Someone told my 9yo daughter that American Girl pays for abortions

She hit me with this on the way home from school. The little girl who told my daughter this is in her Girl Scout troop, and her mother is a religious fundamentalist and avid b*sh supporter. She told my daughter that "she heard this on the news".

Needless to say, I'm seriously pissed. :mad: :nuke: The problem is I didn't handle it very well. I went off, telling my daughter how it was a bunch of b.s. The problem is that my daughter thought I was mad at her. :wow: When I backed off a little and let my daughter talk, she told me she was scared because she said she thought doctors were giving people medicine to kill their babies without them knowing it. :wow: She also said it made her feel bad for liking American Girl stuff.

Man, I really screwed that up. :banghead: Hopefully, I'll get another chance to chat with her about it when she's getting ready for bed tonight. Anyone with a child in the same age range with suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I'm so pissed at the fundies for this. :grr:

their children in things that are way, way beyond what a child can comprehend. It's sick.

AG is linked to Girls, Inc. via the I CAN! campaign.

Girls, Inc DOES support a woman's right to choose and also offers advice to teens and their parents on lesbian issues.

The fundies are going off the deep end. They're only telling their girls about abortion 'cause they don't even want to TALK about lesbians.

Tell you daughter that AG is supporting GIRLS to become strong, informed women who have choices in this world not dictated by a bunch of close-minded bigots.

Then go buy her an AG doll, tshirt AND the bracelet! And make sure she wears them all to Scouts! :)

is because they also push girls to take on roles in the science and engineering and mathematic fields.

I read this over the weekend I was ripping pissed off over it. My daughter has one.. I didn't buy it for her. I never would because of the slant market appeal to conservatives, but I'll support it now, out of spite.

AG supports women's rights. Period.

Fundies don't.

seemingly conservative types. If you look at AG, the slant seems to lean toward upper class, wholesome, high society market. You can disagree, but I tend to believe that more then often lends itself to a conservative market. If that faction didn't exist, this fundie faction wouldn't be a threat to the entire company with boycotts.

Quite honestly, I don't see AG targeting the poor sector.

Now to fight my own argument, my own child had a doll bought by my very liberal democratic in-laws (love em) so the market exists for both sides. Lets hope the company doesn't cave to one faction. (for either side.)

outfits for each doll run from 22-24 dollars (at least in Chicago)

80 being the look like me dolls (variety)

The period dolls run about 109.00 My daughter has one of those. But her my in-laws .. One a lawyer and other a Engineer could afford the stuff. They send her a new outfit at least 4 times a year.

Trust me, I had all I could do to not go berserk. That's an expensive gift for a 7 year old.
To put it into perspective .. 100 bucks is what I pay for one week worth of groceries. 300 is spent total on christmas for the family last year.

Not all republicans are trailer trash, quite a few are all in it for the moral high horse and tax break.

are usually lower income Black and Hispanic.

My sisters used to go to there and I volunteered as a teenager. Being at Girls, Inc. was one of the best times I and my sisters had. They took us on all sorts of field trips and fun trips. The time I was there, we went whitewater rafting, Space Camp in AL, Six Flags and many other local outings. How often does a poor child get such wonderful experiences?


Fucking wackos.:mad:

That is just ridiculous. What? Is American Girl a BLUE company? Just try to explain the politics of it to your daughter. The other fundie mom probably just made it up anyway so she would have an excuse to NOT buy her daughter a doll. Those people are freakin' NUTS.

That's why we can't ever assume that we know what's going on in our kid's heads. She thought that doctors were secretly giving people medicine. . . Given the blood-red imagery that those people use, I can understand her confusion.

When you talk to her, try to find out exactly what she thinks is going on. You probably don't have to go into too much detail to disabuse her of some of the worst of this nonsense... just enough to reassure her that doctors are good guys and wouldn't do this and that everyone gets to make the best decisions that they can for themselves. (if you think she's up to that much info)

You can tell her that you don't agree with her classmate, and that the American Girl dolls help tell girls some of the wonderful stories about America's history.

You, Mom, have every right to be furious.

I would be lived . Probably saw on the 700 club
"news" :grr:

hate themselves. Anyplace or anything that affirms their independance is an affront to these people. We love American Girls around here!

