The American Girl Place celebrates the American Girl dolls, and includes a cafe on the top floor where you can take your seven-year old girl for her first high-end meal, as kind of pre-finishing girl fieldtrip toward the twin merit badges of cultural refinement and conspicuous consumerism. I won't profess to know the American Girl world very well, but, as I understand it: there are these nine different dolls that are supposed to be real girls associated with different historical periods in American history, and then they have these period-appropriate and politically-neutral adventures, which show off that girls with confidence, optimism, perseverance, and other broadly accepted virtues will triumph over any adversity. The dolls originated in/near Madison (see here), and are associated with the family that donated over $200 million to build Madison's new culture center. (Me, if I had $200 million dollars for philanthropic giving, I personally wouldn't use it to find a cure for the poor acoustics of the evenings out of Madison's professorial and other middle and upper classes, but I recognize diversity of opinion on this issue.)
2 comments:
I think those dolls are reproducing as we speak...
Wow, I had no idea about the Madison connection! Funny timing, just this week I finally decided to go inside AGP-Chicago. I often pass by the huge crowds and have wondered what was inside. I had a visitor and since we were walking by anyway I thought it was a good opportunity. (Plus since it was the middle of the week we didn't have to fight any crowds.) I'm sure people just figured you were shopping for your daughter.. then again, the photo part does add an interesting dimension. It reminds me of a SATC episode.
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