I've been getting Thea Groovy Girls at thrift stores whenever I find one that's fully dressed. They're pretty cool, a nice size for playing with, dressed fashionably but not over-sexualized — one is wearing a "Chicks rock!" T-shirt — and they come in a variety of races. I got Thea the Asian, African-American, and Hispanic (or at least brunette) ones, and while she loves her horses most, she does play with them occasionally, which means I get to keep my liberal street cred.
Then I found a princess wearing a purple dress, Thea's favorite color. I originally got it for a five-year-old friend who loves princesses, but had forgotten that her birthday party was of the "no gifts, please" variety. So I gave it to Thea for being brave during picture day last week.
Thea LOVED it, mostly because of the long, purple dress. Now she doesn't like her other Groovy Girls, because "they're not pretty" like her princess is. Her white, blond, girly princess. ARGH.
After an unsuccessful search to buy the other dolls froofy dresses, I tried to make some. Alas, my sewing skills are severely lacking. I even had a team of people helping me on Saturday night, and we still couldn't make anything that met with Thea's approval. I'm out of ideas, but also very irritated that all the Groovy Girl princesses are white. WTF?
11 comments:
ebay?
Fruitless, though I did find a Groovy horse. Thea has enough horses, though.
My daughter has the Chicks Rock Groovy Girl (I dig it, too) but so far she's not interested in the others. I'm trying to steer her away from Barbie, so it could be worse, right? :)
Hmmm. I hadn't focused on the fact that all the princesses are white! PunditGirl has two of the Asian dolls and thankfully we're past the princess stage!
Never went through a princess phase myself, so I am utterly baffled by it. It does make you wonder if there isn't something hard-wired (and weird) going on...
we do not have any Groovy dolls, but I have admired them in toystores. Maybe the icey blonde princess can get a 'makeover'?
Like the Halloween banner, btw. :-)
oh that stinks... can that blonde hair fall on some scissors?
OMG, I totally wrote a "Bratz are sluts" post a while back too! Groovy Girls rule!
It may be the tiara that she thinks is pretty. Hard to tell. Try putting a tiara on the others. Maybe a fluffy "boa" in her favorite color. Or remove the tiara from the princess (discretely, of course, Mom). Otherwise, it's a stage. Like everything else. (Good for you for trying the sewing thing. Not easy without somebody to teach/help etc.)
May I suggest you ask Thea what makes this particular doll "pretty?"
When Heather was a little munchkin, I was groaning because she had a boy doll that became her favorite doll for adventure/athletic play (oh Lordy! My baby girl thinks only boys have adventures!!!) - until I asked her about it. In her mind, the doll had long eyelashes, (everyone knows boy dolls have short eyelashes)ergo it was a girl doll - except this particular doll could turn into a lion - hence the adventures that required a lot of physical leaping, rescues and such...all her girl dolls had hair too long to be a lion's mane not to mention they weren't wearing shorts.
When you were a wee tyke, one of your "pretty dolls" toted around a batch of flowers and wore a crown/tiara/headband over long blond hair. The head thing was a sort of wonderwoman tiara and each flower would turn into something different that confused or subdued the enemy dolls. The flowers morphed into all sorts of incredibly complex weapons. (Your play was totally confusing to me - I never did get the flower-power bouquet's total range of weaponry but I was vastly amused by the cry "flower-power!" and the carnage that ensued even if I couldn't keep up.) Besides, you were blond and "Blond ain't bad!"
Chances are from good to excellent that you are viewing what is going on from prosaic adult eyes. You see things as they are. Thea sees things as she wants them to be. Vastly different points of view.
love,
mom
She said it's the dress. The long purple dress.
Post a Comment