DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 

            Although American Girl is most associated with dolls, the company’s books are equally significant. In these books, the brand introduces the identity and world associated with each doll: personality, settings, problems, and casts of characters. These books are available in the American Girl store on the American Girl website, from third party booksellers, and in local libraries. They are an incredibly successful product. Since 1986, American Girl has sold over 143 million books, read by countless girls.[1]  Through these books, American Girl consumers can become intimately acquainted with the company’s characters, and they do.  American Girl’s customers do not passively read these stories; they actively interpret, expand upon, and alter them. One avenue through which American Girl fans can creatively work with the company’s characters and stories is by writing and posting stories on FanFiction.net, an online repository of fan fiction, fan-written stories based on published books, songs video games and other media.

            Though Acosta-Alzuru and Kreshel didn’t discuss fan fiction in their study, their description of consumption as “an activity underpinned by a tension between creativity (of the consumer) and restraint (imposed by production)” also applies to the process of writing fan fiction.[2] As published by the company, the original American Girl books already resemble fan fiction in several respects. When they are hired by the company, American girl authors are given specific guidelines regarding the plot, setting, character’s interests, and possessions.[3] These guidelines, meant to appeal to consumers, and align with the physical production of the dolls constrain the stories and set restrictions upon the authors’ creativity. The constraints imposed on company authors are similar to those limits inherent to the hybrid consumption/production of fan fiction. Just like official American Girl authors, fan fiction writers must work with characters whose interests and setting, along with some elements of the plot, have already been established.

            The official American Girl books resemble fan fiction even more when the series for a single doll is written by multiple authors. While the one to two books published for each Girl of the Year are generally written by individual authors, several Historical Characters’ book series are not. The books in Samantha’s series for example, were written by 3 different women. The first two books about Samantha, Meet Samantha, and Samantha Learns a Lesson were written by Susan Adler, and published in 1986. The next, Samantha’s Surprise, also published in 1986 was written by Maxine Rose Schur, and the last three, Happy Birthday Samantha (1987), Changes for Samantha (1988), and Samantha Saves the Day (1988), were all written by Valerie Tripp. Tripp’s Samantha books were essentially fan fiction, stories written about characters and worlds created by another author (in this case two). Unlike fan fiction, however, Tripp’s stories were published by the American Girl company and established as part of the American Girl canon.

            In their introduction to Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson list numerous terms used to describe fan fiction and argue that the “use of acronyms and cryptic terms deliberately excludes those unaware of their meaning. Part of the task of a newbie is to sort through the unfamiliar terms and come to an understanding of their meaning.”[4] Significantly, I did not come across most of these terms while reading and browsing American Girl fan fiction. In part, this is due to the changes in vernacular since Busse and Hellekson’s book was published in 2006. But it also reflects the small size, and relative accessibility of the American Girl fan fiction sub page on FanFiction.net.[5] While the most popular canons, have inspired hundreds of thousands of stories, only 200 have been posted on the American Girl page.[6]

            This number also pales in comparison to the 143 million books sold by American Girl. The majority of American Girl readers evidently do not write fan fiction. Though it is a relatively small group, however, the American Girl authors on FanFiction.net are not insignificant. The 200 American Girl stories (and 7 crossover stories in which American Girls interact with the characters and worlds of other canons) each demonstrate active, creative, use of American Girl content by consumers and reveal a great deal, both about fan fiction writers themselves, and about the brand they work with. After reading the stories, fan fiction authors remain interested, and continue to interact with the company’s content. Furthermore, by writing, fan fiction authors are “expanding the corpus of knowledge around the original media."[7] As they write, fan authors actively change some aspects of the original stories, emphasize others and reference or combine American Girl with other sources in order to create their own narratives. The new “corpus of knowledge” expanded by these stories, represents not only the company’s carefully constructed narratives, but also the point of view of committed fans. When considered altogether, certain themes and characters are common prevalent in American Girl fan fiction. These patterns illustrate certain aspects of the original stories that have particular impact on fans, and demonstrate commonalities amongst American Girl fan fiction authors.

 

Ethics

            As I read their stories, I began to wonder about the ethics of writing about fan fiction created by girls of indeterminate, but presumably young, ages. I wondered what these girls would think of my project, and who the intended audience of their work actually included. Though I was unable to find literature on research projects which used the same sources, and methods as my own, several articles on the ethics of online research and ethnography offer a framework in which to consider the ethics of my project.

            Each of the articles that I read recognized that research on the internet is incredibly variable. There is not, consequently, a hard and fast rule, or even a set of specific guidelines for internet research. Instead, “each researcher must evaluate the ethics of a study on a case-by-case basis.”[8] Despite the lack of specific criteria, there are central issues to consider in online research. It says in the Code of Ethics and Policies and Procedures of the ASA Committee on Professional Ethics that "Sociologists may conduct research in public places or use publicly-available information about individuals (e.g., naturalistic observations in public places, analysis of public records, or archival research) without obtaining consent.” [9] Internet researchers must be very careful in determining whether content is public or private, as these distinctions are often unclear online.

