American Girl: Actions are naughty

I'm sure the alliance between American Girl and Girls Inc. had good intent, but the results are not good — which is why family groups reluctantly boycotted American Girl products this Christmas shopping season. Seventy cents of every dollar spent on the "I can" bands goes to Girls Inc., which unfortunately has an aggressive, left-leaning agenda that many mainstream Americans are uncomfortable with.

American Girl is a venerable company — up until now, extremely popular with family-oriented consumers — that sells historical dolls to grade-school girls. Girls Inc. educates those girls on (among other things) the importance of access to abortion, the process of developing a lesbian identity and the need for "safer-sex techniques of contraception."

Girls Inc. started out with the laudable purpose of encouraging girls — especially disadvantaged ones — to be "strong, smart and bold" through character-building, academics and athletics. As I read its Web site, I found myself wishing that such a terrific focus hadn't been skewed by the addition of a liberal sexuality agenda.

But since it has, it is inappropriate — and bad business — for a public company like American Girl (owned by Mattel) to sponsor it. It's nonsense that consumers shouldn't boycott companies for making disagreeable business decisions. It is because capitalism functions on free trade and competition that boycotts are necessary. Capitalism is voting with your dollars, and concerned parents have no better way to encourage American Girl not to support this sort of agenda.

As the American Family Association's Randy Sharp bluntly pointed out to me: "It would be a dangerous thing to suggest that consumers should not evaluate the circumstances surrounding their purchasing decisions. To do so is not capitalism, but socialism."

Thankfully, the capitalism vote appears to be working. Under pressure from parents, the "I can" bands were pulled from their main sales channel, the 1,700-store Bath & Body Works chain. Hopefully, American Girl will understand and return to the core values that built such a successful company in the first place.

Even better would be if Girls Inc. would see this as a wake-up call to return to its original focus: empowering girls to be all that they can be.

Harvard-educated Shaunti Feldhahn (scfeldhahn@yahoo.com) is a conservative Christian author and speaker, and married mother of two children.