Two can play at this game. The fundies want their people to deluge them with emails, well let's DU them with emails as well.


Mattel Chairman Bob Eckert - Jules.Andres@mattel.com
American Girl President Ellen Brothers - ellen.brothers@americangirl.com
Public Relations Susan Jevens - susan.jevens@americangirl.com

I checked their website last week and didn't see a place to contact them. I was going to send an email in support of them supporting GI.

:shrug:

I'd have probably driven the car right into a wall if that were my girl. Or turned the car around and gone looking for that fundie mother - only to run her over. With my daughter in the car. Just to make my point.

Yeah, we all scare our kids with our intensity, and then we apologize and explain and it works. Believe me, whatever you'll tell your little girl tonight will expand her world and her heart (with you right in the middle of it) and she'll be just a bit more sophisticated about bullshit tomorrow.

You'll tell her how she should never believe what anyone tells her and that she should always check stuff with you if it sounds bad to her, because she knows best. (That's how she'll learn to trust her instincts - which, I suspect, are already pretty good, with you as her mother.)

You'll tell her that people make things up to tell little girls just so that they can scare them, and that those are unhappy, confused people with bad thoughts in their heads. You'll tell her to go around those people.

You'll tell her that you get upset when people lie to your daughter and that's why you got so upset.

It'll be fine.

But, take this from a mother who routinely went insane in front of her two daughters when bullshit like this popped up. Now that those daughters have kids of their own, and I was told by both those marvelous women who are my girls that even though my eruptions sometimes startled them and scared them when they were little, they learned about something that has defined their lives ever since then, and they thanked me for teaching them about it.

It was passion.

My daughters learned about having a passion for something from watching me, and it was one of my most gratifying moments in my life when they told me that and thanked me for it.

Your little girl is learning about passion, from the best teacher she could have.

Way to go, Mom.

I'd go with this one!

:cry:

Thank you for that. Thank you so much. Yes, I can be kind of "intense" sometimes (as my husband calls it). My daughter has seen me ranting about a lot of things these last couple of years. I never thought about it from the perspective of teaching her passion.

Thank you so much for your words of wisdom.

:hug:

...what I'd like to believe my son and daughter learned from me. I totally agree: that's the very best legacy you could pass on to your kids. Whether the packaging (the initial reaction of anger) is the optimum one or not is a secondary issue. Hell, I would have gone ballistic too!

Re >>My daughters learned about having a passion for something from watching me, and it was one of my most gratifying moments in my life when they told me that and thanked me for it.

Your little girl is learning about passion, from the best teacher she could have.<<

I feel so sorry for the fundies' kids. What an awful thing, to have parents who deliberately lie to them, and to have all that mental and emotional baggage to unload when they grow up. Or worse yet...to NOT unload it, and then pass it on to THEIR kids! It's almost too sickening to think about.

Jeez. Let them play with their dolls. (I'm not yelling at you!) I don't have kids that age anymore ... I'm just ranting.

When my kids were little, 1st and 3rd grade, my husband was a minister. We were young and reasonably good-looking, so people liked to gossip about us. One day, our 1st-grader came home and said that one of her classmates told her, "you won't believe what my grandma said about your dad!" And it was something about him having an affair with a Sunday School teacher. It was completely untrue, of course, but it was very hurtful to our daughter. These people call themselves Christians????
:rant:

I'm so sorry your daughter (and you!) had to go through that. This might be a good opportunity to just remind her that some people tell lies that hurts other people ... and that's not a nice thing to do. :hug:

How can they not, when they are daily bombarded with the abortion debate?

I wish my son could have the better parts of bliss I experienced in my childhood. But you can't turn on the TV without hearing about abortion, or even erectile disfunction disease.

That's why our telly stays off most of the time.

It just makes me so sad. :(

When I was 13, I was still climbing trees, riding ponies, shooting bb guns--I was the only girl in an all-boy neighborhood.

We didn't discuss sex. We didn't discuss "adult" stuff. We were kids. It's so sad tha kids can't be kids anymore.