            At its most basic, public space online may be considered in terms of ease of access. In her discussion of ethics, Malin Sveningsson offers a definition according to access, stating that

            A public environment is one that is open and available for everyone, that anyone with an   internet connection can access, and that does not require any form of membership or     registration. Public online environments can for example be represented by open chat             rooms or web pages[10]

 

According to this definition, both FanFiction.net and YouTube.com (a source I will use in Chapter Two) are public environments and therefore spaces in which research without informed consent is permissible. The stories and videos on these sites, once published, are searchable and open to the public. Sveningsson, does not, however, limit her definition of public and private space to the experience of the reader or researcher. In addition to discussing ease of access, she considers the perceptions of the creators of content, arguing that "It can sometimes be that even if a certain internet medium admittedly is public, it doesn't feel public to its users."[11] Although it is clear that content on YouTube.com and FanFiction.net is publicly accessible, the intended audience of that content is less apparent.

            Regardless of the specific audience creators on FanFiction.net and YouTube.com expect, it is unlikely that they imagine their works will be studied academically. It is therefore important to consider whether this work constitutes an invasion of perceived privacy. In a discussion of her own work, Susannah Stern observed that her teen research subjects “considered their online communications to be private when they were kept hidden from the people they knew in their everyday lives, regardless of who else encountered them."[12] It is worth considering the extent to which my consideration of online content invades privacy if the identities of subjects remain hidden and content is not revealed to their offline social circles. It is of utmost importance that I do not inadvertently disseminate identifying information about any of the creators of content analyzed in my project.

            While the majority of articles on online research deal with online communities and personal, nonfiction postings, my project focuses on fictional content published online much more than the communities creating it. I believe these distinctions to be important. I do not wish to draw conclusions about individual or community beliefs but rather to analyze the specific content of stories in order to evaluate the patterns and extent to which stories, themes, and characters created by American Girl are repurposed by fan communities. In the print version of my thesis, which will be read by my advisors, I will include quotations from fan fiction stories and YouTube videos, and I will not alter usernames or titles.  In this online version of my thesis, however, I have removed searchable quotes, and have changed all usernames and story titles.

 

Methods

            In order to gain a sense of the American Girl inspired stories on FanFiction.net, I looked through all of the story titles and short summaries. I took note of the length, themes, and characters listed for each to form a rough idea of the patterns on the site. I also read 30 fan fiction stories written by 24 different authors. I tried to choose stories that reflected the range of narratives in American Girl fan fiction. I also generally chose stories that had been published, or updated recently in order to focus on currently active authors. The stories I read follow eleven of American Girl’s characters, and vary significantly in terms of theme and content. Some of the stories are set before the American Girl series on which they were based, some after, and others in simultaneous alternate universes. Some focus entirely on romance, and others didn’t even hint at flirtation. American Girl fan fiction stories also vary considerably in length. Some are long, multi-chapter pieces and others are short “one-shots” which are, by definition, only one chapter in length. These stories provided a rough sample of the 200 stories on the site and acted as case studies for my research.

            The longest story I read was a novel length narrative called Letters from Ben by Katherine Lily 14. This story, which was completed in early 2014, is over 20 chapters and 150,000 words long.  Letters from Ben begins in October 1777, two years after the end of the published Felicity stories. The story opens with Felicity, now twelve, saying goodbye to Ben, her father’s apprentice, who is now eighteen and leaving to fight in the Revolutionary War. It follows the next nine years of Felicity and Ben’s lives, as they grow older, write letters, are reunited after the war, and eventually fall in love, get married, and have children. Letters from Ben is a particularly important and prominent case study in this thesis. The 150,000 plus words in the story provide a lot of interesting content to analyze. In many cases, this content resonated with other American Girl fan fiction, and at times it was idiosyncratic. I hope my analysis reflects both of these qualities.

 

Themes and Patterns

            While the 200 American Girl fan fiction stories are all unique, patterns emerge when they are considered as a group. Female heroism, femininity and romance, and history are prominent in many of the stories while issues such as slavery and race are notably absent. In many cases, the storylines and themes are inspired directly by the American Girl Books. The themes, morals, and storylines common in American Girl fan fiction reflect girls’ negotiations of the complex messages presented by the various media in their lives. The 200 stories follow 17 of the original Historical Character and Girl of the Year canons created by American Girl. While most of these characters have inspired fewer than five fan fiction stories, a few stand out. Of 200 stories, 80 follow Felicity’s canon, 28 are inspired by Samantha, and 11 are about Kit. Interestingly, a significant number of the stories are not based in canon at all; 24 stories in the American Girl archive on FanFiction.net follow original characters with new settings and plotlines.

