Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
Quote:
Conservative groups' latest boycott target: American Girl By Stephanie Simon Originally published November 2, 2005
The e-mail alerts zip across the nation, fomenting outrage:
Levi-Strauss donates to Planned Parenthood. Don't buy their blue jeans! Johnson & Johnson advertises Tylenol in a gay magazine. Click here to register your disgust!
In the past 12 months, conservative advocacy groups have urged their millions of members to stop buying brand after trusted brand. Boycotts have long been a mainstay of both the right and the left, but analysts say there's a new intensity to the protests, as social conservatives test their ability to punish companies for taking liberal stances.
Their latest target: the popular American Girl dolls and books.
The American Family Association, an influential conservative group, recently told its 2.1 million e-mail subscribers that American Girl made "a terrible mistake" by donating money to a nonprofit youth group that supports abortion rights. More than 100,000 consumers have used the AFA Web site to e-mail a protest to American Girl.
The Pro-Life Action League, an anti-abortion group based in Chicago, announced yesterday a boycott of the brand as well. That would put American Girl's dolls, accessories and books on a long list of products - including Allstate insurance, Nike shoes and Victoria's Secret lingerie - targeted in recent months.
"It's getting so that if you're going to boycott based on principles, you practically have to show up for work wearing a barrel and eat nothing but grass," said conservative activist Peter LaBarbera. "It used to be the left - guys on the lawn with 'No Nukes' buttons. Now, it's pro-family conservatives fighting corporate America."
Boycotts remain a time-honored tactic for the left. A national coalition of farm workers, college students and liberal ministers recently ended a four-year boycott of Taco Bell after securing a promise of better working conditions for migrant tomato pickers.
But protests from the right tend to make a more visible splash because thousands of consumers can be mobilized through online newsletters and Christian radio stations.
It's impossible to quantify the effect of such protests. Outside analysts often dismiss the impact of economic protests as minimal, pointing to the eight-year Southern Baptist boycott of Disney, which had little effect.
But even if they don't cut into the bottom line, boycotts can be a force for change.
Last fall, the AFA began boycotting Procter & Gamble, noting its "support of the homosexual agenda" - specifically, advertising on the TV shows Will and Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and donating money to a gay-rights political initiative in Cincinnati.
Some 360,000 people signed a vow to stop buying Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent and Pampers diapers. Thousands more clogged Procter & Gamble's phone lines. "It was significant enough to draw our attention," spokesman Doug Shelton said.
Procter & Gamble's spots soon disappeared from the shows the protesters deemed inappropriate - though Shelton said that was a coincidence, attributable to corporate concerns about the content of specific episodes.
More significantly, the company now consults advocacy groups "anytime we're thinking of doing something that we think might be a concern to a segment of the population," Shelton said.
"Our success is in our numbers," said Randy Sharp, the AFA's director of special projects. "When they get thousands of calls a day, day after day, companies can't ignore it."
But advertiser spending in the gay and lesbian press was up 28 percent last year. Viacom's new 24-hour TV channel LOGO, aimed at the gay and lesbian market, has dozens of big-name advertisers, including Motorola and Orbitz.
Girls have the right to be themselves and to resist gender stereotypes.
Girls have the right to express themselves with originality and enthusiasm.
Girls have the right to take risks, to strive freely, and to take pride in success.
Girls have the right to accept and appreciate their bodies.
Girls have the right to have confidence in themselves and to be safe in the world.
Girls have the right to prepare for interesting work and economic independence.
I'm guessing the one about accepting and appreciating their bodies is what's too much for the Religious Right. The whole thing makes me want to drive to Chicago and buy two dolls, just to tell the protesters that I bought them to be life-partners for each other.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:18 am Posts: 3920 Location: Philadelphia
Quote:
Here's there Bill of Rights:
Girls have the right to be themselves and to resist gender stereotypes.
Girls have the right to express themselves with originality and enthusiasm.
Girls have the right to take risks, to strive freely, and to take pride in success.
Girls have the right to accept and appreciate their bodies.
Girls have the right to have confidence in themselves and to be safe in the world.
Girls have the right to prepare for interesting work and economic independence.
Yes, very dangerous indeed. We can't have girls being themselves and expressing themselves in creative and original ways.
So i guess this Christian Group wants girls to.
1. The right to be a sheep and embrace all gender stereotypes
2. Express themselves exactly the same as everyone else in haste.
3. The right to try nothing new and mourn their success.
4. The right to hate their bodies and maintain a poor self image.
5. The right to be unsure of all actions and to live in constant fear.
6. and the right to be barefoot and pregnant and subserviant to you husband.
Yep that, without a doubt, is exactly what the "Christian Right" want women to be. A strong woman with all of the qualities of the Bill Of Rights of this toy company are considered Jezebel's and whores. A big middle finger, yet again to the C.R.
