probably had to deal with a lot of Pleasant Company nostalgia on message boards and among collectors. To paraphrase Douglas Adams and make a long story very short, "In 1998 Mattel bought American Girl from Pleasant T. Rowland, Founder of American Girl, for seven hundred million dollars. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded by nostalgia goggle collectors as a bad move."

Spend any time around some boards and you'll pick up the vibe. Pleasant Company love and Mattel Hate is everywhere. Many collectors will talk wistfully of  the days when Addy's Meet Accessories came with authentic gourds and Felicity's eyes were a soothing green and Samantha's hair was apparently so fresh and curly you could just fluff it all day. Many people will pay more to have a PC doll or accessory set rather than get a Mattel one. There are multiple posts around the internet telling you how to tell a PC doll from a Mattel in the same way people try to tell authentic coins, stamps, or vintage items. Some people say that PC stuff is automatically worth more than anything Mattel made. In fact, many people call dolls and items made before Mattel purchased the company PM--or "Pre-Mattel", as if the ownership by Mattel has tainted our precious 18 inch semi-historical dolls.

If a person prefers PC stuff, that's one thing. I'm not going to bitch too hard about that. But many of them shit all over Mattel's releases and turn their nose up towards anything not PC, and in the process come off wholly, willfully ignorant. I recently came across a post on a blog (I won't link) that stated the following without a hint of irony:

Let's face it, anything Pleasant Company is better quality. Those of us who collect PC can see the difference. Kit's candy making set would have had a metal not a plastic double boiler with plastic candy molds. And Kit would not wear a PINK dress, still they insisted on giving her a pink polyester chiffon dress. 

I find this hilariously stupid for the big glaring reason that Kit, released in 2000, was released wholly by Mattel. Yes, random blogger, I'm sure that the Historical Character that was never released by PC would have totes released her stuff the way you're saying.

Not everything PC has released has been better. I don't deny that Mattel has done a lot of weird, unusual, badly planned, and altogether shitty things since they got the company. But so did Pleasant Company and Pleasant Rowland in the twelve years before Mattel stepped in, and I'm not about to let the early years of the company off the hook for their actions.

This is going to be a side series--basically, I'll just go into four to five things about Pleasant Company I don't like with each post, because there's no way I can get this in one post.

Clothes Reviews: Winter Magic Outfit (2004)

Marisol would like to inform you that it's still winter.

And then I didn't post for four days. The first of the year sometimes leaves me very worn out. I've been sorting my AG things--I got a lot of things last year that no one saw, and trying to figure out things to review over the course of the year. Also, my brother and I went to the AG store yesterday and I confirmed how much I don't like Wonderbread the Ballerina to my face.¹ Many people have taken down the lights and trees and all the shiny bits and made things boring again, and started to make New Year's Resolutions--generally about some arbitrary need to lose weight that will peter off just in time to gorge on chocolate for Valentine's Day. (Things that are never my problem nowadays. Allergy powers activate.) I try to make New Year's Resolutions, but they mostly consist of "draw and write more," "discover more of the world through the internet," "take more pictures of my collections and dolls," "love me and all my black woman awesome" and "try not to let the depression win this week, but not hate me when it does."

Though one of them this year is to post more on my AG blog. Especially reviews, snark, Magazine Monthly, and Crafting Creatively. And we're starting with--more fancy holiday outfit reviews! Never a bad time for fancy outfit reviews. Today we're doing one of the first modern holiday sets I ever had--the Winter Magic Outfit. The outfit--one of the paired fancy sets--came with a white fur detachable collar, black velvet top with beaded decor, white tulle skirt, black ankle strap shoes, and textured tights. It was paired with Winter Magic Accessories--and you know me pretty well, I don't always have the accessories. This set came out a year before I got Addy and retired before I had any moddies so I only learned about it after it was gone; it actually didn't fancy out the box, and you just got a standard American Girl Today box.² Originally, all my moddies were going to have crafted dresses, but now I reserve that if possible for created historicals.³ However, once I got Marisol and was assured that she was a dancer, I decided to get this set for her and got it in a private purchase for a touch under the original cost. eBay costs are pretty sensible at about $10-15 over face. 

