Current Mood : sleepy, so very sleepy...
Believe this or not, but off
and on all day, I kept thinking about the questions that The People vs. George Lucas raised in my mind. It occurred to me
that my fangirl tendencies didn’t change – they just shifted to a new locus.
And it also led me to understand why I dumped Barbie at close to the same time.
Thing is…I never really
liked Barbie. Seriously. Even as a kid, it was more about playing with the
other girls in the subdivision than it was about Barbie, and it was both more
satisfying and more uncomfortable than playing with baby dolls. Y’see, while my
home life may have been less than the studied quiet perfection my folks tried
to present to the public, I was far from the only one with family matters. We
*all* played out our traumas and parental issues right out in front of each
other, and it was often laid raw and painful. But it was my best, if not only,
opportunity to work out what I could, so I took it, even though I hated the
fact that not one of my little avatars looked like me. Now that I think back,
it was mostly two brunettes and a redhead, and Barbie didn’t look like any of
us.
And every chance I got, I
abandoned the Mattel girls. While I loved that she was the rough-and-tumble
Rebel I loved from Star Wars, the
main reason I wanted the Kenner Princess Leia doll was her brown hair. Even my baby dolls and the ‘boudoir’ doll on
my dresser was blonde. The sole survivor of my childhood is Leia – it was too
easy to give all the Barbies away once the most important part of them, the
social therapy, was gone. While I used them for the neighborhood psychodramas, and
I was one of the last to give them up, none of them, not even Skipper, was ever
really ‘me’.
My adult preoccupation was
even simpler. I wanted something all to myself that no one else would want. And
by then, there were numerous brunette dolls, not just Barbie and Leia. Before I
went nutz after Dearest Son’s birth, I had five dolls – Leia, Belle, Sailor
Jupiter, Lisa Hayes, and Whitney. All their clothes, furniture, and accessories
fit in a shoe box. When I found out how popular Barbie was online, and how
buying more and more got me attention and even mild praise, that’s when I
released the beast. At one point, thanks to thrift stores and yard sales, I had
over 200, amassed in less than a year. Most of them, I didn’t even like. But I
did enjoy the praise and attention of the various message boards…
While I’d love to say I’m
glad those days are gone, we both know it’s merely transferred to Monster High. That was something else I
couldn’t figure out, and I’m still working on. While my Senior High years
weren’t a daily torture, they weren’t the best years of my life, either, and
with Barbie, I’d avoided buying dolls specifically marketed as teenagers. Now
we have a school playset full of ‘em, and while I recognize the fangirl in it,
I still don’t know why it appeals to me, except that they’re a challenge to sew
for, and they didn’t come with half the baggage Barbie did.
I still like the praise and
attention. But I don’t need it like I did before. I like to share and create
and alter, and if no one responds, that’s fine. I like seeing what everyone
else is doing, which never really surfaced with Babs – I mostly gave complements
to get them. Can’t do that anymore, I feel too dishonest, that I’m lying to
them, myself, and even the dolls. There’s repaints out there that I’m sure are
breathtaking – to someone who isn’t me. Truth be told, most repaints make me
upset or sad. And I think that if I see one more ‘sugar skull’ skeleton doll,
I’m gonna screech ! Mattel heard ya, they probably had plans in place back in
‘10 to release theirs – can we do something else with the skeleton heads,
please ?
Anyway. Lest you think I
spent all day thinking about m’self and my bizarre compulsions, we had family
therapy (which went well) and I tried to set Gloom Beach Cleo’s hair into a
pageboy. It’s not gonna work. No matter how small I made the roll, her hair’s
just too short. While I had boiling water, I gave DDG Spectra another rinse, to
minimize the package / hairstyling bends in her hair, and…they’re still there.
I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever get those out, as it didn’t take this much
effort to get Dead Tired DracuLaura’s straight-up ponytails to lie down.
Also, the goodies I ordered
from another MH fan arrived – and I
won the auction for Ghouls Rule Abbey’s
bowl and hand-stand, so soon, I’ll have almost the whole set ! I don’t really
want Clawdeen’s ‘coffin creeping goulash’.
But I have Cleo’s punch bowl, Frankie’s cauldron, and a couple extra
drinks – so happy to have two of the funny-straw martini drinks from Lagoona’s
latest fashion now. She and Gil can toast now !
I had some fun playing with
my latest doll, the faceless green girl from the water-decal Create A Monster
coffin set. I liked her, but had no intentions of playing with the CAM parts.
So I was really lucky to find her so inexpensively ! I also got the Cleo Skull Shores outfit, and her fashion,
mostly for the blouse/swimsuit to wear with pants and skirts. Depending on how Gloom Beach Cleo’s hair dries, I may
well be back on the market for SS Cleo.
I’m really on the fence about it – don’t need more dolls, but I really like
that one, but don’t want to ditch either of the two Cleos I already have…Arrrgh
!
And, I think I’ve seen my
next project – making my own HooDude VooDoo ! Froggy, of My Froggy Stuff on
YouTube, made a detailed tutorial and posted it. Wow. I like hers better than
the $$$ SDCC Mattel version ! Gotta
inventory my ribbon, and I need some stuffing, pipe cleaners, and felt, but I
think I can do it ! Check it out here,
and if you haven’t seen her other awesome ideas, have a look around. She’s
awesome !
Hopefully tomorrow, I’ll get
the cuts for my accessories box finished, so I can sew Saturday. Huge, stinkin’
game day, not goin’ anywhere. So I’m really looking forward to my project !
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