:(

In the 2000 election cycle and shortly afterwards, I worked out of the University of Arizona, running the National Student-Parent Mock Election. I sent out a zillion survey forms out to the student participants, and got lots of responses back.

The ones coming in from parochial schools said their biggest concerns were abortion and homosexuality. And these were written in 6yo handwriting. I am NOT joking. There is SERIOUS brainwashing going on.

The public school kids were more concerned with whether their daddy will still have a job, whether their teachers were good, and other more normal stuff.

The parochial schools were overrepresented, and as a result, W won the mock election in a landslide, leaving less than 100 electoral votes for Gore. W even took "blue" states like New York.

And guess what - W still found this a "public education" project, and eliminated it as a result - and my job with it. And I am not afraid to say that the God that W and his elk believe in is a mean, nasty sicko. Fortunately I believe in a different model of God (or Goddess I shall say).

I went with a friend to pick up his sister, and she gets in the car noticeably upset. When asked what's wrong, she said another girl came up to her and said she was an evil person and going to hell because she was wearing Abercrombie & Fitch clothing.

I think they need to spend more time on their own kids.

... at least they did in my materialistic, Republican teenage neighborhood.

I was out of the loop because I wore outdated LA Gear instead of Nike, did my shopping at 99-cent stores instead of the mall, and drove an old manual-everything Toyota Corolla instead of a spanking new Honda Civic or a BMW.

Parents strongly encouraged that kind of behavior, as if teens were not cruel enough on their own. My greatest sin was having parents who were not wealthy enough to afford my classmates' extravagant lifestyle, complete with million-dollar mansions.

(And guess what? My father, poor as he was, still supported this whole damn setup by being a neocon Republican himself.)

understand. For kids of that age, things are absolute. So, keep it simple and focused on the specific issue - do not bring in political ramifications, etc.

You can start with the idea that you love her and would not lie to her. That trust is so important. And they can, and want to, hear honesty from parents. You can admit that you were so angry that someone would lie to her that you lost your temper and it seemed like you were mad at her.

Then move to the specific issue. That little girl (who may be a friend about whom your daughter may not want to hear anything bad) was told something wrong by her parents. Do not get into why? Her parents lied to her. Period.

The truth is that American Girl is a company that makes dolls and stories about girls. They are friends to girls. Period.

If she asks more about babies and abortion, you have to decide how much to explain to her. Again, keep in mind that a very simple answer is the best. You can say that you believe that each woman should decide for herself what to do if she gets pregnant. It is a private thing.

And you can (maybe) throw in that you will always support her in whatever decision she makes. About this subject. And others. The trust that you have with your daughter will go a long way to keeping those lines of communication open, expecially through the teenage years.

Good luck.

They support reproductive choice -- something that's legal, by the way? They support civil rights? They want girls to become strong women? Works for me.

Inform your daughter of all the kookie things that fundies believe in or have said. I laugh at fundies when I feel like screaming because they can't take humor.

could it be a lawsuit? proctor and gamble went after the person-persons involved in the satanic corperate logo rumor...they tracked them down and hauled them into court. i think the lawyers at american girl are in meetings discussing just what to do about this.
my god american girl is an icon in this country -ebay has almost 5000 entries for american girl stuff
http://www.americangirl.com/
American Girl

here ya go!!!!! e-mail them what you posted here

http://www.americangirl.com/emailus/index.html
E-mail Us!

Not mine so much (thankfully).

But I think that was the age when I realized that adults do lie and adults do screw things up.

Your daughter may be at that age where she's realizing her friend's mother has lied and is a whackjob. That's probably as upsetting as the whole 'killing babies' thing.

That woman needs to be educated about the facts, then she needs to have a new asshole torn for spreading that bullshit to a child.

and tell her to stop lying to your daughter. If she says she didn't like to your daughter, tell her that her daughter lied to your daughter, and why does she have a liar for a daughter? Go on the offensive with her.

He was ten when we had this discussion. It was an unavoidable discussion, because children are bombarded with the abortion debate every day, whether in school, where some fundy spawn tells them "abortion is murder," or even when they watch the local news, and see the protesters at women's clinics. Ok, here's how we discussed this, as well as I can remember it.