 

Female Heroism

            Like the books by which they are inspired, American Girl fan fiction is dominated by stories of female heroism. In her discussion of previous research on fan fiction, Rebecca Black argues that female fan fiction writers use “their fan fictions to reconfigure gendered identities by casting female fan fiction characters in many of the ‘hero’ roles that are traditionally occupied by men in popular media.”[13] American Girl fan fiction authors do not have to reconfigure canon in order to place girls and women in the hero roles. Instead, these fan fiction stories follow the example set by the canon to demonstrate the variety of stories that can be told about girls. Catherine Driscoll argues that “some fan fiction focuses on neither romance nor sex—although it is very rare for a story to exclude them entirely—and this is properly called gen.”[14] Most American Girl fan fiction is romantic, but gen stories are not uncommon. These stories are consistent with the American Girl canon, and follow a wide variety of storylines. There are fan fiction stories in which Samantha becomes a school teacher, Saige rides a horse by herself for the first time and Felicity disguises herself as a man in order to join the army. In each of these stories, female heroism is enacted differently, but they all feature central female characters who take control of their own lives.

            One story, Marie-Grace: Girl Detective follows one of the Historical Characters from 1853 New Orleans as she goes on a trip to Illinois where she meets several aunts, uncles, and cousins. The story follows Marie-Grace as she works with her cousin to solve a mystery, and eventually to catch a mystery. In this story, the two eleven year old female protagonists are adventurer detectives and are unconcerned with boys. Midway through the story, they are firmly established as the heroes of the story by saving their older male cousins when they fall through the ice while skating. In this story, Marie Grace and her cousin don’t need to be saved by men; they do the saving. At the end of the story, the damsel in distress narrative is subverted again. When they go to the Sheriff to tell him they have identified and found the criminals, he tries to convince them to stay home while he and police backup go to make the arrests. Marie Grace’s cousin doesn’t listen and runs to the criminal’s hideout; both the Sheriff and her older cousin try to catch her, but she is faster than both of them.

            Stories in which fan fiction authors create their own American Girl are also often focused on storylines that have little or nothing to do with boys and romance. Meet Ellen follows a girl as she rides a horse for the first time and adopts a foal when the farm is closed down and Christmas for Jenny follows a girl as she performs in a gymnastics showcase and then receives a kitten for Christmas. Meet Gretchen explicitly acknowledges and asserts the possibility for female heroism when Gretchen, an Immigrant to the United States from England, tells a fellow ship passenger who thinks girls can’t have adventures that they are going to they are traveling to a new country where girls might be able to have adventures. The American Girl series introduce readers to strong, female protagonists who are unconcerned with romance and are the heroes of their own adventures and fan fiction follows suit. As these stories where authors create their own American Girls demonstrate, it is the model of girl heroism, rather than the specific characters and worlds that defines the American Girl canon.

 

Remixing

            Though authors are anonymous, most of the American Girl stories on FanFiction.net seem to be written by 10-15 year old young women. In her discussion of the sexualization myth, Jennifer Egan notes that that "a girl's relationship to media and popular culture is often complex, contradictory, and rarely straightforward."[15] Girls are inundated with conflicting narratives, experiences and messages, which they consider, interpret, and combine in their stories. The variety of stories on FanFiction.net reflects not only the creativity of their authors, but also the diversity and complexity of their experiences of adolescent girlhood.

            The creativity and interests of American Girl fan fiction authors are evident in their references to and combinations with other media in their stories. In addition to building upon individual American Girl characters, several stories bring them together and actively imagine how they would interact. Rebecca grows up to meet Samantha, Kit is compared with Felicity,  Chrissa is transported back in time to be friends with Rebecca, or all of the historical characters write in the same diary. The stories also frequently include references to other books and media. In Chapter 13 of Letters from Ben the central characters have an exchange that is essentially a word for word transposition of the scene from Titanic in which Jack teaches Rose how to spit. The same story also features direct mention of several works of literature commonly found on high school freshman reading lists including Romeo and Juliet, and Odysseus. As they remix, reference, and combine various media, fan fiction authors make sense of their “complex, contradictory, and rarely straightforward" relationships with popular media.[16] In fan fiction, these media are edited and combined according to these connections and judgments girls make as they engage with all of their available resources.

 

Femininity and Romance

            In her discussion of Twilight fan fiction, Sara Day discusses the frequent emphasis of sex and sexuality. She argues that through fan fiction, authors respond to Twilight’s “abstinence-only messages,” and subvert absence of sex scenes in the original literature.[17] Day demonstrates that in some cases, fan fiction authors find the chastity before marriage of the main characters in Twilight appealing while in others they reject the constraints that are placed on Bella’s (the heroine) sexuality. This model, in which the authors of fan fiction respond to and rework the canonical depiction of sex and sexuality does not reflect American Girl fan fiction. Unlike Twilight, the protagonists in the American Girl canon do not have romantic storylines. Some adult characters, such as Samantha’s Uncle Gard, and Molly’s teacher Miss Campbell are engaged in the stories, and older siblings, like Molly’s sister Jill and Felicity’s friend Elizabeth’s sister Annabelle occasionally have crushes, but the American Girls themselves, are much more concerned with family, school, and female friendships than with the boys in their classes. When they are concerned with boys it is often because they are mean or annoying. Consequently, American Girl fan fiction writers who would like to explore romantic themes must construct their own models of romance and sexuality. Of the 200 American Girl fan fiction stories, 109 are tagged as “romance.” These stories, which generally feature strong female protagonists, contain strong messages about the ideal forms of relationships, masculinity, and femininity.

