Book Reviews

Deconstructing Dolls: Girlhoods
and the Meanings of Play
Miriam Forman-Brunell, ed.
New York: Berghahn Books, 2021.
Preface, acknowledgments, introduction,images, bibliography, and index. 160 pp.
$27.95 paper. ISBN: 9781800731035
As a curator of dolls and a feminist, I am
an enthusiast of most works by Miriam
Forman-Brunell. Biases aside, Deconstructing Dolls: Girlhoods and the Meaningsof Play, edited by Forman-Brunell, provesa noteworthy source for readers interested
in dolls, girlhood, and emerging contexts
and disciplinary developments. The eightcontributors demonstrate how a variety ofbackgrounds and interpretive frameworks
provide unique understandings of dolls’
meanings.
The first three essays explore dolls
and literature from an intertextual perspective. Two of these essays focus on
American Girl, a brand founded in 1986
by Pleasant Rowland, a former educator,
newscaster, and author of children’s books
and educational materials. According tocorporate documents, the company manufactures dolls intended to “enrich thelives of American girls by fostering pridein the traditions of growing up female in
America and celebrating the lifestyle ofgirls today.” American Girl has enjoyedenormous successes over the years but
not without sharp criticisms. In “Dolling
Up History: Fictions of Jewish American
Girlhood,” Lisa Marcus critically examines
American Girl doll Rebecca Rubin and theset of books that accompany her, and she
argues that girls deserve more complex
history lessons. Marcus calls attention towhat Jeanne Brady called the “chocolatecake with vitamins” approach touted byAmerican Girl. She contends “narratives
that stress immigrant assimilation andbelonging not only promote an exceptionalist vision of America as benign, tolerant, and just; in their erasure of conflict,oppression, and resistance, they also fail
to offer models for confronting injusticein a complex world” (p. 30). Many familiar with the brand also accused American Girl of whitewashing history when it
introduced Addy Walker, a nine-year-oldborn into slavery, and her stories. In “FromAmerican Girls into American Women:
A Critique of Women’s Nostalgic Readings of the American Girl Dolls,” Molly

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Brookfield further explores the brandincorporating postmodern theories ofnostalgia and the meanings of objects. Shefinds that many of the women who playedwith American Girl Dolls as children havecome to understand the irony of nostalgiaand materialism.
From discussions of Barbie and Modular to Black Barbie and Nicki Minaj, thesecond set of essays examines doll productions and performances. “HomemadeIdentities: Girls, Dolls, and DIY” by April
Renee Mandrona was one of the morecompelling pieces. Mandrona uses textuality (the study of the relationship between
material culture and social meaning), integrating her girlhood self, to examine thedoll-making activities of girls. In providing a brief history of craft movements,
she reminds readers that the making ofhandmade items provides women witha “form of self-determination that could
be achieved through physical labor of allsorts, and a newly discovered malleabilityof the corresponding feminine identities
of various domestic items” (p. 97). This isa perspective remarkably different fromthe mentalities of the evolving middle
class in nineteenth-century America.
Doll making was a means of domesticeconomy and morality, especially as parents felt these values at risk with the riseof commercially manufactured fashion
dolls. Mondrona’s research suggests that“through the making of handmade dolls,
girls can be brought more fully into production of knowledge at the level of objectcreation” and this might “enable girls to berepositioned as more active participants(cultural agents) in the creation or re-creation of meanings enacted by dolls and,ultimately, girlhood identities” (p. 99).

The DIY movement serves as a source ofempowerment.
I was hesitant to read, “An Afternoonof Productive Play with Problematic Dolls:
The Importance of Foregrounding Children’s Voices in Research” by Rebecca
Hines because the introduction discusses
Bratz, a line of fashion-forward rebel dolls
by MGA Entertainment. Since their introduction twenty years ago, when Bratz dolls
successfully rivaled Barbie, the American
Psychological Association accused thedolls of being “associated with an objectified adult sexuality,” and Professor of Law
Orly Lobel wrote You Don’t Own Me: HowMattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed
Barbie’s Dark Side. What more could besaid about Bratz dolls? Hains successfully
expands the conversation about girls andBratz dolls by examining how Black girls
in her study used Bratz dolls to explore
race and history.
The addition of a study that incorporates LGBTQI resources in relationship todolls may have enhanced the discourse.
Still, overall, Forman-Brunell organized
a valuable collection of essays that demonstrate the emerging scholarship in girlhood studies. Dolls play a significant rollin the lives of girls and young women andare an artifact rich with meaning.
—Michelle Parnett-Dwyer, The Strong,Rochester, NY

Who’s in the Game:
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Terri Toles PatkinJefferson, NC: McFarland & Company,