I asked my son, "Do you think that women should be able to make medical decisions about their own bodies, or should politicians make those decisions?"

He said that he thought women should make those decisions. I told him that I think so, too.

I told him, "There are people out there who think that women should have to let other people make those decisions for them, when those decisions should be made between a woman and the doctor. There are nosy people who want to stick their noses in the private business of women. Those people usually don't like the fact that women have made advances in society. They think that women should still play second fiddle to men. So anytime a woman controls her own life, they don't like it."

I continued, "Women should be able to decide their fertility. They should be able to decide if they want to have a baby or not. Women being able to control their own reproduction is very important. It gives them the ability to control their lives. When that control is taken away from women, they lose control of other aspects in their lives."

My son understood this. With your daughter, I'd continue by telling her that American Girl doesn't pay for abortions, but they believe that girls should have the power to make choices in their lives, and they help girls make those choices. Tell her that a lot of people don't want girls or women to have the right to make choices. Tell her that some people will say anything to make women's right to choose seem dirty. But it isn't dirty to be empowered.

Finally, tell her that the next time her friend says that American Girl pays for abortions, that it's a lie and they just want girls to have the right to make choices in their lives, about their future.

That's how I would frame the discussion--it's about women's empowerment, and that is something that fundies fear worse than anything else.

I'd also like to add that at the tender age of 9 you probably need to give your daughter a way to disagree with her friend without alienating her. You know her friend's Mom is expressing a one-sided fundy view, but she may be unwilling to confront the friend and/or her mother (either in person or by proxy through the child).

Perhaps you could tell your daughter that it is okay to say this to her friend when the subject comes up again. I asked my Mom and some other adults that I trust about what you said before and they told me different things. Since we are all entitled to our own informed opinions and my information is different from yours, not discussing this would probably be the most mature thing to do.

In other words, explain things to her AND give her a way "out" with her friends. She is very young and embroiling her in something she may not be ready for might be very hard on her.

What my son found, though, when dealing with kids of fundies here, is that once you even slightly indicate that you think women should have the right to choose, the fundy children are appalled, call you a "baby killer," go back and tell their parents, and then their parents give the child the go-ahead to ostracize my child.

I reassure my son that his open-mindedness will take him much further in life than the closed-mindedness of the people who ridicule him for refusing to play along in the hate game.

Abortion is such an emotional issue to the "pro-lifers." Sadly, many times, they won't let their children befriend children like mine, who have progressive parents.

I'm in the deep south, so it could be different in other regions. This whole discussion opens up other possibilities for moc to discuss many issues with her daughter. Race, gender, religion. I taught my son to stand up for underdogs--even when it may be uncomfortable. Silence when confronted with such nonsense as what the child spouted to moc's daughter in a way appears as subtle agreement.

I am Inside the Perimeter....

I here you about the fundies. Some day I'll tell y'all about teaching Public Speaking in a Public HS and all the kids arguing against evolution and abortion. Difficult times for me.

palm of my hand for crib notes. I'm sure I'll forget how to say it so well.

Thanks!

::scribbling notes for later::

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002562182_doll15.html

And kudos to American Girl for connecting to Girls, Inc. I intend to call them and congratulate them as well as purchase more AG products for my daughter.

Why, I gave them Enemies of God, Rev. Wildmon, and our Beloved and Courageous Leader George Bush a piece of my mind, I did!

Dear President Brothers:

I have been made aware of your cash donation and continuing proceeds through the "I Can" bracelet to Girls Inc.

I would like to applaud you in this effort.

In addition, I would like to alert you to the fact that a large, well-funded hate group, "The American (sic) Family (sic) Association", has targeted your company and product line for failing to conform to their agenda, which strives to create a politico-theocratic One World Order, starting with America in 2008.

This shadowy, tax-exempt group wants to subvert and destroy the US Constitution, promote sexualized child abuse in the guise of "discipline", and institute the wholesale execution of its enemies. It may also be seeking to reinstitute slavery and the liege-bondage of adult women, although it has kept silent on these issues, probably for tactical reasons.