            Felicity and Samantha both grapple with femininity in their books. In both series, the protagonist is repeatedly reminded to act like a lady, and both struggle with this expectation. The original Felicity series follows a nine year old girl who lives in Williamsburg Virginia in 1774 and is the daughter of a merchant. In the second chapter of Meet Felicity, Felicity complains to her father’s apprentice Ben about the various restrictions she faces as a result of gender:

            ‘It’s very tiresome to be a girl sometimes,’ Felicity went on. ‘There are so many things a    young lady must not do. I’m told the same things over and over again. Don’t talk too           loud. Don’t walk too fast. Don’t fidget. Don’t dirty your hands. Don’t be impatient.’             Felicity signed. ‘It’s very hard. You’re lucky to be a lad. You can do whatever you   like’[18]

 

Felicity is very clearly pressured by the expectations placed on eighteenth century femininity. Throughout her series, she rebels against these expectations, often complaining about, or contradicting them. Samantha also struggles to conform to expectations. In Meet Samantha the narrator explains that she “always tried to be a young lady, but it was a lot easier to remember how when Grandmary was watching.”[19] When Grandmary is not watching, Samantha climbs trees, tears her stockings, and runs around. In their stories, both Felicity, and Samantha’s femininity is defined in terms of class as well as gender. They are not only women, but ladies.

            These battles with femininity are also emphasized in fan fiction inspired by Samantha and Felicity. In Letters from Ben, Felicity repeatedly overhears criticism of her own unladylike behavior and her imagined sister Alicia in Meet Alice Merriman, An American Sister is established as unladylike. In Ideas and Impulsiveness, Samantha struggles in her dance lesson and falls repeatedly, to great embarrassment. And after she runs down the street with Eddie in Battles for Eddie, his mother scolds him for his “appalling” behavior. That Felicity and Samantha are so popular on FanFiction.net, and that their struggles with femininity are emphasized, indicates that this aspect of their stories resonates with readers. Today, young women face subtle, rather than overt, limitations as a result of their womanhood. Felicity and Samantha, by contrast, are subject to very specific expectations to be ladies. Their stories simplify the pressures of womanhood to easily identifiable issues. Unlike in real life, when writing about Felicity and Samantha, fan fiction writers can explicitly identify and deal with or reject the expectations of womanhood.

            Though their struggle is emphasized, Felicity and Samantha both ultimately succeed in meeting the pressure of femininity in their books. Felicity is initially reluctant when she has to begin taking etiquette lessons in Felicity Learns a Lesson.[20] By the end of the story, however, she begins to master and enjoy these lessons: “she was still quite often too lively to be ladylike. But at lessons, Felicity tried to keep her voice low and her back straight and her teacup balanced. She remembered to laugh softly and ask polite questions. She began to enjoy being on her best behavior at tea.”[21] Similarly, in Meet Samantha, Samantha manages to make progress on her needlework and practice the piano fairly easily when she is motivated by a doll.[22] These storylines demonstrate Diamond et al.’s argument that "by offering scripts for the enactment of heroic femininity and templates for the replication and perpetuate on of domesticity, the brand helps mitigate the effects of cultural contradictions surrounding the contemporary female role."[23] The “scripts” offered in the stories suggest specific, definable domestic tasks which embody successful femininity.  By allowing the rebellious protagonists to ultimately succeed, the stories do not explicitly reject expectations of femininity. Instead they reassure readers that they can meet expectations with proper effort.

            Felicity and Samantha also successfully enact femininity in fan fiction. In fan fiction stories, however, their success is often marked by romantic success rather than parental approval. Although they often reject or fail to meet expectations placed on feminine behavior, the characters remain attractive. Kim Chuppa Cornell posits that an emphasis on physical beauty is suggested in the books through the older sister characters. She argues that these characters “offer a glimpse into what it means to be a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl. The stories suggest, no matter the time period or plot line, growing up means caring more about one's physical appearance.”[24] The storylines in American Girl Fan fiction are often consistent with Chuppa-Cornell’s argument. Romantically themed fan fiction is often set a few years after the books, when the characters are fourteen, or fifteen, or older. Though it is often unimportant to them, the protagonists in romantic fan fiction are firmly established as physically attractive. In Letters from Ben, Felicity’s hair is described as beautiful and Eddie thinks Samantha looks pretty even when she is disheveled in Ideas and Impulsiveness. These details reassure readers that even if they reject or fail to achieve feminine ideals, they will remain attractive to men. This is also true in stories about American Girl characters. In Kit’s Birthday, which is set four years after the end of the Kit series, a canonical male character thinks at length about his crush on Kit. 

            While fan fiction authors contradict some expectations of femininity by presenting characters who rebel against or fail to meet some expectations, they confirm others. The main character is often presented as chaste, and inexperienced in American Girl fan fiction. In Seven Minutes in Heaven, a sixteen year old Samantha worries about her first kiss, and in Meet Alice Merriman, An American Sister, Alicia runs away the first time Ben kisses her. Unlike the female protagonists, the male romantic interest in both of these stories is not nervous. The portrayal of the female love interests as inexperienced is likely related to the relatively young age of American Girl fan fiction authors. Girls in their early teens might find it easier to relate to characters who are inexperienced sexually and the success of these characters to attract men anyways may be reassuring to girls who feel self-conscious. Though these characters may offer comfort, however, they also confirm expectations placed on women to remain chaste.