And for the record. I think the toy company's "Bill of Rights" are obviously a lame marketing tool and parents should be the first ones to explain this to their own daughters and sons.
_________________ I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died
And the night Jeff Buckley died
And the night Kurt Cobain died
And the night John Lennon died
I remember I stayed up to watch the news with everyone
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
ranting in e-minor wrote:
And for the record. I think the toy company's "Bill of Rights" are obviously a lame marketing tool and parents should be the first ones to explain this to their own daughters and sons.
That's the Bill of Rights of the organization to which the doll company donates money. They aren't the doll company's bill of rights.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:22 pm Posts: 4715 Location: going to marrakesh
The Politics of Playtime
A grass-roots revolt against American Girl dolls gathers steam.
By Susannah Meadows
Newsweek
Nov. 14, 2005 issue - Tracie and Richard Cross have four daughters, who have seven American Girl dolls between them. Every time a new American Girl catalog arrives at their Ft. Worth, Texas, home, the girls fight over who gets it first. Last Christmas their dad gave them wooden beds he'd made for the dolls. The girls adore them, but their parents, like so many other conservative Christians, love them, too. Unlike curvaceous Barbie or the tarted-up Bratz dolls, an American Girl doll, which comes with a whole book about who she is and the period of American history she hails from, teaches wholesome values. A few weeks ago Tracie read on the company's Web site that it was donating $50,000 and proceeds from its I CAN bracelet to Girls Inc., which sounded like the kind of nice thing American Girl would do. But when she clicked on http://www.girlsinc.org, Tracie was crushed to find an endorsement of Roe v. Wade and language supportive of homosexuals. It struck her that politics had invaded playtime. "I feel like there's nowhere safe," says Tracie, who has vowed not to buy anything from American Girl as long as it's affiliated with Girls Inc. "I have to have a clear conscience."
By the time Tracie told her girlfriends about the Girls Inc. link at the high-school football game, a tempest was brewing among other conservative Christians around the country. Last week the outrage had spilled onto a half-dozen Christian Web sites—including James Dobson's influential Focus on the Family site—and set off an explosion of mom-to-mom e-mails. "Girls Inc.," one mother warned, "is pro-abortion and pro-contraception and pro all the other lies the secular world wants our girls to believe." Roman Catholic schools in Brookfield, Wis., and St. Louis canceled American Girl fashion shows, where girls were to dress up like their dolls. And the Pro-Life Action League of Chicago called for a boycott of American Girl, which is owned by Mattel. The group is also planning a demonstration outside the Chicago store on the day after Thanksgiving. Though the league has requested that members leave their graphic signs at home, some are vowing to show up with them anyway.
American Girl, which prides itself on being the antidote to our Paris Hilton impulses, was blindsided by the reaction. The religious right has long been alert to even the most tenuous hints of homosexual cues in popular culture (see outing of Tinky Winky), but American Girl intends to sponsor math, science and athletic programs at Girls Inc. The company is horrified by the thought of an anti-abortion demonstration. "Given this group's focus on family values, we will find it particularly shocking and ironic if they choose to use graphic images in front of innocent little girls," says American Girl spokesperson Julie Parks.
Girls Inc. was caught off guard, too. The last time it got into trouble was in 1999, when some of its members questioned a partnership with Barbie, fearing the svelte dolls would create body-image issues among the girls who played with them. Founded 141 years ago, Girls Inc., which used to be known as Girls Clubs, offers after-school programs to underprivileged girls on subjects ranging from pregnancy prevention to substance abuse. And on its vast Web site, amid proclamations of empowerment, Girls Inc. states its support for girls who might be questioning their sexuality, as well as a woman's right to an abortion. "We went into this feeling so great and so positive about this partnership," says Girls Inc. president Joyce Roche. "We have been shocked."
For now, American Girl, which grossed $379 million in sales last year, is standing by its commitment to Girls Inc. Meanwhile, the group is enjoying a surge in donations, says Roche. If the boycott has had any real impact on sales, it was not noticeable at American Girl Place in Chicago last week. It was as bustling as ever. Grandmas perused the matching doll and girl nightgowns. And little girls waited in line to get their dolls' hair styled, sheltered in the safety of the store, far from the angry politics swirling outside.
_________________ and our love is a monster, plain and simple though you weight it down with stones to try to drown it it floats it floats
I don't get it. Why would anyone expect pro-life people to give money to companies that support abortion rights? Do you guys get pissed off when animal rights people boycott companies that do animal testing?
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:18 am Posts: 3920 Location: Philadelphia
Quote:
I don't get it. Why would anyone expect pro-life people to give money to companies that support abortion rights? Do you guys get pissed off when animal rights people boycott companies that do animal testing?
