At a recent birthday, my daughter became the proud owner of the much coveted American
Girl doll. We had vaguely supported her strong desire to have an American Girl doll. We
knew that the doll would come with books that told the girl’s story, that the dolls were
of a decent quality, and that…well…they weren’t Barbies.
ڇوڪرين جي والدين کي خوشي جي لمحن جو تجربو معلوم ٿئي ٿو جڏهن انهن جون ڌيئرون ظاهر ڪن ٿيون
interest in dolls that are not Barbie.
We all know about Barbie. She’s got that impossible figure, the deformed feet, the big
hair, the gravity-defying breasts. No matter what version you buy — and there are many!
— Barbie always looks the same without her clothes on. That’s why even though the 90s has
brought us the Paleontologist Barbie, the Barbie Dentist, the Movin’ and Groovin’ Barbie,
as well as a nurturing big brother Ken who comes boxed with his little brother, an African
American version of Barbie and Ken named Imani and Menelik — both dressed in African
garb, and a Barbie-type doll in a wheelchair named "Share a Smile Becky,"
feminist parents hate Barbie.
My daughter’s brand new "Kirsten" – the American pioneer girl from the
mid-1800s – doesn’t have a cinched waist, but my relief about that was short-lived. As it
turns out, we had introduced racialized nationalism in the form of a blond-haired,
blue-eyed pioneer doll.
The Pleasant Company، آمريڪي ڇوڪريءَ جي گڏي ۽ لوازمات جي مجموعن کي ٺاهيندڙ،
thinks "being an American Girl is great — something to stand up and shout
بابت." انهن جي ويب سائيٽ جي هوم پيج تي هڪ صاف چمڙي واري ڇوڪري ڏيکاري ٿي
straight at you, hands on hips. Her t-shirt is decorated with stars and exclaims,
"Proud to be an American Girl!"
Pleasant Rowland, founder of the Pleasant Company, has the laudable goal of providing
girls with quality books and dolls, each representing a different period of U.S. history.
She wants to give girls an "understanding of America’s past and a sense of pride in
the traditions they share with girls of yesterday."
ڇوڪرين جي باري ۾ ڪهاڻيون لاء شڪرگذار جيڪي انهن جي جرئت تي ڌيان ڏين ٿا ۽ تيز ۽ جرات
روح، ۽ تاريخ جي سبقن سان دلچسپي رکي ٿي جيڪا "تاريخي طور تي" ۾ اچي ٿي
accurate" depictions of the girls’ lives, parents love to see their daughters’
interest in American Girl dolls.
These dolls do give our daughters positive role models. All six American Girl dolls —
Felicity (1774), Josefina (1824), Kirsten (1854), Addy (1864), Samantha (1904) and Molly
(1944) — are brave, thoughtful, struggling, girls with real-life problems and triumphs.
Nodding to multiculturalism, there is even an African American and a Hispanic doll.
But taken as a whole, the American Girl Collection gives us unbridled patriotism and
the victors’ version of history.
Even using the word "American" to describe the collection should give us
pause. Since the Americas make up two full continents of which the United States is only a
small part, and since millions of Native people once inhabited the Americas and might
accurately be called Americans, it’s a bit of a leap to pose our pioneer girl as the
شاندار آمريڪي ڇوڪري.
But it’s too late to worry about all this now. The doll is being carried all around the
house. Pleasant Company catalogs are arriving at a fast and furious pace. Each full-color
85-page tome provides my daughter with a minimum of a half-hour of thorough absorption.
She barely blinks as she scans the pages, admiring the high-quality, high-priced American
Girl sidelines. There are more historically accurate dresses and nightgowns to purchase.
Assorted socks, shoes, picnic baskets, and miniature American flags. There’s Kirsten’s own
hand-painted trunk for $155 and her matching bed "with its charming design" for
$ 55.
”ماءِ، مون کي ڪرسٽن لاءِ وڌيڪ سامان جي ضرورت آهي ته جيئن مان هن سان بهتر راند ڪري سگهان.
هن کي هن ميل آرڊر کان پري رکڻ لاءِ، مان صلاح ڏيان ٿو ته اسان ڪرسٽن مان هڪ کي پڙهون
ڪتاب. اسان ختم ڪريون ٿا آمريڪي تاريخ جو هڪ مڪمل طور تي غلط بيان ڪيل سليس.
ڪرسٽن، اسان ڄاڻون ٿا، "طاقت ۽ روح جي" هڪ پائيدار ڇوڪري آهي. سندس خاندان
comes from Sweden to begin farming in Minnesota. The fact that the pioneer presence in the
area, made possible by fraudulent U.S. treaties with the various Ojibwe bands, leads to
the displacement of most of the Native people is treated as a neutral bit of bad luck for
هندستاني.