            Both the main characters’ rebellion, and their chastity is consistent with the stories Janice Radway found to be most appealing in her study of adult women’s consumption of romance novels. She found that in the stories her research subjects liked most, nearly every heroine exhibited an “initial rejection of feminine ways” and was “also characterized by childlike innocence and [sexual] inexperience.”[25] Furthermore, as in fan fiction, Radway found that the most appealing romance novels featured heroines who are beautiful, but “unaware of their beauty and effects.”[26] While other features and storylines in American Girl fan fiction were not consistent with Radway’s findings, the similarities between the protagonists in American Girl fan fiction and romance novel heroines are striking. These similarities demonstrate that American Girl fan fiction writers’ conceptions of ideal femininity reflect larger ideas about and representations of women in popular culture. Furthermore, these characteristics remain cemented thirty years after Radway’s book was first published in 1984, reflecting their immense power. 

            This is particularly true of Letters from Ben. In this story, Felicity’s chastity is emphasized through the distinctly negative portrayal of more experienced women in the story. In chapter six, Ben is pursued by an unattractive woman named Jessie Lou. Throughout their interaction, both Jessie Lou’s sexual aggression and her appearance are emphasized. She is large, bulky and distinctly unfeminine. She has big hands, chews tobacco, and drinks whisky. She also is both sexually experienced and aggressive: she unbuttons Ben’s shirt, attempts to grope him, and argues when he rejects her advances. This character, from whom the male protagonist has to escape, personifies undesirable womanhood. Not only is she described in negative terms, but the male love interest in the story is clearly repelled by her. In this negative portrayal, sexual experience and dominance are conflated with physical unattractiveness. Felicity’s chastity is made desirable by contrast. Her chastity is further emphasized in this story when Felicity travels to France. After a French woman claims that men only pay attention to women due to physical attraction, Felicity passionately argues that women should be valued for more than their appearances, that they are smart. In this story, women who eagerly seek out sex are unattractive, and unintelligent, while Felicity is chaste, feminist, heroic, and lovely. Through these counterexamples, sexuality is established in opposition to intelligence and beauty: a woman cannot be simultaneously sexual, attractive, and intelligent. In this story if a woman is attractive, and intelligent, she also must be chaste.

            Later in the story, when Felicity marries Ben, and they consummate their marriage, syntax places Ben in the active role. This phrasing portrays Ben as active and Felicity as passive. Although she is independent and unladylike, Felicity is firmly established as sexually passive and inexperienced. The female characters in romantic American Girl fan fiction simultaneously fulfill and contradict stereotypes and expectations of femininity. The characters are nominally unladylike, but succeed in attracting men, and fulfilling domestic tasks when necessary. They are described as indifferent to their own appearances, but are very beautiful. Their chastity is emphasized as attractive. In effect, the female characters in romantic American Girl stories reflect the reassurances of the original books. These depictions continue to place expectations on women: they don’t have to by ladylike, but they still must be attractive to men, and they aren’t only allowed to be chaste, they must be. 

 

Masculinity

            The American Girl books offer models of female heroism and femininity, but they do not offer models for romantic relationships or partners. When they write romantic American Girl fan fiction, authors must construct their own models of romantic masculinity. While the original stories are told from the point of view of the American Girls, romantic fan fiction is often narrated from the male perspective, or alternates point of view. The male characters are consequently well established and their feelings are described at length. These characters enact very particular and occasionally conflicting forms of masculinity. They are nearly always portrayed as completely devoted to the protagonist, a trait which is often contrasted with typical male sexuality. They are also often strong, and sexually dominant, reflecting stereotypical masculinity.

            The most important characteristic shared by the male love interest in romantic fan fiction is their devotion to the female protagonist. In the stories I read, male romantic love was repeatedly emphasized. In Kit’s, Sterling surprises Kit on her fourteenth birthday, by setting up an elaborate romantic scene, kissing her and telling her he loves her. In this story, Sterling’s devotion is straightforward, and presented as consistent with his masculinity.

             Motherhood, which follows the story of Caroline’s parents, presents her father John’s devotion to her mother as contrary to his other masculine characteristics. Caroline’s mother June does not want to have sex because she is afraid of miscarriage. Her husband respects this wish, but doing so requires great effort. By describing this effort, the narrator establishes John’s masculine sexual potency, thereby showing the power of love through which he resists his desire. After establishing this devotion, the narrator emphasizes it by comparing John to other men, who would view sex as their wife’s duty. John’s devotion is not only powerful, but unusual. Unlike him, other men are not devoted enough to control their own sexual desires.