I don't expect them to. I just think its funny that these people have nothing else to do with their lives. Shit, don't these people have jobs, bills, families etc. Personally, I won't shop at WalMart, but I have a life where I have responsibilities and such that keep me busy, yet allow me to practice what I feel is right. What sad, sad people when this is all that they have. A bunch of fat, cackeling soccermoms who have to tell everyone else what is right and what is wrong because of they way they view life. Raise your own kids and don't buy them this overpriced doll and do something productive to help you and those around you lead a better life. Just my opinion.
_________________ I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died
And the night Jeff Buckley died
And the night Kurt Cobain died
And the night John Lennon died
I remember I stayed up to watch the news with everyone
I don't get it. Why would anyone expect pro-life people to give money to companies that support abortion rights? Do you guys get pissed off when animal rights people boycott companies that do animal testing?
I don't expect them to. I just think its funny that these people have nothing else to do with their lives. Shit, don't these people have jobs, bills, families etc. Personally, I won't shop at WalMart, but I have a life where I have responsibilities and such that keep me busy, yet allow me to practice what I feel is right. What sad, sad people when this is all that they have. A bunch of fat, cackeling soccermoms who have to tell everyone else what is right and what is wrong because of they way they view life. Raise your own kids and don't buy them this overpriced doll and do something productive to help you and those around you lead a better life. Just my opinion.
It’s hard to make sense of this. Are you saying only people with jobs and responsibilities are allowed to stand up for what they believe? I really don’t see what’s so different about you boycotting Wal-Mart and these people boycotting the doll company.
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:18 am Posts: 3920 Location: Philadelphia
Quote:
ranting in e-minor wrote: Quote: I don't get it. Why would anyone expect pro-life people to give money to companies that support abortion rights? Do you guys get pissed off when animal rights people boycott companies that do animal testing?
I don't expect them to. I just think its funny that these people have nothing else to do with their lives. Shit, don't these people have jobs, bills, families etc. Personally, I won't shop at WalMart, but I have a life where I have responsibilities and such that keep me busy, yet allow me to practice what I feel is right. What sad, sad people when this is all that they have. A bunch of fat, cackeling soccermoms who have to tell everyone else what is right and what is wrong because of they way they view life. Raise your own kids and don't buy them this overpriced doll and do something productive to help you and those around you lead a better life. Just my opinion.
It’s hard to make sense of this. Are you saying only people with jobs and responsibilities are allowed to stand up for what they believe? I really don’t see what’s so different about you boycotting Wal-Mart and these people boycotting the doll company.
I agree, my explanation is a bit washy. I guess what I'm saying is yes I will boycott things that I find myself at odds with. These people are putting together emails and working hard to get their message out. To me, not even being the most busy person I know, don't have the time to do all of this. I guess my priorities are different, and a doll or a super retailer don't hit the top of the list.
_________________ I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died
And the night Jeff Buckley died
And the night Kurt Cobain died
And the night John Lennon died
I remember I stayed up to watch the news with everyone
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
pjam81373 wrote:
I don't get it. Why would anyone expect pro-life people to give money to companies that support abortion rights? Do you guys get pissed off when animal rights people boycott companies that do animal testing?
Y'know, it's just that there are so many companies making a profit off of heinius activities that result in death, disease, poverty, and exploitation that it seems silly to waste time protesting a company because they give money to an organization who does a shitload of good and is only guilty of the crime of not telling sexually active girls that they're going to hell. Jesus, the organization doesn't even offer abortions. And I'd bet my dick they've never even recommended one.
And all this time is being wasted by people who are probably part of an organization getting a tax break because they're supposed to be offering similar services in their community, but that's not getting done b/c they're spewing hate outside the American Doll store.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
I don't expect them to. I just think its funny that these people have nothing else to do with their lives. Shit, don't these people have jobs, bills, families etc. Personally, I won't shop at WalMart, but I have a life where I have responsibilities and such that keep me busy, yet allow me to practice what I feel is right. What sad, sad people when this is all that they have. A bunch of fat, cackeling soccermoms who have to tell everyone else what is right and what is wrong because of they way they view life. Raise your own kids and don't buy them this overpriced doll and do something productive to help you and those around you lead a better life. Just my opinion. - Ranting in E Minor
Wow. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Good job.
I don't get it. Why would anyone expect pro-life people to give money to companies that support abortion rights? Do you guys get pissed off when animal rights people boycott companies that do animal testing?
Y'know, it's just that there are so many companies making a profit off of heinius activities that result in death, disease, poverty, and exploitation that it seems silly to waste time protesting a company because they give money to an organization who does a shitload of good and is only guilty of the crime of not telling sexually active girls that they're going to hell. Jesus, the organization doesn't even offer abortions. And I'd bet my dick they've never even recommended one.
And all this time is being wasted by people who are probably part of an organization getting a tax break because they're supposed to be offering similar services in their community, but that's not getting done b/c they're spewing hate outside the American Doll store.
You know, after looking at their website, I think you might be right. These people probably are over-reacting. There really isn't anything there about birth control or abortion. They just mention wanting to teach girls how to avoid early pregnancy.
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