more criticism of AG

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Originally posted by Taffy Cheerful:
It would seem that our culture has changed to the point that it is perfectly acceptable for anyone, at any time, to go off on a rant, call for a boycott or organize a protest.... Folks just aren't taking the time to examine the facts...
When people object to Addy, tell them to read the books. When people object to Kaya's depiction, tell them to read the books. Say you will not discuss the subject until they have read the material themselves and formed an opinion based on their own beliefs, not those of someone else.

Taffy

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well put!

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Politics don't belong with dolls... AAAAAUGHHHH!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I agree, but unfortunately they do to AG somewhat. You need to remember that AG has to play to its core audience, which is predominantly upper middle class families with more conservative viewpoints. As a result of this, we are never going to see a historical doll from the 60s that wants to be a hippie and protest the Vietnam war. It just won't happen. All of the girls represented in their books will be nice girls, and mostly from families much like the girls who are getting these items and reading these stories; girls from upper middle class or an even higher socioeconomical status. For that simple reason, there will always be some amount of bias toward the conservative viewpoint.

~Dee

I can see both sides of the issue. It is true, a gal like Felicity wouldn't have spent so much time thinking about slavery because for a young mid-upper class colonial girl slavery wasn't an issue that she would ever ponder. Perhaps the fight for independence, horses, and dresses is about it.
AG is supposed to appeal to young girls so they aren't going to be as dark as some aspects of real history are but they don't sugar coat everything. I was upset the first time I learned about Nellie and reading the looking back section of Samantha Learns a Lesson, and reading about her in the orphanage in Changes.
Also in Meet Kaya there is the bit with Whip Woman. For kids around 8 or 9 this might seem surprising to them.
Anyway I can see both sides. Some stuff is a little too fluffy, but not every American Girl book is like that, and if they don't portray everything totally accurately at least it generates an interest in history for girls to find out more.

I'd love to see a 60's mod girl or early 70's hippie. But i doubt it not because parent's wouldn't approve but because the girls are too young. Aren't all the girls around 10 in the books. Teenagers were protesting the war but i don't think too many young girls were unless their parents dragged them to a rally.

Also, the bru-ha-ha over Marisol's book was over-played as well, and mostly by people who never read the book, I think.

1) The neighborhood was never named, although people guessed it by other things that were named in the book.

2) Here in the Chicago area there are so many different types of hispanics, from so many places....I doubt that the people in Marisol's neighborhood were all from Mexico.

3) The only protest against AG regarding Marisol that I saw on TV was conducted by a high school "Peace and Justice" class from the Pilsen neighborhood, where apparently Marisol came from. It seemed like they might have been doing the protest as a class project, but I'm not sure.

The protest included teenage boys, and I can't help but doubt that they read a doll book.

The protestors had a spokesperson (a girl from the class) and a microphone and a podium of sorts. She made a statement something to the effect that their neighborhood was a good one and that they didn't need anything from anybody. But then they had a list of demands, which included something like AG should pay the neighborhood a million dollars and build a community center, or something like that. The whole statement seemed very contradictory to me--we're fine and we don't need anybody, but please give us money.

In any case, in spite of the good community feel that Pilsen probably has, it seems to be common knowledge that it can also be a difficult neighborhood to live in.

Also, if someone wants to move somewhere where the houses are a little farther apart and they can have a yard, why make such a fuss about it? Besides, Downer's Grove is a simple middle-class suburb to move to--not exactly opulent.

Let's move on to more fun topics, ok?

[img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img]

Joy

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ March 22, 2006 02:27 PM: Message edited by: djsnjones ]</font>

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Originally posted by djsnjones:

2) Here in the Chicago area there are so many different types of hispanics, from so many places....I doubt that the people in Marisol's neighborhood were all from Mexico.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hehe, I live in a town that is 85% Hispanic and atleast 50% Mexican. NO ONE cared about the protests. The only thing I heard about it was "you've GOT to be kidding me, don't these protesters have anything better to do with thier time?" [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

My Mexican family loves Marisol [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've reading lots of negative things about AG.
Marisol angers folks because her book says that her old neighborhood was full of crime and not safe for a kid to grow up in. This annoys some Mexican Americans who actually live in that neighborhood. Kirsten and her cousins have people up in arms because the books seenm to indicate that it's ok for the settlers to take land away from the Native Americans. I remember reading somewhere that if Kirsten had actually joined her new friend's tribe she would have starved to death with her new family. And Kaya bothers some people because her books paint such a rosy picture of her tribe's lifestyle--fast horses, freedom & adventure not starvation, persecution and death at the hands of the white man. I'm not sure how i feel about all of this. It seems to me that it's hard to be honest about the gory details of history without writing books that are too disturbing for kids. I'm not a parent but i don't think i'd be too quick to buy a child a book where Kaya starves to death or Kirsten ,at the age of 10, is so outspoken about the treatment of Native Americans that her father beats her to shut her up.

I think the Welcome to (blank) World Books tell a more involved story of the history of the times.

Laurie

I also think it is important to note that most of these books are much more accurate than the ideas the critics want to portray. The whole point of Kaya's stories is to depict the beautiful and rich lifestyle of her tribe BEFORE the interaction with Europeans. Kirsten would never have considered that she was "taking land away" from native Americans. Girls of these times had a very different worldview than we do now, and AG accurately captures that. It really bothers me as someone who has devoted a lot of time to studying history (four years of college plus some)to hear people trying to impose their morality on a very different world. It's closed-minded and flat out inaccurate. Just because we believe something is wrong today doesn't mean that we ought to imply that everyone always thought it was wrong. Well, I'm starting to get fired up about it, so I should stop. But it's time people stop treating a world of two hundred years ago like it is happening today.

Well said mayergirl! [img]smile.gif[/img]

This is the reason -people get on my nerves so bad. Always gotta gripe about something.

I agree iwth Mayergirl.

Politics don't belong with dolls... AAAAAUGHHHH! [img]graemlins/grrr.gif[/img]

I wish some poeople would get a life and start worrying about real problems, like the rainforrests instaed of what Barbies doing now.....

It would seem that our culture has changed to the point that it is perfectly acceptable for anyone, at any time, to go off on a rant, call for a boycott or organize a protest. Over and over again, I see people up in arms over something they have been told is in a book or is rumored to be true. Folks just aren't taking the time to examine the facts before they get into a snit and declare it the end of the world.

Hey, life is simply toooooo short to get that wound up about any issue that does not affect the individual personally. When people object to Addy, tell them to read the books. When people object to Kaya's depiction, tell them to read the books. Say you will not discuss the subject until they have read the material themselves and formed an opinion based on their own beliefs, not those of someone else.

Taffy

Hear, hear, Mayergirl! [img]smile.gif[/img]

That was then, and this is now...