Love and Sexuality
Josefina arrived with a $100 price tag. That's lot for a doll, even one with cool accessories.
Bought as a gift for nieces, Josefina is now the subject of a pro-life boycott by the American Family Association and the Pro-Life Action League.
Josefina replicates a New Mexico girl from 1824. She came with tiny earrings, leather moccasins and books about her life adventures, in English and Spanish.
The doll was a gift of girl power. Her story is how she learns to accept her mother's death and move on gracefully with her life. She was money well spent.
Pre-teens at the time, my nieces were soon to be bombarded with messages to be impossibly thin, to look like actresses whose imperfections are airbrushed away for magazine covers.
Josefina - given as a counter image - is part of a historically accurate line of dolls in the American Girl collection. But American Girl drew flack when it linked with Girls Inc., formerly Girls Clubs of America.
The company is donating some proceeds from wristlets with the motto, "I Can." As in, "I can be myself, follow my dreams, and always do my best."
The 141-year-old Girls Inc. serves mostly black and Latino girls from impoverished backgrounds. Programming focuses on encouraging math and science, athletics, self-respect and leadership skills.
It is hard to argue with that, especially given that the organization works with girls from households of less than $25,000. These girls have to be strong, smart and bold just to make it through the day. So what is so objectionable about Girls Inc. and by association, American Girl?
Girls Inc. has been labeled pro-abortion and condoning lesbianism. True, the organization recognizes that some young women will struggle with the issue of sexual orientation and that part of being a young woman is deciding what to do with your body sexually.
Never mind that the Girls Inc. also stresses abstinence as the first choice and that family is the primary source of information about sexuality.
Girls Inc. doesn't preach. It doesn't fume that one religious belief is right for all. Both sides of this debate say they want to support young women. Both sides honestly try.
But American Family Association and Pro-Life Action League seem to take a different route. Their well-intentioned lessons seem to be about telling young women what not to do. What not to think, what not to do with their lives.
The fact that contraception methods and the legality of abortion is acknowledged by Girls Inc. was termed "a deal breaker," by John Jensen, co-director of Pro-Life Action League's youth outreach division. "It does discount all of the other good that they do," he said.
With so many sexist and damaging images for young girls in the public realm, why focus on one thread in an organization that is doing so much good? The ethical dilemma is not unlike some of the tough choices the American Girl doll collection has its characters face.
Maybe another doll is needed. One that could teach these realities: Strident stands come with responsibility. There is the responsibility to think through the long-term implications of your actions, the responsibility to hear respectfully the thoughts of others, even when you disagree.
This is cache, read story here
Bought as a gift for nieces, Josefina is now the subject of a pro-life boycott by the American Family Association and the Pro-Life Action League.
Josefina replicates a New Mexico girl from 1824. She came with tiny earrings, leather moccasins and books about her life adventures, in English and Spanish.
The doll was a gift of girl power. Her story is how she learns to accept her mother's death and move on gracefully with her life. She was money well spent.
Pre-teens at the time, my nieces were soon to be bombarded with messages to be impossibly thin, to look like actresses whose imperfections are airbrushed away for magazine covers.
Josefina - given as a counter image - is part of a historically accurate line of dolls in the American Girl collection. But American Girl drew flack when it linked with Girls Inc., formerly Girls Clubs of America.
The company is donating some proceeds from wristlets with the motto, "I Can." As in, "I can be myself, follow my dreams, and always do my best."
The 141-year-old Girls Inc. serves mostly black and Latino girls from impoverished backgrounds. Programming focuses on encouraging math and science, athletics, self-respect and leadership skills.
It is hard to argue with that, especially given that the organization works with girls from households of less than $25,000. These girls have to be strong, smart and bold just to make it through the day. So what is so objectionable about Girls Inc. and by association, American Girl?
Girls Inc. has been labeled pro-abortion and condoning lesbianism. True, the organization recognizes that some young women will struggle with the issue of sexual orientation and that part of being a young woman is deciding what to do with your body sexually.
Never mind that the Girls Inc. also stresses abstinence as the first choice and that family is the primary source of information about sexuality.
Girls Inc. doesn't preach. It doesn't fume that one religious belief is right for all. Both sides of this debate say they want to support young women. Both sides honestly try.
But American Family Association and Pro-Life Action League seem to take a different route. Their well-intentioned lessons seem to be about telling young women what not to do. What not to think, what not to do with their lives.
The fact that contraception methods and the legality of abortion is acknowledged by Girls Inc. was termed "a deal breaker," by John Jensen, co-director of Pro-Life Action League's youth outreach division. "It does discount all of the other good that they do," he said.
With so many sexist and damaging images for young girls in the public realm, why focus on one thread in an organization that is doing so much good? The ethical dilemma is not unlike some of the tough choices the American Girl doll collection has its characters face.
Maybe another doll is needed. One that could teach these realities: Strident stands come with responsibility. There is the responsibility to think through the long-term implications of your actions, the responsibility to hear respectfully the thoughts of others, even when you disagree.
This is cache, read story here
