flea: (Default)
Item one, an email just received from my mother. Subject: American Girl dolls.

Subject line: OMG the doll is fat!

Body: Borrowed an A.G. doll from next door. Can't say that I like her construction as all of her limbs wiggle loose. She will remind you of how very nice the Sashas' are. And, she is fat: absolutely porky in the arms, legs and torso. Truly the new American girl!
How can we influence Eve back to Sasha, or shall we trust that superiority will rise to the top.

Truly it is a wonder that her children did not develop eating disorders (our inherent tendency to be skinny probably saved us.) Also, no wonder we are all snobs.

Item two, my father is crazy too (or at least a prescriptivist, which as we all know = craxy)! From an email warning us about the rockslide between Asheville and Knoxville, he corrected my usage in the message he was replying to, like so:

> It sounds like [Hmmm: "AS IF", a conjunction, not preposition!] the afternoon/evening of Sunday the 27th is good to have an everyone gathering? Let's tentatively plan on that.

Yes, growing up with my father was like living with the English Police. Also, every time anyone said Florida or orange, he corrected her pronounciation (short o, not long!! Long is what those declasse people say!) I do speak very nice standard English, but I suspect I would have done so anyway without the continuous grammar shaming.

Memo to Teppy, your Chatty!Coworker's extreme literalism and general assy responses often remind me of my father. Who, I can say in all honesty, replies like that because he is an ass (said more nicely, he's a geek 12 year old boy), not because he has Asperger's or anything.
flea: (Default)
Casper got her first Barbie yesterday (choosing that over Hannah Montana jibbetz for her knock-off crocs), courtesy of Grandma. She chose a black Barbie. Now, the Barbie is Halle Berry black, not Alek Wek black - I can't tell if she's got the same face mold as white Barbie (not having any other Barbie to compare) but her features are pretty caucasoid, her skin is coppery, and she has waist-length straight hair. (Also, she's got ACTUAL FEET, and much less boobage than I remember on the Barbies of my childhood, which I gather are brand-wide changes.)

Casper also got to choose her own doll in January or so, when mr. flea accidentally broke one of her little dolls, and she picked a new Polly Pocket. Interestingly, she also chose the black Polly Pocket.

I bought myself a black Sasha doll when I was 11 or 12, but I think I was already enough aware of race at that time to be all White Liberal Girl about buying myself a black doll. Casper's too young for that, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, I'm fascinated that twice in a row now she's chosen the black doll.

What about you? Multi-ethnic doll collection?

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