American Girls?

I grew up reading the American Girls books. I loved the different perspectives on American history that I learned about from Felicity, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha and Molly, each sharing their stories from widely different eras and backgrounds, from colonial days to the Civil War, to WWII.

Over the years more characters were introduced, including stories from Hispanic and Native American backgrounds, as well as more modern times. And now the company is making a new doll each year, complete with one or two books to legitimize her as a character. Instead of teaching girls history, the company has moved to modeling their characters after current events and trends. It's now a numbers game, as they invent more and more characters and encourage young girls to collect them all, mass producing thousands of dolls with the same face, differing only in skin tone, eye color and haircut.

But the purpose of this post is not to bemoan the capitalistic trend eating away the historic heart of the company. I had actually almost forgotten about this piece of my past (hard to believe, considering I own a Girl of Today doll and quite a large box of accessories for her) until tonight in my archives management class someone mentioned that a new doll just came out and caused quite a buzz.

The new girl is Gwen, and she is homeless. Well, technically, she and her mother only live at the homeless shelter for a few months, but the point of her character is to portray the realities of life in 2009. Although, looking at the doll's smiling, cherub-like face, long blond hair and pristine white sundress, I can't picture her sleeping in the back seat of a car. You can read more details and some reactions to the new doll here and here.

But Gwen is not the new star of American Girl. In fact, she is a minor character in the books about the 2009 Girl of the Year, Chrissa. The real purpose of the homeless girl is to give the true star someone to stand up for, someone for the well-off girl to look after. This theme was first touched on by the historical girl Samantha befriending the poor girl Nellie, but the current situation seems to be taking it further. The doll Chrissa actually has two friends you can buy, Gwen and Sonali, who both need to be defended from the school bullies. They make the perfect accessories for the strong, middle-class girl, adding spice to her life, just like her pet llama, which is also for sale.

I'm not sure what to think about Gwen. The general reaction to the character seems overboard. What should really cause a stir and be impressive would be if the main character were facing the very real trials of day to day living instead of simply having to face down bullies. If the American Girl company wants to teach young girls about current societal evils, they should showcase them, not make them sideplots that serve to frame less meaningful battles.

And if they're going to sell a homeless doll to raise awareness, they should publicize ways to help as well. What good is it to tell us that there are children sleeping on the street, if in the next breath you ask us to cough up nearly $100 for yet another doll instead of encouraging us to give it to those who need it? They tell us to be noble in heart and accept and protect our friends from bullies, whether they have a house or not, while teaching us to be selfish in action, spending our money on more and more of their products.

I miss the good old days.

On a related note, some of the older, Classic dolls are disappearing. Samantha and her friend Nellie have already gone into the American Girl Archive (it's unclear what this means, but I imagine it's like the Disney Vault, and the dolls may be available again in the distant future for limited time offers), and apparently Kirsten is next. It's sad, because these girls were the heart and soul of the company for years. Also, Kirsten, being the Norwegian immigrant, was always my mom's favorite, and it's sad to think that the next generation of girls may grow up without this piece of the historical landscape, traded instead for the glamor of more recent times.

Is the American Girl company still in the business of teaching history? Or has their widening range of dolls, modern mini-eras and ethnicities all about politics? Maybe the two really do fit together. After all, what could be more American than capitalism?

-Kim

the periodontal quest

I have virtually perfect teeth. I brush twice a day and floss every night. I had braces, and I've had my wisdom teeth out, but overall dental health seemed to be in the bag.

My gums had other plans.

Apparently my bone and gum tissue is thinner than average and predisposed to recession. My dentist at home had me coming in for frequent cleanings to combat the recession, but it came to the point that he finally told me to find a gum specialist, a periodontist.

There's no better place to find a medical professional than Boston. And for reasonably priced care, I was directed to Tufts Dental School. All the students there seem to be from foreign countries, and instead of having separate offices, they all have their dental chairs and equipment set up in little cubicles in a large room. At the beginning of August I met my dentist, Fatema. She is from Kuwait, but lived for six years in Dublin. And she shocked me with x-rays of my front teeth, which showed dramatic bone recession between my lower front teeth. She thinks it was likely my braces that pushed the teeth out of their sockets and accelerated the recession. Not cool. Apparently I also have unusual roots on my two front teeth--short and kind of heart shaped.

The decision was that I need to have surgery. The supervising dentist (who has a stutter, but knows teeth and gums) suggested I would be a good candidate for a treatment so new I might be able to get it for free. It involves mixing my blood platelets with bone powder and putting it where my own bone has receded.

Cool, huh?

Technically, I'm getting the treatment for free (though still paying for the materials used) because I'm participating in a study. The downside of that is every step of the process has to be documented.