            As in Motherhood, Ben’s devotion to Felicity is repeatedly emphasized, and portrayed as unusual in Letters from Ben. In chapter twenty Ben argues with his brother over whether love exists, repeatedly declaring and defending his love in the process. In the next chapter, he recalls asking Mr. Merriman for Felicity’s hand in marriage. In his memories, he describes everything he admires about her and declares his love repeatedly. Later in that chapter, he writes a love letter to Felicity, again declaring his love. Katherine Lily 14’s repeated emphasis of Ben’s love indicates that she views this trait as particularly important to his character. Furthermore, Ben’s devotion is portrayed as unusual. Ben’s brother argues that love does not exist and his father also points out that devotion is unusual, explaining that most men are more interested in consummating their marriage than in being a good husband. As in Motherhood, the male love interest is established as devoted, and loving, a trait which is portrayed as exceptional and contrary to “typical” masculinity, in which physical attraction is prioritized.

            Just as Felicity is set against Jessie Lou and the French women, Ben is juxtaposed with a French man named Pierre in Letters from Ben. Predictably, Ben is superior. Unlike other men in the story, Ben is established as chaste. When his fellow soldiers talk about sex, another soldier is shocked by his lack of experience. Pierre on the other hand is shallow and interested in Felicity’s due to her appearance. While most men are sexually driven, Ben’s ability to suppress his own sexuality is repeatedly emphasized and portrayed positively. Ben’s chastity is consistent with other fan fiction. In her discussion of sex and romance in fan fiction, Catherine Driscoll notes that in “the teen romance form both [the heroine and the hero] are virgins.”[27] Physically, however, Ben is typically masculine. In chapter 16, Felicity notices that Pierre has soft hands This reminds her of Ben’s hands which are calloused, rough, and manly.

            The Samantha inspired story Ideas and Impulsiveness includes a less clear depiction of masculinity. In this story, the male love interest, Eddie, is not completely devoted. He is mischievous and occasionally mean spirited. When he decides not to play a prank on Samantha he is motivated by her appearance, rather than his own moral compass. In chapter six he harasses her while she is reading, pressing his body against hers and continuously interrupting her. In this in-progress story, Samantha does not yet like Eddie, but it is apparent from the description that he will be her eventual love interest. It is consequently unclear whether the reader is meant to like Eddie at this point in the story or not. Furthermore, this characterization of Eddie is atypical. The author acknowledges this, but defends her depiction of Eddie which she feels is closer to canon. Her description of Eddie as kind and considerate in other fan fiction is consistent with the BrowniePan95’s Seven Minutes in Heaven. In this story, when Samantha is nervous about kissing him on a dare, Eddie does not pressure her. Instead he offers to lie so that she does not have to go through with the dare if it makes her uncomfortable. In this story, Eddie is rewarded for his decency; Samantha does kiss him. 

            In romantic American Girl fan fiction, two versions of masculinity are often established: ideal and typical. The first is established through the portrayal of the male love interest. These characters are also often portrayed as strong, rough, and sexually potent. These masculine characteristics, particularly sexual potency, are contrasted with their devotion, which dominates as their prevailing, most powerful trait. Through these characters, fan fiction authors reveal their conceptions of an ideal mate, who is apparently loving and kind, but also manly. These authors also reveal, however, a perceived contradiction between typical and ideal masculinity. In their stories, the devoted male is portrayed as unusual and extraordinary. He is placed in contrast with other men, who are driven by sex rather than love. This is further demonstrated by Ideas and Impulsiveness, which is an exception. In this story, Eddie is not well behaved precisely because that would be unrealistic. Through these depictions fan fiction authors also reveal their perceptions of typical masculinity which is strong, sexually motivated, and unloving. In these stories, fan fiction authors indicate that their ideal mate is respectful and devoted, but their emphasis of these traits as unusual indicates that they doubt that this ideal version of masculinity exits in real life.

            Fan fiction authors apparent perceptions of masculinity are consistent with C. J. Pascoe’s ethnographic research into masculinity as expressed at an American High School. Pascoe found that at River High, “ritualized interactions continually affirm masculinity as mastery and dominance,” particularly over girls’ bodies, and “boys seemed to be proud of this stereotypical ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em behavior.”[28] These characterizations are consistent with American Girl fan fiction authors’ depictions of masculinity as strong, rough, and sexually motivated. Pascoe also found, however, that “when with other boys, they postured and bragged. In one-on-one situations with me (and possibly with each other) they often spoke touchingly about their feelings about and insecurities with girls” and were “much more likely to talk empathetically and respectfully of girls.”[29] These descriptions are much closer to fan fiction author’s depictions of the ideal love interest who is unlike other men in the story; but these authors describe such men as extraordinary, rather than typical. This indicates that boys’ performative masculinity as dominant and uncaring is a powerful source for girl’s perceptions of “typical” male traits. It also may reflect fan fiction author’s relative lack of experience; they may have had few private interactions and relationships with boys, so social performances of masculinity may be their primary source of information.

 

History

            Though some American Girl fan fiction is set in the present, the majority of stories are inspired by the Historical Characters and are set in their worlds. Through these stories, fan fiction authors demonstrate their interest in imagining and writing about the past. Motherhood, the story following Caroline’s parents prior to her birth was inspired by an apparent historical discrepancy: the author noted that Caroline was an only child in a period with relatively high birth rates. Similarly, Battles for Eddie includes historical lessons on etiquette. In Letters from Ben, in addition to numerous details about the Revolutionary War, a character contracts rheumatic fever. These and many other historical details in American Girl fan fiction demonstrate that fan fiction authors are interested in imagining the past.

