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Post by aln1982 on Mar 9, 2007 0:34:14 GMT -5
I was just reading the post on Anna Stevenson's musical talent and started thinking about how MA is the only BSC member without a talent. Instead, she seems to not be good at many things or just mediocre and is known for being "sensitive, organized and having a boyfriend". I think they should have given her a talent too, just be fair. After all: Kristy - sports Claud-art Stacey - math and fashion (if you can call that a talent) Abby - sports Jessi - dance Mallory - writing I just realized that Dawn doesn't really have a talent, either. Maybe that is why they become best friends.
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inge
Junior Sitter
Posts: 767
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Post by inge on Mar 9, 2007 3:38:47 GMT -5
She was ver organized and good at taking notes..? I don't know if it's such a bad thing for some of the girls not to have a 'talent'. After all, it's not like everyone in the real world does. It may be better for young girls' self esteem if not all the girls can do something special.
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Post by fairy3lf2 on Mar 9, 2007 4:14:42 GMT -5
Maybe her talent was sewing, needlepoint, etc...
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Post by aln1982 on Mar 9, 2007 11:07:43 GMT -5
It probably is a good thing for one of the girls to not have a "talent". I just caught my attention as being a little unfair since all the other girls seem to have some special "talent". I agree about the girls' self esteem, though, and sometimes my greatest wish for my little cousins is for them to not be spectacular at something (that sounds horrible - I know) because being really good at something a lot of times just makes you hated.
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Post by booboobrewer on Mar 9, 2007 12:44:43 GMT -5
Agree that her talent/hobby was probably the sewing, knitting, etc. Actually I don't know if any of those are talents so much as they are hobbies...Kristy was good at sports, and Claudia was good at art, but they did them because they really enjoyed them; they devoted free time to doing them because of that. Whereas in the case of Rosie Wilder, for example, her parents pushed her to do all her activities because she had great talent/training - not because she really enjoyed doing them. (But maybe I'm being a bit too specific or something - Jessi certainly in later books dreams of being a world famous dancer because she knows she has a true talent for ballet).
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Post by hitzpink on Mar 9, 2007 17:49:15 GMT -5
I think her sewing and knitting were more hobbies than an actual talent. They didn't really seem to talk about her knitting very much except for a casual mention of it here and there. Unless there are instances I'm forgetting about. But with the other girls' talents were mentioned a lot, and had books specifically devoted to them.
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ktag
Junior Sitter
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Post by ktag on Mar 9, 2007 21:28:34 GMT -5
She's good at crying...
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Mar 10, 2007 0:17:50 GMT -5
I think her sewing and knitting were more hobbies than an actual talent. They didn't really seem to talk about her knitting very much except for a casual mention of it here and there. Unless there are instances I'm forgetting about. But with the other girls' talents were mentioned a lot, and had books specifically devoted to them. Well, you can be talented at stuff like sewing and knitting, but since they never really talk about it much, as you said, it's hard to say if she's really talented at these things. It's pretty weird that whenever we do hear about her hobbies, it's almost always about the process and rarely to do with the product. What the heck does she do with stuff she sews, when we never hear about her making a cool skirt for herself or anything? Although her hobbies aren't mentioned much, and there are no books specifically devoted to them, her sewing and quilting are a big part of Maid Mary Anne. Since I'm trained as a librarian and sitting here cross stitching as I surf the Net, I'm not about to say that textile arts and organizing things aren't talents, but they aren't necessarily the type of talents that most preteen girls want to read about. I've always liked to write and play sports and dance and paint, but I wasn't always interested in knitting.
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msstock87
Sitting For The Braddocks
Here Comes The Bride!
Created by Rie.
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Post by msstock87 on Mar 10, 2007 16:33:01 GMT -5
I never thought about Mary Anne not having talent much. So much was focussed on her shyness and excessive crying that I never really noticed that she didn't have a dominant talent.
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Post by aln1982 on Apr 18, 2007 23:39:19 GMT -5
I have seen a lot of times when MA can actually stand up for herself and be assertive. She can get tough without being mean while baby-sitting and stands up to teachers a few times too. I really like these cases. I think too much focus is given to how "sensative" MA is that this side of her, the "strong" side, is overlooked. Maybe it would come out more if she wasn't stereotyped so much as being a "crier" and "sensative". I'm both of these things but am also pretty assertive like Kristy. I see potential for MA to be, too, if she let herself.
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lyricalangel
Sitting For The Newtons
Logan's love-bunny
Posts: 1,918
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Post by lyricalangel on Apr 19, 2007 1:22:39 GMT -5
I think there were a few of those moments in MA Saves the Day. They would kind of pop up every now and then.
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Post by aln1982 on Apr 19, 2007 7:56:05 GMT -5
The Baby-sitting ones I just noticed are in MA and Miss Priss and Kristy and the Worst Kid Ever. The one with the teacher is in Abby's Lucky Thirteen where she speaks up - shocking Abby - to defend Abby. I know there are others, too.
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Post by sotypical42483 on Apr 23, 2007 21:00:51 GMT -5
So after reading the Inconsistencies thread about "Mary Anne's Mom", I got to thinking about her relationship with Sharon. They just never seemed that close to me. I haven't read all of the later books, so does it change at all? I know there is one book (can't remember which one!) where MA feels like Sharon is trying to like, turn her into Dawn (by buying her barretts or something that are "Dawn's style"). I just wonder why MA was never that close to her. She really doesn't have any women in her life that she can be close to and talk to after Mimi dies.
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Post by aln1982 on Apr 24, 2007 10:20:57 GMT -5
^I've often wondered the same thing. I really wish MA and Sharon would have grown close and I thought MA was a pain when she thought that Sharon was trying to turn her into Dawn. That was so stupid and another example of how she often overreacts. I also didn't like it how MA said something about Sharon not being her real mom in Stacey's Movie (though she did feel badly about doing that). I think there was potential for a real relationship between the two and wish it would have been developed. On the same point, I also saw potential for a relationship between MA and Elizabeth and kind of found it strange that MA didn't even call her by her first name though she knew her all of her life (maybe I'm rude but I always called almost all of my good friends' parents by their first names - with some exceptions - as a kid and they did the same with my parents. My parents couldn't stand it if kids they knew well called them Mr. and Mrs. and neither could a lot of the other parents I knew. A lot of my friends from the east just attached a "Ms. or Mr." in front of the first name, too, so I'm surprised that Elizabeth wasn't at least Ms. Elizabeth. Just another example in my opinion of how the girls in the BSC don't really seem that close with their parents - not the way I am with mine at least (I'm lucky
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Post by sotypical42483 on Apr 24, 2007 23:00:16 GMT -5
I agree with you completely, aln. I would love to see a relationship develop between MA and Sharon and honestly I am surprised that MA didn't try to make that happen. Just going by her character, I would think that she would WANT to be close to Sharon but she just never really seemed interested and that confuses me. I understand her not wanting to like, replace her mom, but in earlier books it seemed like she was really longing for a mom-like woman in her life and in later books she didn't seem to care one way or another.
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