Kinda OT: The Girls in my Grade say they never had played with dolls.

[QueenNellieElizabeth]

Yes thats how i think the 12 year olds in my school think too.

[kitandkat]

That's so sad. I love imagining things for my dolls to do and it would be sad to lose that. Maybe they were just saying that because they wanted to seem cooler. Now, surprisingly, whenever I mention dolls at HS girls are like, oh, cool, I have Samantha/Kaya/etc. Just follow your heart but if you don't feel comfortable you don't have to tell them you have dolls. Only my closest friends know about mine; the only other times people found out about them is when I lent my friend my digital camera and it still had some doll pics, and when I did the cover of my English paper (but I didn't know I'd have to present it!).

[QueenNellieElizabeth]

Yes only a 3 girls I know know about my dolls. My BFF Anne, my ex friend, and this one girl who has a few ag's herself. My mam says dont tell the girls in my grade that I still play with them, I'll be tormented all through High school. [img]graemlins/chat.gif[/img]

[dolllover]

You guys who are saying girls today are trying to grow up too fast are right. When I was in elementary school no one really cared about clothes other people wore. That changed in middle school. Now people in my high school people don't care as much about clothes and the "in" things to wear. I definitely think pre-teen girls are getting the idea they they SHOULD start dating at ages 11 and 12. There's nothing wrong with playing with dolls, there are a lot more worse things that girls today are doing. [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]confused.gif[/img] [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ October 01, 2006 08:36 PM: Message edited by: AGfanatic ]</font>

[QueenNellieElizabeth]

yes my ex friend had six boy friends(some only lasted a day) by the time she was in 8th grade. and most of the girls have boyfriends, some are even older then us!

[AGMommy]

I didn't really play with dolls until now. (Except I did play with Barbies.) So, there's a good possibility that many of these girls will find interest in later years.

I'm going to open a can of worms with this one, but I would have a problem with boys WANTING to play with dolls. It's one thing if they're toddlers, but 8 or 9 year olds? I think there are clear-cut differences between boys and girls, (which I accept.) Girls want to play with dolls. Boys want to 'beat them up.' LOL!

[Kenshinchan]

I know not ALL girls want to play with dolls; actually, none of my friends were very into dolls when they were little either. That may be unusual, but not unheard of. And I know there are a few males who registered on this board and own AGs, so I would be careful about generalizing about gender differences. [img]graemlins/rose.gif[/img]

[horselvr2]

Originally posted by QueenNellieElizabeth:
Yes thats how i think the 12 year olds in my school think too.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, the 12 year olds at my school are like that too.

[Katie148]

I take some offense to the idea that it's not "natural" for boys to play with dolls or that it's "unnatural" for girls NOT to play with dolls. I believe that if our society was more accepting of what toys are "proper" for girls and boys, there would be a lot less of a divide. Sure, there may be some inherent differences between the genders, but I think a child's enjoyment of dolls depends much more on their personality than on their gender. My father played with dolls when he was growing up - baby dolls in dresses. I believe dolls appealed to him because he is a very gentle, nurturing person who likes to take care of people, and (gasp) this trait is not solely found in women and girls. But because doll play is considered "sissy" and "girly" the enjoyment boys might have for dolls is squashed out of them early on by older siblings, parents, or their peers. My father was lucky and was free to like dolls for quite awhile because he didn't have siblings to tease him, and he had a father who was also gentle, nurturing and accepting and encouraged this behavior in his son. My littlest brother also loved dolls when he was a young kid - he used to come into my room and take one of my baby dolls and carry it everywhere with him. He only stopped doing this when my other little brother started teasing him about it. Even up through his middle school years, my littlest brother still had a soft spot for dolls - he spent hours repairing all the falling apart furniture in my childhood dollhouse as a surprise for me, learned the basics of sewing and made me a little felt doll for my birthday, and even helped me take doll pictures when I had a traveling doll visit and posed for a picture with the dolls. But, the more he is teased by his older brother for doing these things, the less willing he has become to have anything to do with dolls.

And on the other hand, I was a doll-loving little girl, but I also loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I absolutely LOVED them. I would get up early every morning before school to watch the cartoon with my brothers, but I would never admit that I liked it. It was a BOY show, and girls weren't supposed to like it. I only confessed to my brothers how much I loved the Turtles when I got to high school and felt comfortable enough to admit it.

There's nothing wrong with little girls not liking to play with dolls; for some people, it's just not their thing. It is too bad, however, when girls are forced to stop liking dolls at earlier and earlier ages because it's not "cool." Similarly, it is too bad when little boys who like imaginative doll play are shamed out of doing it and instead encouraged toward more "masculine," and typically more violent, ways to play. [img]frown.gif[/img]

[*AG Star*]

Originally posted by QueenNellieElizabeth:
They are the popular girls. I'm wondering if this one girl who has AG dolls was saying that. because if she was then she lied.
My School is a small school and they mostly only care what the people in sports do, and your not considered popular if you dont play sports or are bad at PE. I think I lost some of my friends because of this, at least I have my best friend and my dolls.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Same here! I went to a national competition for history and wasn't even acknowledged by anyone in my school, but a few years ago the school basketball team went to the state tournament and lost every game, but a bunch of businesses still gave them "prizes" like snacks for their trip and they had a big coming home party (even though the tournament was only about 2 hours away.) I think a lot of people are afraid to admit that they do "immature" things like play with dolls when really the things they do and think are mature are really immature. It's kind of weird, but I think all of us who play with dolls are more mature than some other people. There's something about enjoying something kind-hearted and good-natured, like AG, that's a lot more mature than doing things that get you in trouble. Just my [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img] .

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ October 01, 2006 10:16 PM: Message edited by: *AG Star* ]</font>