I still haven't taken Marisol's hair down from her fancy hairstyle I got months ago at the AG store. It's too cute.

Historical Clothes Reviews: Rebecca's Hanukkah Dress and LE Mini Doll

Marisol doesn't celebrate Hanukkah, but she does celebrate nice clothes.

Yesterday was Yule--which is my religious holiday as an eclectic pagan. The Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, and many pagans celebrate with bonfires, holly and ivy, keeping the lights on, and reminding ourselves that though the darkness seems long and endless, from this day on the circle gets brighter and the days get longer. Celebrate the reason for the season--Our Lady of Darkness Persephone spending the winter with her husband and lover, Hades, in the Underworld.¹

Among my gang of AG girls, I have a major pagan and her younger sister, a faithful Roman Catholic, several nominal Christians, A gang member who feels Episcopalian, and some that really don't give a shit about Christianity beyond the cultural influence. However, I don't have any Jewish or Muslim girls. I have a mild fascination with Judaism the same way I have one with Islam or Catholicism, in that I like to study and learn about faiths not my own. I already know enough about Protestant/Non-denominational Christianity, being raised in it partially, and eventually chose to make a deconversion in my 20s. I own a copy of the Tanakh and read it in college, and will probably read it again, especially if I eventually have a Jewish gang member. But I don't purport to know everything about the faith.

American Girl was pretty lackluster on the Jewish front for some time. At first all they had was a Hannukah outfit and accessories which, despite a reformation at one point, have hung on through the years--and been misused by many people.² Then there was Lindsey Bergman, Girl of the Year 2001-2002 who had one book which mentions that her older brother is having his bar mitzvah. Her traits are more like what TV Tropes calls Informed Judaism: a marker here and there but nothing really Jewish, more Jewish in opposition to Christianity. Then in 2009 after the removal of Pretty Princess 'Mantha, we got her replacement: Rebecca Rubin, a Russian-Jewish girl living in post-Titanic era New York City. Rebecca wasn't just nominally Jewish: her family keep the traditions and so does she and while she is only one example of living Jewish in Eastern Immigrant America era, she does it in a lovely way. I did pick up "Rebecca" soon after she came out, but only to customize into another historical I had planned as she was the perfect look for the job. And since Marisol Luna--my pretty Latina dancer--had started to find a love of early 1900s clothes, I gave her Rebecca's meet wear and started getting Rebecca's clothes for her here and there. Rebecca feels a major level of awkwardness in the US and the pressure to assimilate to the dominant faith by her peers. One of Rebecca's books that best show her discomfort is Candlelight for Rebecca, where she and her classmate Rose try to explain to the teacher that they don't want to participate in making Christmas decorations, but are told by the teacher that since Christmas is a national holiday, everyone celebrates it, and thus pushed into doing things that don't make her feel right or comfortable.³ Rebecca's grandparents assure her that she is free to feel discomfort and not want to do Christmas things, because Christmas is a Christian holiday, and tell the signifigance of and celebrating it in America freely, and it all works out for her.

For Hanukkah, Rebecca has a dress she loves wearing for the holidays, and it is quite relevant to her stories. Rebecca's Hanukkah Dress consists of a a purple striped dress with white sleeves and collar, a woven embroidered hairbow, cream tights, and cream shoes; the set was released the September after her release and just in time for the holidays. The current cost is $32 direct from AG--it was $28 when it came out, but costs rising and all. It's on eBay, and most of the prices are not a good one. Why are you on eBay for this? Just buy it from AG. I paid Gift for it--that is, in a holiday swap this was gifted to me.

Since I don't have Rebecca, Marisol Luna will be modeling Rebecca's wear for you, but they share face molds so it works. Marisol would have had three clothes changes, but Tara and I came to an understanding. My Marisol is a lot like book!Marisol, with the noted traits here of being a little ditzy, a touch snippy, allergic to chocolate, in love with Disney princesses, and beautiful with languages. And also being Felicity's first crush here, because she looks like a Latina version of Felicity's Dear Elizabeth. Like the others, this review contains LE Mini Rebecca.

Pajama Jammy Jams: Slumber Shirt with Mini Bear (1995), Slumber Shirt (1996) and AG Bear Slumber Shirt

Four versions of the same outfit. The 90s was a highly creative time.