             They do not, however, imagine this past fully. Several themes are noticeably missing from American Girl fan fiction including slavery, race, mortality rates, class, and female biology. These themes are also generally absent from the books. These absences demonstrate the impact of the American Girl canon on the issues and stories fans will explore. When themes such as race and class are not emphasized in the books, American Girl fans will not insert them. Unlike romantic narratives and depictions of masculinity and femininity, historically comprehensive and accurate treatment of these issues is often inaccessible to young teens.   

            The American Girl book series about Felicity effectively erases slavery, and slave characters. Throughout the series, the Merriman’s slaves are occasionally mentioned, but their personalities and thoughts are not explored and their status as slaves is not acknowledged in the story.[30] Rose and Marcus simply serve as backdrop in the house and store respectively. When Felicity visits her grandfather’s plantation in Felicity Saves the Day, the slaves who work there are only indicated through the location of their slave quarters, and the mention of people working in the field. In Happy Birthday Felicity, Isaac Wallace, “a free black” is introduced as a character, and Felicity is friendly with him throughout the story.[31] She doesn’t question why Isaac should be free, but Rose and Marcus must remain slaves. Felicity fights to save a horse from a cruel master in Meet Felicity, but she never questions the institution of slavery. And more time is devoted to Penny the horse’s personality than that of Rose, the slave who works in Felicity’s home. Fred Nielsen argues that the history in the American Girl books should not be held up to academic standards, but he does believe the erasure of slaves and slavery in the Felicity series is “a serious omission.”[32] Nielsen is right, that as children’s books, the American Girl series cannot include all of the nuance and reality of academic history. But this does not mean that all standards are inappropriate. As shown by their series about Addy, an escaped slave living in Philadelphia in 1864, the American Girl books can address serious issues like slavery.

            The erasure of slave characters in the Felicity stories is mirrored in the fan fiction based on them. In many of the stories, slaves and slavery are not mentioned at all. When they are mentioned their treatment follows the precedent set by the books. In Letters from Ben, Rose is occasionally mentioned, and only speaks in reference to Felicity’s storylines. Later in the story, when Felicity and Ben move into their own house, they also purchase two slaves. Though Felicity claims in an earlier chapter to believe that if she could change anything in the world, she would make everyone equal, she is content to own slaves. As in the original books, black characters are not treated equally in this story, but are instead erased, and relegated to the background.

            Addy, the character whose book series does discuss slavery, is far less popular than Felicity on Fanficiton.net. While there are 80 American Girl fan fiction stories focused on Felicity, only two have been written that focus solely on Addy’s books. Both are one-shots. One follows Addy’s wedding day, and another is a vignette about another character from Addy’s stories voting. I do not know why so few stories have been written about Addy. It is possible that American Girl fan fiction authors don’t write about Addy because such difficult issues are at the center of her stories; it may be more fun to write about romance, and solvable problems, than to write about the slavery and institutional racism. It is also possible that most American Girl fan fiction writers are white, and do not often think about race, and racism.

            By placing girls at the center of historical fiction, American Girl makes an important intervention to the historical narrative, which often focuses on adult men. American Girl fan fiction, much of which is inspired by the Historical Characters, demonstrates that girls are eager for these narratives, and are interested in imagining girls’ lives in the past. In other ways, however, the American Girl stories are very safe. Borrelli argues that “American Girl dolls also do not have attitudes, existential crises, or politics.”[33] When American Girl does not introduce challenging, little-known narratives, the girls who interact with their stories follow suit. The American Girl series also don’t include any gay or lesbian characters. Although “slash” fiction in which two male characters are romantically paired “is one of the most pervasive and distinctive genres of fan writing,” American Girl fan fiction almost exclusively depicts heterosexual romantic relationships.[34] There are no American Girl slash stories and only one femslash story in which two women are romantically paired on FanFiction.net. This story, in which Felicity and her canonical best friend Elizabeth get married, is over the top and jokey. And there is only one black Historical Character other than Addy, a girl living in New Orleans in 1854 named Cecile. As of now, no fan fiction stories have been written about Cecile, who was only introduced in 2011. As the Felicity series shows, when black characters are not the protagonists in the American Girl series, they are relegated to the background and the books are unlikely to deal with race.  From what I have seen, American Girl fan fiction authors are unlikely to reintroduce race into their stories. It is possible that if Rose were a fully developed character, or Felicity an abolitionist, her stories would be less popular, and consequently less fan fiction would be written about her.  It is also possible, however, that with a more inclusive canon American Girl fan fiction authors would have more issues to explore. What is evident is that when American Girl does not introduce topics such as race and class into its stories, neither do fan fiction authors.

