STAWAR: Cute doll or another mouth to feed?

By TERRY STAWAR
newsroom@news-tribune.net

May 19, 2006 01:37 pm

— Last year dolls made up a $2.7 billion segment of the $21.3 billion dollar toy industry according to the Toy Industry Association. The American Girl Doll Division of Mattel accounted for a sizable chunk ($379 million) of these sales.
Originally known as the Pleasant Company, American Girl was founded in 1984 by Pleasant T. Rowland. Disappointed in the existing crop of dolls, Rowland sought to develop a unique line of dolls that focused on girlhood rather than encouraged maternal or adult behaviors. She was looking for alternatives to the anatomically impossible Barbies and was heading in the exact opposite direction of the tarted-up Bratz dolls of today.
A history buff, Rowland was also eager to have her dolls play an educational role, teaching girls about history. To this end she paired each new doll with a book, which described a detailed “back story.” The dolls introduced were from different historical periods and were culturally diverse.
From the beginning these dolls were a fantastic success and girls, mothers, and especially doting grandmothers with disposable income, quickly developed a cult-like devotion. For many wealthier families an annual pilgrimage to the Chicago-based American Doll Place, to have tea and pick out your new doll, became a tradition. My sister Barbara, a retired teacher who lives near Chicago said that other teachers in the area greatly resented it when parents would take their children out of school for these special outings.
In 1998, Mattel acquired the Pleasant Company for $700 million and many fans worried that it would mean that the dolls would lose their uniqueness. Rowland stuck around with Mattel until 2000 and then left presumably with a dump truck full of money.
New characters and product lines have been regularly added such as the Bitty Baby Collection, Girls of Many Lands, Angelina Ballerina, as well as several others. New American Girl Places have been opened in LA and New York with expanded menus and stage shows (A package deal for one girl and an adult is about $280) and a collaboration with Julia Roberts lead to the production of American Girl movies.
You would think such a sweet and successful business would be without controversy, but critics have abound on both sides of the political spectrum. From its inception some have contended that American Girl Dolls were obscenely overpriced and encouraged an elitist attitude. And then in 2005 with the introduction of its Mexican-American Marisol doll, American Doll managed to offend the predominantly Latino Pilson neighborhood in Chicago.
In the book that accompanied the Marisol doll, the story line talks about Marisol’s family leaving this area because it was too “dangerous.” Some local residents were deeply disturbed and a group from a Pilsen High School even marched in front of American Girl Place in Chicago, demanding an apology. Mattel contended that offending words were taken out of context and the dispute was vastly overblown. They didn’t budge and the 152 page Marisol book is still on sale at their Web site, the dolls sold out in 2005.
Troubles, however, it were far from over. In August 2005, American Girls started selling “I CAN” wrist bands. Their Web site said that American Girl would give 70 percent of “wrist band sales, plus a $50,000 donation, to “Girls, Inc. (formerly the Girls Clubs of America), a national organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.” Soon thereafter conservative activists alleged that Girls, Inc. openly promoted abortion rights and homosexuality. American Girl countered that their donations were intended to support intellectual development, leadership, and sports programs.
The Chicago Pro-Life Action League called for a boycott of American Girl products for the Christmas of 2005 and the Mississippi-based American Family Association (AFA) , urged its members to demand that American Girl stop its support for Girls, Inc. AFA was one of the groups that had previously protested about the detrimental effects the sexually ambiguous Teletubby named Tinky Winky was having on preschoolers. This watchdog or should I say watch-moose group also protested an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle, in which Bullwinkle the Moose married Cinderella, on the grounds that it promoted interspecies sexuality. Around this time Catholic Schools in Brookfield Wisconsin and St. Louis canceled American Girl fashion show fundraisers in response to the controversy.
Mattel quietly let its relationship with Girls, Inc. end in December of 2005, while launching its first ever advertising campaign for American Girl with the theme “Saving Girlhood.” Some conservative groups took credit for the ad campaign, but the girlhood theme was always an American Girl staple. And despite all the hue and cry sales figures never seemed to be affected by the controversies.
Although we kept receiving catalogues, price more than politics was our main concern about American Girl dolls, but we finally broken down and now have “Kit” (a girl from Cincinnati in the1930’s) and one “Bitty Baby” in the family. As a person with two granddaughters, I can tell you with authority that regardless of your politics, little girls require the most expensive and cutest dolls you can afford. It’s their law.
Terry L. Stawar, Ed.D. lives in Georgetown and is the CEO of LifeSpring in Jeffersonville. He can reached at tstawar@lifespr.com or 812-206-1234

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