Today I spent three hours in the dentist chair getting my teeth photographed and having impressions taken. It's quite an effective form of torture. The only way to properly photograph a tooth would be to take it out of the mouth, but since that's not an option, we settle for stretching the lips past what I though was their limit to keep them out of the shot. The worst part is that while my dentist was holding the camera and another dentist was jamming a mirror in my mouth, I was holding the implements that did the actual stretching. And taking the impressions was worse. They needed two sets of impressions, so I knew going in I would have trays of pink goo in my mouth at least four times. In the end it was quite a few more: four to get the top and four for the bottom. It was tough because the mold had to record the receded gums as well as the teeth. The last one almost gagged me, and even thinking of the Virgin Islands like the dentist from the cubicle next door suggested didn't help.

The theory is that all of this effort and discomfort will be worth it when my perfectly healthy teeth don't fall out of my mouth on my 30th birthday. The surgeries will be spread out over the next several months as we tackle my mouth in quadrants. The first one is in just a few weeks, so be ready for another installment in this saga of periodontal proportions.

-Kim

Emily Dickinson

Is bliss, then, such abyss
I must not put my foot amiss
For fear I spoil my shoe?

I'd rather suit my foot
Than save my boot,

For yet to buy another pair
Is possible
At any fair.

But bliss is sold just once;
The patent lost
None buy it anymore.

Today's food for thought from a great New England poet.

-Kim

feast day

Today is the feast day of St. Jerome, according to a post made by the Congregational Library facebook page and then corroborated by Wikipedia.

You may well be wondering why I bring this up, since I'm definitely not Catholic. Well, Jerome is the man who translated the Bible into Latin, creating the Vulgate, which was used until the Reformation, when Martin Luther went back to the original texts, inspiring a surge in popular language translations.

More to the point, Jerome is also the patron saint of archeologists, archivists, Bible scholars, librarians, libraries, schoolchildren, students and translators. In essence, Jerome is the patron saint of everyone I know--the patron saint of nerds.

So today we celebrate nerdiness. Rock on, Jerome, rock on.

-Kim

enjoy the small things

I love living in Boston. I have had the opportunity to do the most amazing things in the past year, simply by virtue of residing in this great city. Yesterday, that meant getting a great new haircut for only $5 from the beauty school downtown. Tonight, that meant getting a free pass to an advance screening of the new zombie comedy "Zombieland."

This afternoon I was at an event called CollegeFest with Christina and Adrienne collecting free stuff from random vendors. One of the booths had posters for the movie, and a giand cardboard clown head. We threw a ball through the clown's mouth, and the prize was a free pass to the advance screening tonight at the downtown movie theater. Needless to say, we were pretty stoked.

In the end, five of us went to the show. We were a bit concerned about getting in, since these events almost always have more passes than seats in order to ensure a full house, but we were early enough to not have any problem getting in, though we did grab the last five seats together in the whole place, other than the very front rows.

Even just being there was quite the experience. Most of the people in the crowd had come in zombie makeup, some with very extravagant costumes as well. And two rows behind us, there was a zombie band, playing their ukulele and melodica to entertain us all as we waited.

I'd just like to say here that when Bostonians do something, they never do it by half measures. These people go all-out for every occasion. And apparently the zombie sub-culture across the nation is the same way. The crowd had a few more regular folks like us than it might have because of the passes being given out at CollegeFest, but they were still a rowdy force to be reckoned with. I've never seen so much fake blood in one place before. Granted, I've never been to a zombie walk, so that's probably why.

And the coolest part of the night? After the movie two of the stars, Woody Harelson and Jesse Eisenberg came out to do a Q&A! So very cool. Best question: what would you do if there was a real zombie apocalypse? "Make a sequel."

As for the movie itself, it was pretty entertaining. It earned the "R" rating for language and the most realistic and disgusting gore I've seen in a zombie flick. So don't see it if you don't like zombie movies or have trouble seeing gore. Although, the worst visuals are right at the beginning, and then it focuses on the actual story. Yes, this is a zombie flick with some semblance of plot. If you liked "Shaun of the Dead" and don't have a weak stomach, you'll probably like "Zombieland." Do see it if you enjoy dark comedy. There's also a lot of lighter comedy, and one phenomenal cameo that I absolutely will not give away. Some moments were even heartwarming. I loved Jesse Eisenberg as the narrator, and the animated text visuals of his zombie survival rules. Also, whoever thought of putting zombies and amusement parks together is an absolute genius.

If I say any more I stand the risk of ruining the experience for any of my readers who want to see "Zombieland" when it comes out next weekend. So I'll end this post with just one more thought: I love living in a place where this sort of event happens all the time, and every so often even happens to me.

-Kim