{"id":639,"date":"2017-11-30T19:40:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T19:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gallerynews.com\/current\/?p=639"},"modified":"2018-01-04T03:30:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T03:30:20","slug":"restoring-american-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gallerynews.com\/current\/restoring-american-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoring the American Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardian<\/em>‘s recent slash-and-burn job on Taylor Swift (see Steve Sailer here<\/a>, Nov. 25) pointed up a couple of home truths about race discussion in the media. One is that, as Sailer put it, “It’s Not Okay to be White”<\/a>\u00a0in such fever-swamp precincts as The Guardian<\/em>‘s editorial board. The other is that\u2014hate her or\u00a0love her\u2014the image of La Swift continues to\u00a0serve as both whipping-girl\u00a0and icon of traditional American whiteness.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tenney Grant, with Boyfriend Logan<\/p><\/div>\n

Consider this. After years of Diversifying its brand into utter meaninglessness, the American Girl Doll collection recently introduced a girl-singer doll into its lineup. Named “Tenney Grant,” and\u00a0sporting\u00a0a miniature acoustic guitar and denim-and-lace outfits, this new entry is quite clearly a proxy for Taylor Swift (or at least the country-singing Taylor of a few years back).<\/p>\n

“She’s a breakout songwriter<\/strong> finding the heart<\/strong> to be herself,” reads the catalog copy. “Ready for a true taste of Nashville? Tenney Grant is determined to shine by being just who she is.” To round out her character, the all-American Tenney has even been given a boyfriend, Logan Everett. He’s got\u00a0 brown hair and blue eyes, and\u00a0is American Girl’s first-ever boy doll.<\/p>\n

Now you may not be familiar with American Girl Dolls, particularly if you are not American, or a Girl, or a Doll fancier.\u00a0So you should know they’ve been around for thirty years and are a big deal, with an ever-expanding line of expensive (>$100) and large (18″) dolls, doll clothing and accessories, and related books and toys. There are even chains of shops\u2014American Girl Place, American Girl Boutique & Bistro\u2014where you can browse and hang out, and order\u00a0a customized poup\u00e9e with the clothes, hair, and complexion of your choice.<\/p>\n

American Girl began as a small\u00a0collection of books and dolls in 1986, sold by a modest Wisconsin outfit called the Pleasant Company. For years its product line truly\u00a0consisted of all-American girls, characters rooted in a specific time and place. Each doll came with\u00a0a storybook, detailing\u00a0her family background and the historical context of her time.<\/p>\n

You could also buy the books separately. When I first came across the series in the late 1980s,\u00a0I\u00a0was much taken with the excellence of the illustrations, and had\u00a0no idea\u00a0the books were a tie-in to a line of dolls.<\/p>\n

\"\"First out of the gate was Molly McIntire, who lived in small-town Illinois in the year 1944. Then came Samantha Parkington, in the NY Hudson Valley in 1904; followed by the somewhat more exotic Kirsten Larson, child of a Swedish family living on the American prairies in 1854. Rounding out the American saga was Felicity Merriman, of Williamsburg, Virginia, 1774.<\/p>\n

\"\"

“An American Girl”?<\/p><\/div>\n

“Diversity” intruded the lineup during the 1990s, with Addy Walker, a negro slave girl, and a Mexican, Josefina Montoya. In 1998 the Pleasant Company was sold to Mattel, Inc., and that’s when the wheels really began to come off.<\/p>\n

Mattel ushered in\u00a0a Red Indian girl, a Chinese girl, a Japanese-Hawaiian girl, a New Orleans colored-creole girl, a Jewish girl, and a present-day (2017) African-American girl who lives in Philadelphia and studies hip-hop dancing and ballet. All “American Girls,” if not exactly all-American girls.<\/p>\n

\"\"Recently,\u00a0as if to tick every box of Political Correctness, sick and handicapped dolls are\u00a0being\u00a0promoted.\u00a0On display in the American Girl Place on Fifth Avenue in New York, one\u00a0may see a doll in a wheelchair (doll + clothes: $115.00, wheelchair: $38.00),\u00a0as well as a bald chemotherapy poppet.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, most of the original dolls\u00a0have been\u00a0retired, along with the original, intricately illustrated storybooks (beginning with Meet Molly<\/em> in 1986).\u00a0They’ve been replaced by an undistinguished assortment of juvenile “Be Forever” readers, “lapbooks” and “gamebooks.”<\/p>\n

\"\"But having\u00a0diluted the brand beyond recognition, Mattel\/Pleasant now seems to be struggling to get back to its\u00a0core audience. In 2017 it’s not only given us Taylor Swift avatar Tenney Grant, it’s\u00a0relaunched Colonial girl Felicity Merriman, with a fresh new 1770s wardrobe. And “Molly’s coming back!” proclaims American Girl Doll News<\/a>, promising a reissue of the Molly McIntire series of books in 2018. No\u00a0word yet on whether Molly the doll will herself be returning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian‘s recent slash-and-burn job on Taylor Swift (see Steve Sailer here, Nov. 25) pointed up a couple of home truths about race discussion in the media. One is that, as Sailer put it, “It’s Not Okay to be White”\u00a0in such fever-swamp precincts as The Guardian‘s editorial board. The other is that\u2014hate her or\u00a0love her\u2014the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49],"tags":[141,145,146,144,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-commentary","7":"tag-american-girl","8":"tag-felicity-merriman","9":"tag-logan-everett","10":"tag-molly-mcintire","11":"tag-tenney-grant"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nRestoring the American Girl - gallerynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gallerynews.com\/current\/restoring-american-girl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Restoring the American Girl - gallerynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Guardian‘s recent slash-and-burn job on Taylor Swift (see Steve Sailer here, Nov. 25) pointed up a couple of home truths about race discussion in the media. 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