American Girl: Actions are nice

This holiday season, conservatives are checking their lists twice to see who's naughty and nice. Unfortunately for the American Girl doll company, conservatives are striking the company's historically accurate doll collection from their Christmas shopping lists.

From the conservative right's perspective, American Girl dolls represent an endorsement of abortion and veiled encouragement for a lesbian lifestyle. How so, you say? Well, it seems the dollmakers are manufacturing bands with (gasp!) encouraging messages for girls. The subversive message on these bands? The words: "I can."

Christian conservatives have an answer for such an assertive female declaration. It's: "No, little girl. You can't."

Specifically, conservatives are upset about American Girl's business link with Girls Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes academic success and leadership skills among girls but also supports abortion rights and tolerance of gay lifestyles. A portion of the sales of the bands, which can be worn as bracelets, go to science and athletic programs sponsored by Girls Inc. That connection prompted Christian calls for a boycott of the American Girl company for committing to doing business with a liberal organization.

Although I agree with the right to protest and certainly think it's understandable not to buy from a company whose business practices are at odds with your beliefs, I think the hyperventilation in conservative camps about this partnership is robbing them of the oxygen needed to power even subnormal brain activity. It all seems very Grinch-like, and not particularly Christ-like.

Consider the "I can" bands in question. Unless you consider too much encouragement a demonstration of liberal license, this message is hardly a call to action for girls to seek out abortions, take birth control or reject a heterosexual lifestyle. Supporting science education for girls seems pretty positive. The American Girl doll company manufactures dolls that teach and inspire. This is in keeping with the mission the company has always embraced. This is something to support, not protest.

If conservatives want to support Christian values in business practices, I encourage them to continue their good works to abolish child labor. But telling the American Girl doll company "You can't!" tells our girls they can't, either. With so few wholesome pro-girl messages, conservatives simply come off looking foolish here, and any victory they win is Pyrrhic at best.

Harvard-educated Diane Glass (dglass@ajc.com) is a writer and freethinker with a B.A. and M.A. in comparative religion.