# American Girl is a bleeping racket **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 24, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188 "2009-04-24T05:16:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Salem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Salem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salem)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/61 "2009-04-24T17:34:50Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > They’ve opened one at the “Natick Collection” here in the Boston Area (when you aspire to a certain class, it’s no longer a “Mall”). I notice that the crafts store that used to sell AG accessories no longer advertises them. [sorry for the quick hijack] The Natick what??? Please, please don’t tell me they’ve renamed the Natick Mall. I grew up there. I remember when the mall wasn’t there at all. Then it was small. And I know it’s grown bigger since but it can’t be a “collection”. That’s just plain silly. [/hijack] My oldest (now 21) had to have one when she was maybe 7 or 8. Maybe a bit older, can’t remember. I had a hugely difficult time justifying the expense (they were $100 at that time, too, so at least they haven’t gone up). She asked two years in a row and I found out that her best friend was finally getting one and I caved. We’d already been through the “my size Barbie” fiasco when Best Friend got one for Christmas and my daughter didn’t. Santa can be so cruel, you know. Anyway, we got Addie (the african-american doll from Civil War period). And it was a good quality doll at that time, with a well-made period costume. I didn’t go nuts with accessories, though there were a few I would have loved to have. Some of the period furniture for the different dolls was really cool! They sent a book with it that was the start of Addie’s story and I’ll be danged if it wasn’t well-written and very interesting. So much so that we ended up getting the whole series of six books detailing Addie’s flight to freedom and my daughter and I read them together every night for months. All in all, I wasn’t disappointed despite the cost. But my second daughter, 5 years younger, never picked up the spark and it seems like they went out of fashion for awhile. If Mattel has just picked up the line, that would explain the resurgence and the marketing and the diminished quality. It’s too bad. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/62 "2009-04-24T17:36:13Z")
> [@Ocean\_Annie](#): > > Hereis what American Girl has waiting for your wife and daughter at Mall of America. I promise to go to church every Sunday from now on. I have seen Hell, and I do not like it. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/63 "2009-04-24T17:36:41Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > The one area of indisputable advantage: boy toys are, in general, cool for daddy as well. He likes kites, robots, spaceships, dinosaurs, trains, cars and boats - sooo much better than shelling out a fortune on matching plastic doll accessories! 😃 I definitely agree with you there. It was great coming back to Transformers fifteen years later and finding out how far the engineering has come since I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/64 "2009-04-24T17:59:45Z")
> [@Salem](#): > > [sorry for the quick hijack] > The Natick what??? Please, please don’t tell me they’ve renamed the Natick Mall. I grew up there. I remember when the mall wasn’t there at all. Then it was small. And I know it’s grown bigger since but it can’t be a “collection”. That’s just plain silly. > [/hijack] Yep, it’s now the Natick Collection. They just finished a big expansion, with a Nordstrom, a Nieman Marcus, and, believe it or not, condos. Who wants to live at a shopping mall? And the new name sounds a bit silly to me. It’ll probably be a huge success. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/65 "2009-04-24T18:08:38Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Believe me, we’re stopping at one. Said the alcoholic walking into the bar… > [@](#): > > We don’t typically give in to requests for expensive toys, but this is something she was both extremely persistent about, and willing to work consistently over a period of time to earn. She wants to go to the store at Mall of America now (which I didn’t know existed until yesterday), but she’s going to save her own allowance to do it. This sounds like about the best way to handle it. Don’t get scared until she gets a part-time job to save up for the AG doll. Shoveling snow, raking leaves, paper route, phone sex operator - something like that. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/66 "2009-04-24T18:10:27Z")
A racket as opposed to any other toys? Like Transformers that made cartoon shows in order to sell the toys? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/67 "2009-04-24T18:14:09Z")
That’s what you get by getting sucked into the conspicuous consumption crap. I hope I have the fortitude to resist my daughter. It’s a form of child abuse to give into these whims IMO. My friends let their daughter harangue them into buying crap. If my daughter harangues me that ensures that she WON’T get it. She has to charm me. Lately when I get mad at her for something she throws her arms wide and shouts, ‘Hugs, hugs!’ That one is hard to resist. But I don’t buy her tons of toys, not even for Christmas and birthday. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/68 "2009-04-24T18:29:17Z")