Where have you been for two weeks, my loyal readers said. The answer on the morning of the 13th was going to be "working on my Nanowrimo novel like I do every year, because I am a self publishing author."¹ I was going to say how I won early but not as early as I did the year before, and since I hit the 50k barrier on the 12th from writing about 4k a day, I could ease back to only maybe 3.5k since writing is my dayjob, and get back to yelling about AG's bullshit.

But then my father died on the 13th as I was starting to work on this post and instead of getting this posted and snapping pictures of my magazines for Magazine Monthly, it's been a string of bourbon shots (shit you not, that was my modus operandi for five hours yesterday), writing out my grief in my novel, and last minute flight booking to Wisconsin. If you were just here for clothes reviews, advice and bitching, you might not be happy with me. So what? It's my damn space. Welcome to American Girl Outsider, the blog where I will talk about how Mike and the Mechanics just made me do an ugly hideous "I miss my Daddy" cry for five minutes before talking about doll clothes. Writing is how I cope with deep shit, be it about doll shit or in a novel.

Here, it's doll shit.

In 1995, as I said in previous posts, American Girl launched their modern line which has been highly successful for the company to the point that everyone with Nostalgia Goggles set to "Pre-Mattel" seems to think that it's dragging the entire line down the tubes. And since the line was designed at the start to parallel the historicals, they frequently sorted things into the same slots they had: a "school" setup, a "holiday" setup, and so on. This included a "sleep" setup. The first nightgown that your adorable little 18" American Girl of History could have was the Slumber Shirt and Mini Bear, a red nightshirt with a hair tie and a miniature version of the bear and outfit you could have for your Miss AG Bear for the low low cost of $16. The red version only lasted about a year in doll sizes--1995 to 1996--before it came out as the Slumber Shirt, now two dollars higher at $18, sans mini bear, plus a mini copy of the book Games and Giggles, and much more similar to the one Miss AG Bear had (which priced at $10 alone, $28 if you got the bear dressed). This set lasted as an option until 1998 when many more creative nightclothes started to emerge. That's right, there are four versions of the same outfit, two just for dolls. 90s AG was slick as shit for making dollar bills come to them.

The outfits show up here and there on eBay for a high of about 30 bucks. The red set almost always is found without the bear, or Bear Sold Separately. The hunt for a set for Miss AG bear might be harder, and might be listed as a set for a doll. Mini bears are sporadic, but often dressed. The green set I can't pin down when I got it; it was probably in a surge of AG purchases. I remember Mellie wore it to bed soon after her arrival.  I had the red shirt just kicking around from a swap box, and got the actual hair tie for it for 4 bucks off eBay. The bear's outfit was about $20 or so, and the Mini bear cost me 15 bucks with shipping, so it probably all balances out.

Naomi is sporting the 95-96 set, Marisol the 96-98.

Our gang member models today are Naomi Kirkland and Marisol Luna, who decided that this was a good time for an AG pajama jammy jam--and if you have no idea what that is from, you might be too white and too young for me to have a sleeping in the bed sexual relationship with. Google it.

We'll get more of the gang in other posts. The holidays are coming up, and nearly everyone here has an adorable outfit for the occasion.

Clothes Reviews: Marisol's Spotlight Outfit (2005)

Enjoy the spotlight, Marisol, and enjoy the Spotlight Outfit.

Marisol Luna was Girl of the Year the same year I got my first AG: 2005. So naturally, I skipped her in my mad scramble for Addy. She was later gifted to me by an ex-friend, who I've since fallen out with.¹ But that doesn't stop Marisol from being one of my most beautiful gang members--I've thought she was gorgeous since I got her. She came in her near complete meet outfit; she's an MCM doll and has the black x on her ass to prove it. I have made a slow creep of getting most of her LE clothes that appealed to me, and am practically done. Marisol was marketed as a dancer, even though her story more dealt with moving issues and her love of dance and ballet folklorico--a traditional Mexican dance style that I, growing up in Texas, fell hard for. Swishy swirling skirts wee. In fact, Marisol here has a folklorico dress I made myself. I think it was a gross oversight that she got a bunch of common dance style clothes but no folklorico dress. That is why I had to make the set myself--and will make a set for Josefina. Damn it, AG. Moving on.

