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Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott American Girl

By TChris, Section Social Justice
Posted on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 11:22:43 PM EST
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by TChris

Here's a good reason to buy your niece or daughter (or maybe your boss) a doll from American Girl this holiday season:

The maker of the highly popular American Girl line of dolls has become the target of conservative activists threatening a boycott unless it cuts off contributions to a youth organization that supports abortion rights and acceptance of lesbians.

American Girl supports Girls Inc. programs that help girls develop self-esteem by improving math and science skills, encouraging athletic participation, and nurturing leadership ability. Some right wing groups contend that Girls Inc. deserves no support because it also opposes abstinence-only education and "condones lesbianism." In other words, Girls Inc. supports tolerance and wants children to have the information they'll need to make smart decisions as they mature.

American Girl says it has no position on the political issues that provoke such consternation in the right wing extremists. It simply supports the mission of Girls Inc.: "inspiring girls to be strong, smart and bold."

Girls Inc., which traces its roots to a center founded in Waterbury, Conn., in 1864, serves about 800,000 girls a year, many black or Hispanic and most from low-income families.

So far, American Girl isn't caving in to the threatened boycott.

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    Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott American Girl | 20 comments (20 topical)
    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#1)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:02 PM EST
    These idiots are laughable. If a little girl wants this doll, and the parents can afford it, they will buy it. They won't care about the boycott, nor will they care to explain it to their kids. No, not at all. Too icky.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#2)
    by Darryl Pearce on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:02 PM EST
    ...bear with me. Years ago, I was one of dozens of performers at an event, the organizers provided dinner. I got in line early As the line got longer, someone in front of me whistled to his friends and who'd been milling about. They got in front of me. The guy behind me got into a shouting match with them and tried to drag me into their conflict. I chose to go to back and enter the line anew. If someone is upset with a, why do they try and drag in x, y and z? It's almost as if the fighting is the thing.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#3)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:02 PM EST
    So far, American Girl isn't caving in to the threatened boycott.
    This is one of the types of situations that can become a useful case study and launching point for illustrating how real understanding and compassion can grow, or for illuminating how bigotry and hate can become systematized into the economy, and for understanding both. Translating into human and monetary terms, the disagreement calling for the boycott, if successfull, may put enough financial pressure on the management of American Girls to cause them to feel they must choose beteen their obligations to shareholders, and their integrity and desire, if they have such, to not become bigots themselves. I supppose it's remotely imaginaginable that they might use the fact of a boycott from the right as a take off point for a successfull marketing campaign to the non-bigots in their universe of potential customers.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#4)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:02 PM EST
    imaginaginable
    huh? Well, I guess it's good to learn a new word each day. ;-)

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:02 PM EST
    American Girl is eating up all the public attention. I'm sure they have O'Liely's Boycott of the Canadians and the French as examples. Just listen to this, "Boycott American Girls". sounds hollow to me.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:02 PM EST
    Great analogy, Darryl. That sums it all up. edger, are you actually reading the comments or simply proofreading them? The funny thing is that this will make me buy these dolls for my nieces this Christmas even though I had never heard of the co. or the dolls. So the call for a boycott may actually boost sales for the company. Conservatites wouldn't have purchased these dolls anyway. They do nothing to teach their daughters to be good stepford wives.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#7)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    It's OK by me. If they have the support, American girls will either change or go out of business. IMHO this particular boycott will not succeed. Politics and religion on a Sunday morn. And I'm out of coffee.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Niwrad428: edger, are you actually reading the comments or simply proofreading them? Good question :) It's early, and I've had only one coffee so far. But I think I'll buy a few of their dolls, even though I have no daughters or nieces. I can always give them to someone who does, so that I'll have to buy more to replace those I give away...

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#9)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Edgar, Be careful what you say, these dolls are pretty pricey.........

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#10)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Roger: these dolls are pretty pricey......... Are they more expensive than letting the bigots win?

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Could someone explain to me how Girls Inc. are the radical crazies and AFA holds the normal mainstream point-of-view?

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Like so many other right-wing boycotts, it will have no discernable effect on the policies of the company, and after beating their head against the wall for a while, the nutjobs will declare victory and go home. Just like the Disney boycott over "Gay Days".

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#13)
    by Pete Guither on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    What surprises me about this is that I had always gotten the impression that American Girl was a relatively conservative organization. It's possible that the impetus for the boycott may be as much that the far right had considered American Girl as "one of them" and they're trying to push them back in line. Notice that they're not going directly after Girls, Inc., but rather American Girls for having something to do with them.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#14)
    by jen on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    maybe they KNOW we'll react by buying dolls and putting more money in the coffers of the organization they actually like! I need more coffee. Paranoid Jen

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#16)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Paranoid :) Jen: maybe they KNOW we'll react by buying dolls and putting more money in the coffers of the organization they actually like!...I need more coffee. "American Halliburton Girls" ?

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#17)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Ha, that's the ticket, wingnuts. Boycott Barbie, too. Yeah, and Harry Potter, and Robosapien, and everything that doesn't appear in your all-knowing collection of mythologies told by prehistoric nomadic middle eastern shepherds. Keep it up, by all means. It's very becoming.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#18)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:03 PM EST
    Threatening to boycott is stupid; just do it. When I don’t care for the policies of a company I just don’t buy the product, and maybe drop them an email to say why. For example, I don’t buy Pizza Hut or AOL product because of their policies toward employees and firearms. I’m not so delusional to think there are enough folks like me to force them to mend their ways; I just don’t want to fund their bad behavior.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#19)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:04 PM EST
    Real conservatives should love this company. They are one of the countless corps that have cheap trinkets made in China by prison labor and sell them at a 3000 percent mark up over here.

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:06 PM EST
    Speaking as someone whose daughter owns several AG dolls and various accessories, so I know how pricey they are, this makes me want to go buy a couple more! This whole boycott thing is just ludicrous...

    Re: Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott Amer (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:15 PM EST
    I used to read the books that went with the dolls, as did my sister, althugh I'm pretty sure nither of us ever owned the dolls. The books were historically based, featuring family values and empowered girls at the same time. No wonder the right finds it so scary.

    Right Wing Extremists Threaten to Boycott American Girl | 20 comments (20 topical)