Dolls never did much for me as a child, but I’ve purchased AG stuff for my niece – the little white dog (Coconut) and some of his accessories. I thought he’d be bigger, like the size of a soccer ball, but he’s more like a racquetball because he’s scaled for the dolls (duh). This means I now get the catalog regularly in the mail, which is always hilarious because of the shit-eating, high-as-a-kite grin on BittyBear. He’s like popping out of drawers and shit, or sitting on a picnic blanket, and you know he totally talks like Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused. Seriously, check him out. ---
**Author:** ![Ocean\_Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8797f3/32.png) [@Ocean\_Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ocean_Annie)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/69 "2009-04-24T18:30:21Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I promise to go to church every Sunday from now on. I have seen Hell, and I do not like it. Hey, they even have a [photo studio](http://www.americangirl.com/stores/experience_photo.php) and a doll hospital. I didn’t see the price for a hospital stay, but maybe they offer medical insurance. I have a boy and nothing marketed to him compares to The American Girl concept. I am a little shocked by it. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/70 "2009-04-24T18:53:43Z")
> [@Ocean\_Annie](#): > > Hey, they even have a [photo studio](http://www.americangirl.com/stores/experience_photo.php) and a doll hospital. I didn’t see the price for a hospital stay, but maybe they offer medical insurance. The Lord is my bro; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down on non-pink sheets he leadeth me beside the golf clubs and science books He restoreth my manliness: he leadeth me in the paths of testosterone for sanity’s sake Yea, though I walk through the valley of the scary dolls; I will fear no Coconut: for thou art with me; thy fishing rod and thy man-staff they comfort me ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/71 "2009-04-24T18:59:23Z")
When my folks were in town last summer we went to the Chicago store to pick up a doll for my niece. I was chatting up one of the salespeople and she said she had seen girls cry and pass out upon coming into the store, overwhelmed with joy. When I learned that they had a hair salon for the dolls and a restaurant where the waitstaff would serve your doll, it made me think of TGI McScratchy’s (where it’s constantly New Year’s Eve!) and the waiter begging for death. As my dad and I sat and made fun of the whole thing (“How come Tiffany isn’t doll of the year this year, did she develop a drug habit?”), I asked him if Cabbage Patch Dolls had even come close to this level of insanity, and he remembered that whole fad being pretty nutty and expensive as well. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/72 "2009-04-24T19:04:30Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > That’s what you get by getting sucked into the conspicuous consumption crap. I hope I have the fortitude to resist my daughter. It’s a form of child abuse to give into these whims IMO. My friends let their daughter harangue them into buying crap. If my daughter harangues me that ensures that she WON’T get it. She has to charm me. Lately when I get mad at her for something she throws her arms wide and shouts, ‘Hugs, hugs!’ That one is hard to resist. But I don’t buy her tons of toys, not even for Christmas and birthday. …Mom? I’m not still bitter that I never once got a Barbie for Christmas no matter how desperately I begged and pleaded. Nope. Not bitter. NOT BITTER AT ALL. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/73 "2009-04-24T19:15:21Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > …Mom? > > I’m not still bitter that I never once got a Barbie for Christmas no matter how desperately I begged and pleaded. Nope. Not bitter. NOT BITTER AT ALL. Your father, on the other hand, should thank God on his knees every day of his life that you didn’t. Bitter? You think you’re bitter? Talk to the man who _always got the Barbie with one arm!_ And Francie! And Sparkle Beach Barbie and Malibu Barbie drove off to the beach in Barbie’s pink Corvette while my daughter made us stay home and clean the Dream House[sup]TM[/sup]. Sure - my daughter would say “don’t worry, Daddy, you can come to the beach next time.” But did “next time” ever come? NOOO! “Next time” did **NOT** come! Next time I had to stand guard over the fort we built from the sofa cushions, and ward off Ninja Turtle attacks, because I was too big to fit in the fort! Does that sound like Bitter to you? The tea parties were fun, though. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Salem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Salem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salem)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/74 "2009-04-24T19:37:40Z")
**Shodan,** Regards back at ya, and I feel your pain. Both of my daughters were producer/director/scriptwriter/dictator every time we played. Ok, Mommy, you be Ken. No, not that Ken. That Ken. Now, dress him. No, not in that, in this. Ok, I’m Barbie and I’m going to the store. “Ken, I’m going to the store.” “Ok, Barbie” NO, MOMMY, Ken doesn’t say that. Ken says, “Barbie, while you’re there can you get some milk”. “Barbie, while you’re there get some milk”. NO, MOMMY. He doesn’t say it like that. Round and round til I wanted to toss that bitch Barbie and tell her to get her own fucking milk. Of course all that would be get me would be ‘No Mommy, that’s not how Ken would say it.’ ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/75 "2009-04-24T19:40:05Z")
You know, as much as American Girls are a bit of a racket not to mention a force of nature as far as marketing goes, they are a heck of lot more wholesome in my opinion than similar things marketed to girls with equal intensity like being a “Disney Princess.” ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/76 "2009-04-24T19:47:29Z")
