American Girl, the still-popular doll brand that grew a devoted fanbase in the ’90s, has released its first doll with an LGBTQ storyline. Cue the outrage.
The brand, a subsidiary of Mattel since 1998, pairs each doll with a book of the character’s backstory. 2021 ‘Girl of the Year’ Kira Bailey’s story has sparked outrage among homophobic collectors as she has two lesbian aunts.
10-year-old Kira, its explained in Kira Down Under, takes a trip to Australia to spend a few months at her aunts’ wildlife sanctuary. At one point in the story, it’s mentioned that her aunts got married “after the law was changed to allow it.”
You can just imagine how some homophobic parents and collectors took this.
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“People lost their goddamn minds, there was so much blatant homophobia in the American Girl Facebook groups I’m in, it was horrific. People were saying, ‘children are innocent, they shouldn’t have to read about sex’, as if American Girl is publishing a lesbian porno,” American Girl collector Rebecca Nachman said in a now-viral TikTok video.
“American Girl collectors continue to be ~the worst people in the world~,” reads the video’s caption.
@nicejewishgrrl american girl collectors continue to be ~the worst people in the world~ #americangirl #americangirldoll #americangirltok #lgbt #fyp #drama
And as PinkNews reports, a scan of the Amazon reviews for the product back up Nachman’s story.
“Homosexuality is an inappropriate topic for a children’s book and I am very disappointed that it was woven so blatantly into the storyline for Kira,” reads one.
“The storyline is inappropriate and far too mature for young readers,” another reviewer wrote.
Julie Parks, an American Girl spokesperson, tells Yahoo Life: “From the beginning, our ‘Girl of the Year’ characters have been designed to reflect girls’s lives today and the realities of the times. As a brand, we’ve always strived to share the message that there’s no ‘magic recipe’ for a family and that families can be made up of all kinds of ingredients — and each is unique and lovely. We know for girls who can directly relate to Kira’s circumstances (i.e. a father who has passed away or a couple in a same-sex marriage), we’re glad to show them that the make-up of one’s family doesn’t matter — it’s still a family and that’s all the counts. It’s a sentiment we love at American Girl.”
Back in 2015, the company faced similar backlash after it included a story about a girl with two gay dads in its magazine.
Mister P
There are LGBTQ people in the world. Whether they like it or not. The story is just seeing things
as they are.
RickHeathen
“Homosexuality is an inappropriate topic for a children’s book and I am very disappointed that it was woven so blatantly into the storyline for Kira.”
It’s VERY appropriate for gay children, and I was one! Someone needs to disillusion these people that they’re not the default…because there isn’t one.
barryaksarben
I agree. I was gay at such an early age. NOT sexual but gay. I knew it and so did my mom and dad who basically pretended I wasnt but werent mean about it. I always get pissed when they say they are protecting children like there are NO gay children. Iwas a gay child and knew two others in my hometown of 450 people and there were others I found out about as an adult
Garath99
appropriate for gay children but not appropriate for children in general? That makes no sense whatsoever. How do you weed out who’s gay and who’s not at a young age? You can’t. Silly argument.
Openminded
I think “gay stories” are appropriate for all healthy minded children, gay or not. I’m sure at one time it was considered inappropriate to include blacks in a children’s story book. Look how that DIDN’T help anybody. These parents are sheltering their kids so severely that it is no wonder youth turn to drugs and alcohol when life gets the least bit real.
Kangol2
Openminded, I’m not sure where you’re from, but in the United States for decades before the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, children’s and young adults’ story books did include Black people, but usually in extreme, stereotypically racist form. (I will not name them but even cursory Googling with bring them up–and these racist caricatures and characters are still with us in the 21st century, long after the books and in some cases films are no longer readily available.) In fact, that probably did more damage than simply leaving Black people out would have, because millions of American children, including Black children, were exposed at a formative age to hateful racist stereotypes.
Openminded
Kanglo, You did a great job of expressing what I intended. When I stated “I’m sure it wasn’t considered appropriate”, I would have been more accurate to use “politically incorrect”. My point was that blacks were only included in stories as inferior servants or worse. Disney’s Song of the South is a good example of the hurtful portrayals.
Liquid Silver
Don’t like it, don’t buy Kira. But for those who do, it’s nice that she’s out there.
Strangely, I hate dolls, but this one doesn’t creep me out. Neither did Chucky, actually.
radiooutmike
So, the doll itself isn’t gay, just her aunties?
Hypothetically some children who play with American Girl dolls may not know what exactly sex is. So why is not one calling out the heterosexual pornography of a traditional family?
Dale
it’s adults that put homophobia into children. Has anyone asked a child who read the book what they thought? They probably wouldn’t notice or if asked about the aunts still would not think it was bad, unless the parents or adult guardians already told them that it is bad.
butchqueen
“Kira eats her first vagina!” This, kids, is the beginning of a lesbian porno.
Fname Optional Lname
I love how the very second they hear about a gay couple or a gay wedding they automatically scream at the top of their lungs “SEX” “Protect the children from learning about SEX!!! Wait, what? I’m pretty sure when those very same people are told about a straight couple, or a straight wedding they don’t think about them having sex, they think of what they’re going to buy the couple for their wedding. As much as we would like to let them believe gay people are not always having sex and gay relationships are based on love as much as straight relationships. That reaction, stating children don’t need to learn about sex at that young age, really only shows how perverted these people are. Why are you thinking about sex when you hear about a gay couple?
Kangol2
Because 1) they’re obsessed with gay people and gay sex and 2) they aren’t getting any!
Essie
Kira has really nice clothes. Love her shoes.
Children are smarter than adults. They will sort things out and understand perfectly. If not, they will ask questions, which adults should answer without being homophobic. That’s how children learn.
Dymension
Porn? Sex? I didn’t read any of that. Just some mention about two aunts getting married after laws were changed.
woodroad34
“It’s mentioned” that Kira’s aunts got married after the law was changed…and that equates to ‘lesbian sex”? These slow-wits actually think that’s porno? What about the dozens of books for pre-schoolers on how babies are made on Amazon? Or the advice of educated people on how to discuss babies being made to pre-schoolers? So desperate to keep their child in a bubble of storks, cabbage leaves and Santa Claus. Why are these people having kids in the first place?
Openminded
O.K. people, can’t y’all understand, Gay bars are where you go to get picked up and have Sex, straight bars are where you go to get a drink and meet friends. Therefore, Gay has to translate into Sex. Surely no straight people ever leave a bar and have sex, that would be gay, wouldn’t it?
CurtisIsTheOne
SO gay.
Leash
People are so g*ddamn stupid. I can’t
tjack47
Ahahahaha! Bahahaha! Hahahahaha!
SaintRock
Yes, legal gay marriage has wrecked so many heterosexual marriages and turned off str8 people from even getting married or even humping.
Brian
“children are innocent, they shouldn’t have to read about sex’”
The phrase “have to” seems especially odd. No one is forcing children to read this book. Straight people really assume that just because a product is on a shelf, there are gay people *forcing* straight people to purchase it.