Letters to the Editor
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One of the things that I've never been able to figure with the American Girls...
...is exactly how is a child supposed to really play with them? Given how expensive they and their accessories are, how would any parent feel at ease letting their kids haul a Samathan or Abby off to a mudpie-making session--or putting them in a wagon or automated truck for a ride-crash-and-burn? And if I were a kid, it would be a real buzzkill to have my parents constantly hovering over my shoulder warning me not to do this and this and this and this ad infinitum with said toy. Is it one of those situations where parents fuss so much over AGs that the kids just give up--leaving the parents to give a sigh of relief as they tuck the doll away safely as a collectable?
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Doll creepiness
If you want to go up the scale of creepy dolls, have you ever been inside one of those Lee Middleton Newborn Nursery stores? Wall-to-wall creepy baby dolls. I've known women that are into collecting these dolls--they get these really expensive baby dolls and then get all kinds of baby accessories for them--cribs, furniture, you name it. Anyone want to comment on the pathology behind getting yourself a perfect "child" that will never spit up on you or talk back?
Not as weird as sex dolls for men, I suppose, but but way above American Girls on the scale of creepy things, IMO.
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To Deering--
There are the occasional kids who take care of their toys, or at least can tell the difference between the cheap stuff you can destroy and the stuff you can't. I still have the Strawberry Shortcake dolls I had as a kid and they're still in pretty good shape. I had other dolls that didn't fare so well, but even as a kid I felt like I wanted Strawberry to stay looking "nice".
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I think everyone is missing the point here...
It's not about American Girl dolls, nor is it about the creepiness of a guy having a "committed relationship" with a lifesize sex-doll. It's not even about guys buying these dolls. Its about guys RENTING these dolls! Who wants sloppy seconds (or thirds, fourths, fifths, hundreths) on one of these things??? Blech! Does this company sell refurbished condoms too?
Its good to see that, despite the efforts of "Lars and the Real Girl" to legitimize this kind of activity, most people can agree to the overall just "wrongness" of this.
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Dolls
As a kid growing up in suburbia in the late '50's-early 60's, I remember when the first Barbies arrived along with the Patty Play Pals, Chatty Cathys, Betsy Wetsies, & god knows what else. Every little girl I knew back then had to have at least one or all of those things immediately, but for some reason dolls never interested me. I thought they were boring & dumb, I detested anything artificial or made of plastic. I always preferred being the nature girl/tom boy I was--exploring the woods, climbing trees, bird watching, collecting bugs & butterflies & at some point I decided then that when I grew up I was going to be a biologist of some sort. On rainy days when I had to stay indoors, I wrote short stories, poetry, & created plenty of artwork which my mother saved & I still have after nearly 50 years. Of course, I would become either a famous writer or an artist, too. Now I like to check them out from time to time just for fun, to see where my head was at back then...some pretty strange, creative stuff.
Maybe I've always been a bit more introverted or eccentric, maybe my brain is wired a little differently from alot women I know, but I have always failed to understand how playing with a piece of molded artificial material can possibly inspire creativity or trigger a switch for desiring knowledge. My mom did buy me a Shirley Temple doll once, but it sat in its box until my sister got ahold of it...& I'm sorry she did because it would be quite a valuable collectable today.
As for the life sized dolls, I don't even want to go there because it's simply too alien of a concept for me to even try to contemplate. The guys who enjoy them may or may not be pathetic, I don't know...but since I've never related to plastic humans in the first place, I can't comment.
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Woah
I don't think that sex dolls and AG dolls are the same thing AT ALL. An argument can certainly be made that pretty much any doll looks "perfect" when it's bought and that maybe puts some kind of pressure on little girls (though it's also arguable that the perfection of AG dolls and many others is entirely different than the perfection of Barbies and Disney princesses). However, an adult who can't interact with actual women (either because of shyness or misogyny) is not the same as a child playing with a toy -- even if the author does find dolls to be creepy generally.
I really enjoy reading Broadsheet, and usually agree with the opinions expressed here, but this article is really reaching.
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Anyone else notice that one of the ads
On the page is for foreskin restoration?
Not sure what that says about the topic or expectations of perfection, but we sure are a sex obsessed society, ain't we?
I checked out the AG site. They look like dolls. I don't know from girl dolls, I had GI Joes and such, being a boy and all. But they look like...dolls. Although paying $30 for a doll outfit? I cringe at spending $30 for a pair of jeans!
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I might add that dolls...
...especially the more elaborate, expensive ones, never leave enough room for healthy imaginative pursuits for young girls to follow. I will never understand how a girl is supposed to utilize her creativity by playing with these things, to create a fantasy world of pretend around them when it is basically a pre-set money-making formula dictated to them by the toy manufaturers. Imaginary friends or pretend babies were simply never my cuppa joe. Maybe I missed some sort of intrinsic aspect to all this as a child, but that's just me. And I'm damn glad that I don't freak out at the sight of insects or any other creepy-crawlies the way alot of women do.