 

Conclusion

            American Girl fan fiction reflects a negotiation between company content, and adolescent authors’ ideas, interests, and concerns. In their discussion of the American Girl Brand, Diamond et al. argue that American Girl demonstrates that "marketers can retain a significant degree of control while choreographing co-authorship opportunities and that all four aspects of a brand--physical, textual, meaning, and experience--can be 'opened' to consumer input...while primary brand ownership remains with the corporation."[35] By writing fan fiction, American Girl consumers can become “coauthors” with the brand. As coauthors, American Girl fans can add to and alter brand meanings, within constraints, and without changing the company’s public images.

             In their assertion that “marketers can retain a significant degree of control”, however Diamond et al underestimate the power of consumer contributions. While fans cannot and will not change the company’s public face, they do important work altering individual brand understandings. In her discussion of fan fiction, Rebecca Black argues that “fans are taking up elements of pop culture and then redistributing them in new forms that are imbued with meanings that are grounded in the lived realities and social worlds of fans.”[36] When American Girl fan fiction authors portray beautiful, unfeminine characters going on adventures and falling in love, they reveal their own desires for confidence and romance, while asserting their belief in girl power. When they portray strong, sensitive, devoted men they portray an ideal, but seemingly impossible mate, they reveal their simultaneous belief and rejection of hegemonic masculinity. Working within restraints established by the American Girl canon, they work with, rearrange, and expand upon the published content to create stories that reflect their own interests, lives, and desires. The topics, and storylines that American Girl fan fiction authors will introduce, however, is not comprehensive. While some storylines, especially those that are romantic, are easily inserted, others remain absent.

 


[1] “Fast Facts.”

[2] Acosta-Alzuru and Kreshel, “"I’m an American Girl ?,” 146.

[3] Casanova, An Interview with Mary Casanova.

[4] Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds., Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2006), 12.

[6] By comparison, the Harry Potter subpage on FanFiction.net hosts over 679,000 stories

[7] Rebecca W Black, Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), 40.

[8] Katharina Freund and Dianna Fielding, “Research Ethics in Fan Studies,” Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 10, no. 1 (May 2013): 333.

[9] “Code of Ethics and Policies and Procedures of the ASA Committee on Professional Ethics” (American Sociolocial Association, 1999), http://www.asanet.org/images/asa/docs/pdf/CodeofEthics.pdf.

[10] Malin Sveningsson, “How Do Various Notions of Privacy Influence Decisions in Qualitative Internet Research?,” in Internet Inquiry : Conversations About Method, ed. Nancy K. Baym and Annette N. Markham (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009), 75.

[11] Ibid., 77.

[12] Susannah Stern, “A Response to Malin Svengsson,” in Internet Inquiry : Conversations About Method, ed. Nancy K. Baym and Annette N. Markham (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009), 96.

[13] Black, Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction, 16.

[14] Catherine Driscoll, “One True Pairing: The Romance of Pornography and the Pornography of Romance,” in Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, ed. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2006), 83.

[15] R. Danielle Egan, Becoming Sexual : A Critical Appraisal of the Sexualization of Girls / (Polity Press,, 2013), 6.

[16] Egan, Becoming Sexual, 6.

[17] Sara K. Day, “Pure Passion: The Twilight Saga, ‘Abstinence Porn,’ and Adolescent Women’s Fan Fiction,” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 39, no. 1 (2014): 28–48, doi:10.1353/chq.2014.0014.

[18] Valerie Tripp, Meet Felicity: An American Girl, 1st ed, The American Girls Collection (Middleton, WI: Pleasant Co, 1991), 15.

[19] Susan S. Adler, Meet Samantha, an American Girl, 1st ed, The American Girls Collection (Madison, Wis: Pleasant Co, 1986), 12. Emphasis original.

[20] Valerie Tripp, Felicity Learns a Lesson: A School Story, 1st ed, The American Girls Collection (Middleton, WI: Pleasant Co, 1991).

[21] Ibid., 34.

[22] Adler, Meet Samantha, an American Girl.

[23] Diamond et al., “American Girl and the Brand Gestalt,” 124.

[24] Chuppa-Cornell, “When Fact Is Stranger than Fiction,” 114.

[25] Janice A. Radway, “The Ideal Romance: The Promise of Patriarchy,” in Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 124;126.

[26] Ibid., 126.

[27] Driscoll, “One True Pairing: The Romance of Pornography and the Pornography of Romance,” 84.

[28] C. J Pascoe, Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 87, http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=784539.

[29] Ibid., 107;114.

[30] All of the historical fiction American Girl books end with a section called “A Peek Into the Past.” In this section of Meet Felicity it is acknowledged that Marcus is a slave and slavery is very briefly discussed.

[31] Valerie Tripp, Happy Birthday, Felicity!: A Springtime Story, 1st ed, American Girls Collection (Middleton, WI: Pleasant Co, 1992), 13.

[32] Nielsen, “American History through the Eyes of the American Girls,” 7.

[34] Henry Jenkins, Shoshanna Green, and Cynthia Jenkins, “‘Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking’ Selections from the Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows,” in Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers : Exploring Participatory Culture (New York, NY, USA: New York University Press (NYU Press), 2006), 62, http://site.ebrary.com/lib/alltitles/docDetail.action?docID=10176209.

[35] Diamond et al., “American Girl and the Brand Gestalt,” 132.

[36] Black, Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction, 13–14.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.