One of her more beautiful outfits is the Spotlight Outfit, which is basically a ballet performance set. The outfit originally came with a mesh and stretch leotard, a "lace" and tulle tutu, purple tights, purple iridescent toe shoes with tying ribbons, a stretch choker, and six pairs of stick on earrings. The original cost was $26. My set that came with no tights and earrings cost me a bargain at $16 last December. Costs range on eBay from about $26 to $50, ignoring stupid prices. The few times it shows up, of course--Marisol was one of those first three LE girls that didn't get her and her things hoarded like the new girls do now for resale. Not only is Marisol here to display her own outfits, but she is our resident dancer girl and wears her dance outfits with gusto. So you'll see a lot of her when I do any dance outfit reviews. Any of them. It's her niche.

A few things I'm gonna point out before we jump in: 

1: The tights aren't AG authentic. I just happen to have purple tights that work well with her ballet outfit. Not like AG tights have much variation, and there will be authentic tights in later reviews.
2: The tiara is not from her spotlight stand set, cause I don't own it. It's from me spoiling myself and her at AG Seattle and getting her hair done. So the tiara cost me $25, and came with the added bonus of watching Marisol get all prettyified for thirty minutes or so and chattering with the stylist about dolls.
3: Fuck stick on earrings. Even if I had them I wouldn't use them. Marisol will be getting her ears really pierced in a Crafty Crap post. They are graded F and I don't even have them.

AG Identifications: Ballet Wear

Ballet sets are Marisol's sole ownership right now.

American Girl has come out with a lot of ballet sets since starting up the modern line. At least one ballet set has been around every year since 1995, with the noted exception of a two year gap between 2004-2006. Which was covered by Marisol's collection, as she was the 2005 girl of the year and had two ballet outfits. So that's pushing to 20 years of toe shoes, leotards, and tights. Including Marisol's collection there's been nine ballet outfits:

• Ballet Costume I
• Ballet Costume II
• Swan Lake Ballet Costume  
• Marisol's Ballet Outfit 
• Marisol's Spotlight Outfit
• Ballet Recital Outfit 
• Two-in-One Ballerina Set 
• Ruby Ballet Outfit 
• Ballet Outfit

So how many of that list modern ballet outfits do I own? All but one--the Ballet Recital Outfit--and I'm keeping eyes open for a complete set since I have completes of all the others.¹ I like ballet, though I've never taken a class ever. Read a shit load of books. Own some textbooks. Look things up. Try to know most of what I'm talking about. Watch Princess Tutu. Sketch ballet outfits.

Because of the semi-uniformity of ballet, the outfits tend to repeat themselves in one way or another. There's only so many variations of tights/leotard/ballet shoes that exist and a lot of them are pink because ballet seems to yell "pink all the things." This means high potential for mix ups, especially in the pink shoe department.  Hell, I've mixed them up tons of times. And while all my sets will get proper reviews, this is more of a "which shoes go with which set of tights?" list, so you won't be seeing the whole outfit. Take note of the Marisol Spotlight Outfit shots. You will see them later in a review.

I reiterate that I own no Bitty things and I don't care about Bitty Things beyond news.

*~*~*

AG Complaint Department: Never Too Old for American Girl - Or Anything Else!

Addy, Michi, and my mom's Cécile.

So, back on track with things on the blog: ranting, raving, reviews, and magazines.¹ But first the ranting. Well, more like fussing and talking, as it were, on a topic that is pretty dear to me.

In this picture are three lovely dolls. To the left is my Addy, to the right is Michi Taylor, and in the center is Cécile. But Cécile's not mine². This pretty girl belongs to my mother--I gifted her to my mom when I went to AG Houston, along with her starter accessories. When I told some people this, they were a little shocked that my mom wanted an AG doll. Why would grown people want dolls? Shouldn't we want things like babies, or cars, or booze or houses or other mature, adult things? Isn't doll collecting a sign of immaturity and not growing up?

Fuck no. AG dolls might have a lower limit in my eyes, but they have never had an upper limit. Children can be too young for dolls and toys. But people can never, never be too old for dolls.