> [@Salem](#): > > Round and round til I wanted to toss that bitch Barbie and tell her to get her own fucking milk. > > Of course all that would be get me would be ‘No Mommy, that’s not how Ken would say it.’ “Honey? Tell mommy how Ken would say ‘I’m going to Girly Palace for a lapdance and to get drunk, don’t wait up.’” ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/77 "2009-04-24T20:00:49Z")
I still remember getting my AG doll for Christmas one year, I was about seven or eight, Addy, the Civil War girl. I think eventually through the bounty of Christmases and birthdays for the next four years I amassed all her clothes. And I loved that doll. Lord, I loved that doll. I played with her and her clothes incessantly. Read all the books. Thought of my own stories. If imagination was a doll, I would have worn it out playing with her. Now the doll is safely packed away at my folks’ house and I’m going for my Master’s in history. I place the blame solely on the steady diet of historical books I took out from the library as a kid, the AG doll experience, and all the museums and restored homes and whatnot my parents trundled me around to on our vacations. Stuff like this as a kid opened my eyes to what I really, really, really loved and wanted to do with my life–earn my Ph.D in history and spend my life learning more about it. So there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/78 "2009-04-24T20:36:49Z")
The AG dolls were wonderful for my daughters. They “glorified” being a girl, as contrasted with a pre-teen or teenager. We read the books. We studied the history. We dressed the dolls for each season. We had tea parties and discussed manners “then” and “now.” We sewed and knitted clothing for them. I credit the education vision of the AG founder for helping my daughters stay age-appropriate. My daughters enjoyed their teens more because they enjoyed their girlhood more. The dolls are treasured possessions–not unlike the tinker toys or legos or lincoln logs. Expensive? Yes. Expensive when divided by the hours of enjoyment and the life skills they helped them develop–absolutely not. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/79 "2009-04-24T20:41:38Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Wow-really? Do you still have it? > > (And I have to confess-I want Nellie. I wish they still had the real one-not the cheesy mini one. Why DID they discontinue her and Samantha?) > > My cousin had Josefina. My great-aunt, her grandmother, is the family seamstress and made Josefina a matching First Communion dress when my cousin had her communion. (Because she didn’t get to make my cousin’s dress-cousin fell in love with a dress she saw in a store, and of course, what else can a grandmother do?) > > But Josefina’s dress was almost exactly identical to her’s. It was absolutely gorgeous. I will say those dolls hold up well-my cousin played the HELL out of that doll. Oh, yeah - it’s tucked away safely at my parent’s house, along with all my AG books. Even as a kid I had an idea as to how cool that was to have. (And Samantha was my second favorite. Someday when I’m rich [never], I’m gonna find her on ebay.) > [@apollonia](#): > > I still remember getting my AG doll for Christmas one year, I was about seven or eight, Addy, the Civil War girl. I think eventually through the bounty of Christmases and birthdays for the next four years I amassed all her clothes. And I loved that doll. Lord, I loved that doll. I played with her and her clothes incessantly. Read all the books. Thought of my own stories. If imagination was a doll, I would have worn it out playing with her. > > Now the doll is safely packed away at my folks’ house and I’m going for my Master’s in history. I place the blame solely on the steady diet of historical books I took out from the library as a kid, the AG doll experience, and all the museums and restored homes and whatnot my parents trundled me around to on our vacations. Stuff like this as a kid opened my eyes to what I really, really, really loved and wanted to do with my life–earn my Ph.D in history and spend my life learning more about it. > > So there’s that. Hah. Part of the reason my parents started getting me the books was because they were worried I was reading age-inappropriate history stuff and all the adult books I was reading about WWII was going to scar me for life. Serves them right for bringing me up on PBS and trips to old Philadelphia and Gettysburg and the various Smithsonian museums and such. (Man, I totally remembering staging the D-Day invasion with my Ninja Turtles action figures. That is a little weird.) ---
**Author:** ![mariposalabrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@mariposalabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mariposalabrown)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188/80 "2009-04-24T20:42:08Z")
When I was obsessed with the books, there was only Kirsten, Samantha and Molly. I never cared about the dolls, but OH man did I want some of the life-size clothes. I never got any because I had the meanest mom in the world. Now I realize she was smart, as white fur muffs for your hands and big petticoats aren’t exactly practical for Texas summers. I just looked on that site and the only real size historical clothes they have are like sleeping gowns. I guess nobody’s mom bought them those old pioneer clothes that were ridiculously over priced! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-girl-is-a-bleeping-racket/494188.md?page=5)