B.A.P.S. Part 1

The Blueprint for January's Mini-Course

Happy pick a planner/write your goals/finish your vision board week for those who celebrate! Besides my planner (I’m a stationary junkie – shout out to Cloth & Paper), I’ll admit I have not done any of the above and don’t plan to this week. I’m watching old episodes of Girlfriends, inhaling pieces of this Marie Callender’s apple pie like its homemade, and scratching the obsessive itch I’ve taken on for January’s personal curriculum on class, culture, and consumerism in representations of black girlhood in the 90s and 2000s. Here’s an example of the layout for those who would like to participate:

American Girl lecture (January 5^th)

- Culture: The Making of Black American Identity

“I’m an American Girl… whatever that means”: Girls consuming Pleasant Company’s American Girl identity”

“This Where Freedom Supposed to Be At” to “She Knew She Would Never Stop Speaking Out for What Was Right”: Racial Logics and African American Identity in American Girl”

Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture

- Consumption: Buying Womanhood/Buying Blackness in American Capitalism

Black Barbie: A Documentary, Netflix

“The wonder of Barbie: popular culture and the making of female identity”

“Black children, White preference: Brown v. Board, the doll tests, and the politics of self-esteem”

“The Legacy of Shindana Toys: Black Play and Black Power”

- Class: For Us? Buy Us

Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture

“Left of Black | Black Women’s Buying Power with Dr. Aria Halliday,”

YouTube

Black Cinderella lecture (January 7^th)

- Culture: (TBA)

- Consumption: (TBA)

- Class: (TBA)

The Harajuku Barbie lecture (January 9^th)

- Culture: (TBA)

- Consumption: (TBA)

- Class: (TBA)

I will release the information for the remaining classes on Monday, January 5th and the second week of that mini course on Sunday, January 11th so be on the lookout. For, January 5th- 9th, I’ll be providing one video on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, respectively, that covers each topic and their subsequent subtopics with accompanying slides (the teacher in me REQUIRES a google slide deck to organize and articulate my thoughts) and PDF links to the readings.

Now, I’m providing the readings for a lil razzle dazzle and utilizing Google slides in my lectures because my memory won’t allow otherwise, but, remember, this is low stakes learning. I’ll point towards the passages/quotes that I find relevant in the video lecture, but don’t let those be the thing that creates a barrier. I’m hoping for engaging dialogue that ties to you – as I told my students last semester, the personal is political. My interest in this particular personal curriculum was jumpstarted by my mother’s thoughtful gift of Addy, my old American Girl doll, to my daughter and my entrance into the third trimester of pregnancy with my second daughter. I look forward to continuing to create a space for bringing the whole self to this exploration of black girlhood that doesn’t always have to be rooted in academic text. Sometimes, you are your best citation.

That said, I’m beginning this conversation rooted in the politics of childhood and play as a direct attempt to deconstruct the adultification of black children. I’m also rooting this conversation in the power and beauty of black remembering that is allowed to be included in the joyful feelings of the “good ole days.” For most of us, that looks like memory rooted in our senses. A certain song, smell, taste, image, piece of clothing, etc. can trigger all types of feelings and (selfishly) each one of the topics I have chosen does that for me.

I’m interested in exploring the complexity of those feelings in the context of contemporary American politics so integral to this exploration of black girlhood that begins with a line of dolls meant to represent historic America. Between this 2015 article (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/05/28/addy-walker-american-girl/) and this 2023 one, (https://toysandcollectiblesmuseum.org/articles/addy-walker-the-making-of-a-character), one part of a digital presentation in The Changnon Family Museum of Toys and Collectives exhibit “Addy Walker: Why She Matters,” I don’t think it makes sense to begin anywhere else.

I’m prepared to dive in. Black girls at the center.

Viral Image, “Parker Looks Up,” 2018

*If you would like to see the citations in their proper (MLA) format, please refer to the image below keeping in mind that the word, “bibliophile” is intentionally misspelled as a play on the intellectual filing of books: