Sunday morning with NPR


I just heard the most thought-provoking segment of This American Life! I can't get over the FAO Schwarz-episode about the adopted dolls.

Click here to read about today's episode.

Although the first two acts were interesting too, the final act of this week's program caught my ear.

C has 2 American Girl Dolls, which she no longer plays with. I thought they were too expensive for her, so she had to "prove" she wanted her first enough and saved up to pay with her own money (either Santa or Grandma bought the 2nd doll). She also had to buy the dolls beds with her own money. Her first doll was a "just like me" doll. There are lots of dolls that were somewhat right, but none were exactly C. She ended up getting a doll with shorter hair than her own, and then within the week cut her own hair to approximately the same length. Life imitating art or vice versa? I don't know.

If you have a daughter (or if your don't you might be even MORE horrified as you are out of the dolly loop) listen to Babies Buying Babies. But its not about dolls, it's about racism. It forces you to look at my own thoughts! Listen for yourself.

The office had a similar episode - but with humor, not irony - where Dwight buys every doll in Scranton and then sells them at ballooned prices.

Off to shower and get the residual angst out of my mind. Did I do the right thing buying the "close enough" doll to C or should I have promoted a doll that wasn't her race to teach her a lesson in loving all people as yourself? We live in a rather homogeneous community and all of the girls in her closest group of friends "look just like her" (NR has been mistaken as her sister a number of times). The 2nd doll she bought (a character doll) had much longer, very blond hair. C's a brunette... What does this say about her self-identity???

At least we're not spending money on American Girl Dolls anymore!

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