New American Girl character -- WTF?

Cafe Society
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Presenting the new American Girl historical character for 2015: Maryellen Larkin, “representing the Cold War and Postwar Baby Boom eras during the 1950s.”

Well, wow. I’m sure it’ll be nifty and peachy-keen with a lot of soda fountains and poodle skirts, but I don’t see much educational value. I figured long ago that they were not going to do the 1920s, the 1950s or the 1960s, because there just wasn’t enough going on in those eras that a kid would be aware of. (Well, the late 1960s, but Julie’s presence makes that redundant.) Those were times of relative peace and prosperity, and what transition there was, was way below the radar of a grade-school kid. Surely there were a few more eras before they’d have to fall back on the '50s.

See, the way it works is, each character’s story is set in a specific time frame, and their lives are affected by the historical events of that time. Felicity, Caroline, Addy, Rebecca and Molly are all living in wartime. Kirsten is just off the boat from Sweden, Kit is struggling to get by in the Great Depression and Julie is a total Age of Aquarius kid. Cecile and Marie-Grace, I haven’t read their books, but since they’re in New Orleans in the 1850s, there’s probably a lot about the runup to the Civil War. Also, yellow fever. Kaya is Nez Perce, from before white settlers came to the PNW, and Josefina is Mexican, in Santa Fe before New Mexico became a state, so their way of life is way different from today. I thought Samantha, from 1904, was on thin ice, but they made her relevant by giving her a working-class friend, to show how uneven and unfair the class structure was, and by giving her an aunt by marriage who is a suffragette. And they generally have some other historical tag, like Addy escaped from slavery, and Rebecca sees the dawn of the film industry.

But what will a 1950s character have to share with todays’ kids? She likes the Mickey Mouse Club? If they’re going to do this at all, they should have her be black and living under Jim Crow laws. Now, I see that Maryellen is in Miami, Florida, so perhaps segregation will come into it somehow…but if they give her a black friend, sorry, but that’s way inaccurate. That was the way segregation worked: different races didn’t know each other socially. (And they already did the maid’s-daughter-and-rich-girl-become-BFF device with Samantha and Nellie.)

I mean, look at these chapter titles. “In the Pink”, “Tickled Pink”, “Christmas Is on its Way, Hurray!” Honestly, it seems like Maryellen will have the kind of twee, non-controversial stories that AG was created to be an antidote for. Oh, but she has a vivid imagination and wants to stand out from the crowd? There’s already a character like that: Ramona Quimby. (She started in the '50s, at least.)

Perhaps I’m just getting grumpy in my old age (only a few years younger than Julie ;)), and perhaps I’m ticked that, if they had to do another 20th-century character, it couldn’t be from the 1980s. (Yes, I’m serious.) And I’m aware that they’ll keep cranking out the dolls/wardrobes/accessories until they’ve run through the entire calendar. But in this case, I’d almost say, just make the doll. Skip the books. These days, they’re getting more traffic from the non-historical characters anyway.

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The doll hasn’t been released. The Wiki only has brief hints–until she shows up on the main site we can’t know her “story.”

There’s an educational aspect to the American Girls dolls (although I suspect there are also adult collectors). But they are just toys.

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What, you think the 1950s didn’t exist? Life was different then from how it is now, and kids in the American Girl demographic are a half-century past any perspective on just how it was different. Why shouldn’t there be an American Girl from that era?

If anything, I think it’d be more relevant, in that that’s the era they’re hearing about from their grandparents. Seeing complete stories and illustrations from that time could really help bring that to life.

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A Miami location with a fifties Cold War setting: maybe they’ll try to tie it in with Cuba. Give her a best friend who’s a Cuban exile and have her go through the Missile Crisis.

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Bridget: I don’t collect the doll, just the books. And I don’t buy them new, so it’ll be a while before they start turning up in the junk shops where I’ve gotten the others.

Little Nemo: You mean the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962? She’d be a teenager by then. Still, you’re right: Miami was probably chosen for a reason.

Chronos: Sure, a lot of interesting things happened in the '50s! But nowadays, when people who were kids (not teenagers) in that era talk about their childhood, it’s strictly kid things. I guess they’ll have to go micro, like, TV is a new thing and the parents disapprove of kids watching it so much. (And now I’m picturing the shadow of little Homer Simpson, burned into the wall by the old Radiation King.) And she’ll see the old drive-in razed and replaced by a McDonald’s. That was the way of it then: so many new, shiny things.

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I’m not familiar with the series and I didn’t know how closely they stuck to genuine history. Or if they went with more of a Happy Days kind of history, where events from all over the fifties are mixed together. I also didn’t know how many years of their subject’s life the books would cover.

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As a child of the 50s, I would not be at all surprised if she has to undergo H-bomb drills in her school (hide under your desk, that will protect you from the bomb!)

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Oh, they hew very closely to real history. Each character’s story starts in a specific year, usually ending in 4, except Caroline, who has to be in 1812. They cover about two years, during which the character turns ten, and they reference real historical events in that time frame. They might reference past events, but only in the past tense; nothing’s shown out of sequence. Basically, they strive to be accurate, because kids are going to remember this when they do history in school. (And I’m told that in Colonial Williamsburg, one mentions Felicity at one’s peril.)

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Two new states, McCarthyism, duck-and-cover drills; it was a happening time.

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The article you linked to said that Maryellen’s “favorite TV shows include Davy Crockett and The Lone Ranger” which made me suspicious.

The Lone Ranger peaked in the 1950-1951 season. It stayed on the air for several more years but it dropped in popularity. Davy Crockett was a hit in the 1955-1956 season. With the five year gap between those two shows, it’s unlikely any genuine ten year old would have picked them as her two favorite shows.

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This is what occurred to me too.

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How about back stories like “Senator Macarthy want my dad fired for being a Communist”, and “I’m real excited about the new bomb shelter in the back yard.” Or maybe “Chad has to go half way around the world to fight somebody called the North Koreans.”

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Korea. Especially if the two year stretch is 1952-1954 to fit with most of the series.

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missred: No, it’s usually -4 to -5 or -6. If it’s 1954, that would be the year of the polio vaccine. The Korean War would still be referenced in terms of men coming back from it. And I’d be “tickled pink” if she’s reading that new comic strip about the round-headed kid! Not sure it’ll run long enough for Alaska and Hawaii to become states, though.

Boyo Jim: What they usually do is scale down these things. There could be some Mean Girls gossip thing happening at school, and an adult would say, “But honey, that’s the same thing Senator McCarthy is doing: ruining people’s reputations by making accusations that may or may not be true.” Like when Molly was at summer camp and her trio of friends was split up during Color War. Two lessons learned: 1) in war, you have to be as ruthless towards the other side as they are to you, and 2) when it’s over and a truce is declared, it’s okay to be allies again.

Little Nemo: The Lone Ranger was still on TV until 1957. Kids don’t care about Neilsen ratings; they like what they like.

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Where are her blue, plastic glasses with swept-up outside corners and rhinestones? And where is her pink, angora sweater? I got that particular trigger in the second grade. The sweater, not the glasses.