The head of the group is "Rev." L. Don Wildmon, whose various front groups, including the AFA, rake in millions of dollars every day. Wildmon has millions of obedient followers ready to do his bidding on a moment's notice. Speaking in hushed tones about "lesbians" and "abortion", Wildmon has whipped his followers into a fury time and time again, and this time, the target of his infernal glee is American Girl and Mattel.

I strongly urge you to resist "Rev." Wildmon's depredations. He has brought hundreds of loyal Americans and their business enterprises to his heel over the past three decades. It is time that the line be drawn, and I hope that a well-loved and principled company like Mattel is equal to that task.

Sincerely,

(Pigwidgeon from DU)

cc: Ellen L. Brothers, President
American Girl - Mattel
ellen.brothers@americangirl.com

That'll teach 'em, by cracky!

--p!
By cracky?

remember folks---- it takes very little to effort to effect change if effort is placed in the right direction

they yammer on and on about how it's necessary to protect children, but then they fill their own kiddies heads up with such things and scare other children. i think they secretly get a charge out of abusing others in the Lawd's name!

about what you said in your post to the pr lady. i mentioned this site and that we were upset about this crap and noted that who knows what the "other" sites are saying. maybe you should email her this post-without the swear words,hahah, and maybe they will decide to take on these thugs.

If anyone comes up to my kids and tries to talk to them about something like abortion at their tender age.. I would go OFF on that person.

I hope you can resolve this with your daughter without having to go too indepth with the whole abortion issue.

That is something you do not do. Raise your own kids. That is enough job for anyone.

Who? Hu.
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst

this weekend. Here's for standing up for the health of women and girls everywhere.

Now, if I could only get these bitty baby clothes and accessories to stop procreating in my living room....

from preschool age through about 12-13yo. They originally started with dolls that were all historical characters, each coming with a series of books telling their life stories. They've since branched out to include "American Girl Today" dolls, where the doll can be ordered to match the girl's hair color, skin color, etc, and "Bitty Babies" for younger girls and some other lines as well. They also sell books that deal with a wide range of topics such as how to deal with friendship issues, how to take care of your body, and fluff stuff like decorating your room. Their "Care and Keeping of You" book was a great way of talking to my daughter about getting her period and all that stuff.

A lot of their dolls, etc, can be outrageously expensive, which can be off putting, but I like their message of empowering girls to be the best they can be.

www.americangirl.com

There will be a series of a young girl in America during a certain time periods (Civil War, Revolutionary War, the 40's, etc.). They have also had series based on girls from Hispanic, African-American, etc. backgrounds. I used to manage a chain bookstore, and they were VERY popular.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/15/AR2005101500364.html


Do a search on "american girl" boycott and find a bunch of blah blah blahing. Good luck talking with the kids again, am sure you will get it straightened out for them.

Just kidding! These people are freaks who need to use their time and morning for volunteering at nursing homes or animal shelters.

1--American Girl

I first learned about the dolls and books from my niece (now 14) when she was 8 or so.

The EXTREMELY amazing thing to me about the books was that they got my niece very interested in history, what women and girls did and wore etc at different periods in history.

When I asked my college students if any of them had nieces or sisters etc interested in American Girl books, they all said that the books made the girls they knew interested in history to an extent very surprising to the college students.

2--Girl Scouts

There was a big RW 'rouse up the base' story about the Girl Scouts a few years ago. I think it was the National Review that had a long article about how the Girl Scouts were turning girls into lesbians, etc etc. I think there was something about 'HClinton said something positive about the Girl Scouts sooooo therefore the Girl Scouts were evil, subversive, etc'.

As far as I could tell, the people pushing this attack were upset that the Girl Scouts were teaching girls to be strong, capable, independent, think for themselves females. The empowerment of girls has always been a major goal of the organization.

There was a movement to start a very conservative counter organization to the Girl Scouts. As I recall, there was some DU discussion about this whole attack on the Girl Scouts.

THE RIGHT WING HATES INDEPENDENT WOMEN WHO THINK FOR THEMSELVES. THEREFORE THEY TARGET ANY GROUP THAT ENCOURAGES GIRLS TO BE INDEPENDENT.

and instruct them that their daughter should keep their cultish delusions from the 700 Club to themselves. If not, complain to the GS authorities.