i think there’s a piece of media that every american girl doll collector should watch and that is, stay with me, the arthur episode “world girls”
world girls are the arthur equivalent of american girl dolls and the episode details how three characters—wealthy collector muffy, disinterested tomboy francine, and worldly realist sue ellen—connect to the brand and contend with their expectations and disappointment with a company that claims to care about girls and their cultures but ultimately falls short.
francine gets the more positive story: she initially hates world girls and thinks they’re overpriced and meant to sucker people into collecting beyond what they can afford. interestingly, francine also comes from the lowest income bracket of the group, meaning her dislike is more driven by her hatred of the company’s money-hungry behavior than her being a tomboy who doesn’t care for dolls. however, while at the store, francine finds a doll version of the famous athlete babe didrikson zaharias and connects with her because of her story as a world-class athlete from humble beginnings. this storyline exemplifies the positive part of american girl doll in its ability to give young girls positive role models and representation
for sue ellen, she starts off with high hopes about the company and ends up disappointed. sue ellen is also resistant to the idea of collecting the dolls and only has one, a doll from tibet that she wants to buy a special accessory for. however, the store has discontinued the doll because she’s from a buddhist country and therefore didn’t generate enough accessories to sell. when sue ellen finally gets her hands on a secondhand accessory, she realizes that it is historically inaccurate and corrects it herself with paint, giving the company no money in the process. the idea that the world girl company would stop making a doll and accessories just because they didn’t sell well enough, the culture and significance be damned, is obviously heavily mirrored by the american girl doll company, but the episode at least does spotlight the value of making and customizing your own dolls and accessories
as for muffy, she’s the collector of the group and wants to get all of the dolls and their accessories. however, she soon becomes overwhelmed by the sheer volume of dolls, even more so when they stumble into the world girl factory and see dolls being manufactured en masse. at the end of the episode, muffy decides to donate most of her dolls and only save the ones she really likes. her obsessive collecting not only overwhelms her, it leaves her totally disconnected from the dolls’ backstories and cultures to the point where she has no idea what any of them mean or stand for. she doesn’t even read the books they come with. muffy’s story is twofold in that it is a cautionary tale against being so collection-driven especially with a company that is just trying to milk you for every dollar you have and a lesson in learning about the culture of the dolls and respecting that when you buy them.
sue ellen and muffy have a very telling, insightful exchange that i feel encapsulates the moral of the episode and the idea behind why american girl dolls exist. muffy says the dolls are about collecting and sue ellen replies “no, they’re about connecting. connecting to cultures.”
2087
yousharknotpass
blakekathryn
areudirty
