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This letter (from Rene in PA) is in the Fall 2004 issue of Bust.
I thought your article on women who play with dolls ("Welcome to the Dollhouse," BUST summer '04) did a good job of pointing out the impetus to play with dolls. I, too, was looking for a hobby that would make me happy, and I too, came back to dolls. However, I think the remark about the stereotypical doll collector - the middle-aged Midwesterner who collects Madame Alexander dolls for her curio in the hope that they will appreciate - is not only inaccurate, but denigrates an entire class of people. I was once at a Madame Alexander doll collector's convention. Most of the people there were indeed middle-aged women, and probably conservative in values and politics. But others were gay men a couple of decades younger. I was both amused and intrigued to observe the genuine warmth and kindness shown among all participants. I witnessed hundreds of [older] women from conservative communities refusing to be hustled into gay-bashing because it would hurt their doll-collector friends. And that alone is a reason to respect them, not denigrate them. When my daughter told a 70-year-old [acquaintance] that I was at a Madame Alexander convention, she said, wistfully, "I used to collect Madame Alexander dolls. Had to sell them to pay for the divorce." Then she straightened up, and said fiercely, "And it was worth it!" All women are different, even in their needs and uses for their hobbies, and all should be respected.
Registered: Jul 2003
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