According to the Pleasant Company, the European immigrants’ conflict with the Indians
does not result in bloody battles, disease, economic warfare and the near decimation of
the Native population. Seen through the eyes of the innocent Kirsten, who, in one of the
books Kirsten Learns a Lesson, actually befriends a Native girl her age, it’s simply a sad
twist of fate that Singing Bird is hungry and must go West with her tribe in search of
کاڌو
ٿوري دير لاءِ، ڪرسٽن ان ۾ شامل ٿيڻ جو خيال رکي ٿو. ”اچو،
ڀيڻ،" سنگنگ برڊ چوي ٿو.
”ڪرسٽن کي گرم ٽيپي ياد آيو جتي سنگنگ برڊ رهندو هو، هن پنهنجو پاڻ کي تصور ڪيو.
sleeping by Singing Bird’s side under the buffalo hides. If she lived with Singing Bird
she would be free to roam the woods all day. Brave Elk would be good to her. He was the
chief, and Kirsten would be his yellow-haired daughter. She and Singing Bird would always
be together."
Kirsten’s flight of fancy about running away with Singing Bird does not stray much from
the standard Eurocentric romaniticization of Native life. Contrasted as it is in Kirsten
Learns a Lesson with Kirsten’s tortuous hours in the school house with her severe teacher
who commands her students not to act like savages, the dream of running away with the
"Indians" symbolizes a break from civilization. Of course, Kirsten chooses not
to follow Singing Bird. A wise choice, as history shows. Had she joined the Indians,
ڪرسٽن به گهڻو وقت ڪاٺين ۾ گهمڻ ۽ بهنسن تي سمهڻ ۾ نه گذاريندو هو
لڪائيندو آهي. هوءَ ضرور پنهنجي موت ڏانهن هلي وئي هوندي هڪ برباد ٿيل ماڻهن سان ۽ زندگي جي هڪ طريقي سان
ايندڙ ڪجهه ڏهاڪن ۾ ختم ٿي ويندي. ڪرسٽن پنهنجي هندستاني دوست کي اداس الوداع چئي
۽ گهر موٽي اچي ته معلوم ٿئي ٿو ته هن صحيح طريقي سان تلاوت ڪرڻ لاءِ ”ريوارڊ آف ميرٽ“ حاصل ڪيو آهي
انگريزي ٻوليءَ جو هڪ شعر.
پر ان عمل ۾ هن هڪ ٻيو اهم سبق پڻ سکيو آهي: اهو مينيسوٽا آهي
her home. "She wasn’t sure when this place had become her own, but she belonged here
now," the book tells us. The illustration shows the backs of the Native people as
they leave their homeland.
Moms and Dads of daughters: we have our work cut out for us. The doll options for our
children run the gamut between pointy-breasted paleontologists and patriotic blond-haired
pioneers. Perhaps we should be grateful that spunk and courage are attributes ascribed to
girls, and that the occasional career girl makes her way into the line-up. Perhaps we
should be appreciative of the ubiquitous blond giving way to the occasional brunette, and
even brown-skinned doll. Perhaps we should feel hopeful that in addition to having
happy-sex-object-homemaker role models for dolls, our daughters also have feisty-patriot
role models who sometimes get into trouble but who always emerge victorious, thus easing
our children’s acceptance of the great and inevitable American way of life.
I am not comforted.
ماهرن جو چوڻ آهي ته اهي رانديون خريد ڪن جيڪي تخليقي راند تي زور ڏين ۽ انهن رانديڪن کان پاسو ڪن
only do one thing. Thus, your child will benefit from freer play that is less scripted and
directed by exacting toys and their attachments. I would add that we should also beware of
the "educational" books that offer fine-tuned justifications for dominant
institutions past and present. These books may appeal to our children’s intellect, but
they represent an early start to the process of inculcating kids with the values and norms
that they’ll need to rationalize an unjust world.
Consider also, in the world beyond your child’s playroom, how you can help build and
support the institutions and communities that offer an alternative to the dominant ones.
Creating spaces that emphasize care over consumption, continuity over disposability, and
diversity over universality will expose all children to values they won’t find in the
ڌارا.
And finally, a query for Howard Zinn (you have read my commentary about dolls all the
way to the end, haven’t you?): You write in a number of different genres. I’ve read your
excellent books, essays, and plays. Why not try your hand at the historical novel geared
for the 7-12 year old set? A sort of a merging of A People’s History and the Pleasant
Company – complete with politically correct historical fiction, multicultural dolls, and
anti-capitalist accessories. Could be the sideline that lifts some lefty publishing
company out of the red and politicizes pre-adolescents the world over. Think about it.