Delinquents and Debutantes by Sherrie A. Inness

Author:Sherrie A. Inness
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 1998-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

7

“Anti-Barbies”

The American Girls Collection and Political Ideologies

Sherrie A. Inness

When Felicity debuted in 1991, a coming-out party was held for her at Williamsburg. The cost was $50 per child and $30 per adult, plus the regular admission price to Colonial Williamsburg.1 Despite these high prices, the nine original sittings sold out in less than thirty-six hours. The schedule was then altered to include an additional twenty-four sittings in eight days. Over six thousand girls came, from forty-nine states (Evans C5). Counting parents, the party’s list of guests swelled to over eleven thousand (Mehren E5). No, Felicity was not the deb sensation of the moment: Felicity was a doll. Her coming-out party was just one example of the zeal demonstrated by the youngsters who flock to purchase Felicity and her pals, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha, and Molly, the dolls that comprise the American Girls collection.

My curiosity about the American Girls and their manufacturer, Pleasant Company, was originally piqued when a friend’s daughter, Anne, asked whether she could have an American Girl of Today™ for her eighth birthday. Anne felt so strongly about the doll that she begged for it in August, although her birthday was not until January. Blanching at the $82 basic price of the American Girl of Today™, my friend told her daughter the doll was just too expensive. After Anne’s mother vetoed the purchase, I continued to wonder why Anne was so fixated on this doll that she still slept with the American Girl catalogue under her pillow every night.

I turned to the Summer 1996 catalogue from Pleasant Company for some answers.2 What I discovered was a world of conspicuous consumption that would make Thorstein Veblen roll over in his grave. I could purchase, for starters, the five historical dolls known as the American Girls, which would set me back $82 each, unless I decided to splurge and buy a doll with her six hardcover book set. Then the price would escalate to $144. These prices, of course, do not include the small kit of optional accessories for each doll (another $20), the American Girls books, activity books, the American Girl magazine, American Girls trading cards, and read-along audio cassettes. Then, if I still had credit, I could pick up a few furnishings, such as a pint-sized Windsor writing chair ($55), a trestle table with two chairs ($75), a tilt-top tea table and chairs for $98, and a double desk ($68) for Addy. If I wanted to rack up charges on my credit card further, I could buy a set, composed of one particular doll, her six books, and all her accessories. Felicity’s complete collection retails for $995, with gift wrapping $80 extra (12); Molly’s is $895 (52). Addy, an ex-slave living in Philadelphia, has a complete collection that costs $995 (32).

If these items were a trifle high for my professor’s salary, I could still purchase a friendship quilt for a mere $18, a patriotic party dress for $20, a Victorian valise for $18, or classic brown oxfords for $8, to mention just a few of the lower-priced items from the American Girls’ well-stocked households.

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