Laurie - I agree with you (maybe I didn't explain myself clearly enough). I agree that it does have more to do with the turbulent nature of the eras of the 1950's, 1970's. 1940's may have been a familiar time to some mothers and especially grandmothers when the AGs were introduced, but I think the general consensus in the U.S. at that time (and now) was that WWII was fought for a good reason, the U.S. was triumphant, and it was a time when our country came together and worked hard to get through that rough time, as is depicted in Molly's books. There was a general consensus in America at that time that made it easier to write AG stories about that era. The 1950's-1970's were full of extremely divisive issues: Vietnam, Civil Rights, socialism, Cold War, etc. It would be very difficult to write non-controversial stories about this era of societal fragmentation, and it would be difficult to create one girl to adequately represent that era. With that said, I think if AG could figure out how to do it "right," then those would be great time periods to have dolls.

Also, Grapedy, you have some good ideas. America is notoriously a melting pot, and to explore the backgrounds of different groups of people who were either forced from their homeland to come to the U.S. (as in your idea for a Russian Jew) or perhaps those who were simply incorporated into "America" (such as the idea of a Creole girl) are all great ideas. It's only been in recent years that AG has explored more cultural backgrounds and reasons for girls being "American" with Addy and Josefina - with the exception of Kirsten - (I'm not really counting Kaya because she was not yet incorporated into "American" "society"). AG sort of experimented with the idea of branching out to other parts of the world with the idea of the GOML dolls, but they don't need to go to other parts of the world to explore fascinating stories of different cultural, ethnic, etc. backgrounds - the U.S. is built upon so many different groups that there are virtually endless possibilities for the creation of characters who represent a variety of backgrounds and American experiences.

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 05, 2005 06:43 PM: Message edited by: * amanda ]</font>