Was it Wrong for American Girl to Introduce Gwen the Homeless Doll?

The New York Post is aghast that Mattel is releasing an American Girl doll named Gwen who is homeless. Writing for the Post, Andrea Peyser calls this action "all-out political indoctrination." As she sees it, Gwen is:

...a doll that comes with a biography that is weird and potentially offensive....Gwen, you see, is harboring a terrible secret.

She is homeless. A homeless doll.

In the history books that come with every American Girl doll...you learn that Gwen's father walked out on the family. Her mother lost her job....[A]s fall turned into winter, Gwen's mom lost her grip.

Mother and daughter started bedding down in a car.

For $95 -- more than your average homeless person would dream of spending on a rather mediocre baby substitute -- Gwen Thompson can be yours. A mixed message if ever there was one.

Although I don't agree with Peyser overall, she's right about the mixed messages inherent in selling a homeless doll. The $95 price tag is a slap in the face to a homeless family unable to afford three meals a day.

Opening Up a Dialogue, or Slapping On a Band-Aid?

How does a toy manufacturer reconcile the excesses of privilege with the unmet basic needs caused by deprivation? By creating a character who faces these challenges and by manufacturing a doll in her likeness, is Mattel opening up a important dialogue? Or slapping a Barbie Band Aid on a social issue that's been prettified and commodified?

Whether or not we want to introduce the topic of homelessness at the family dinner table, it's a fact of American life. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness:

Every year 600,000 families with 1.35 million children experience homelessness in the United States, making up about 50 percent of the homeless population over the course of the year.

Although it may seem unethical for Mattel to make money off this very real tragedy, it's important to consider the roots of the American Girl concept.

Bringing History to Life

The original dolls were manufactured by Pleasant Company, founded in 1986 by Pleasant T. Rowland, a teacher, educator, textbook writer and women's college graduate. She intended the American Girl dolls, books, clothing and accessories to make American history accessible to young girls, with each doll reflecting the concerns of her era -- the Civil War, the American Revolution, the Victorian era, and so on. When American Girl was purchased by Mattel over a decade ago, the toy manufacturer for the most part carried on with this approach.

So when Peyser labels the introduction of Gwen "indoctrination," what makes this particular doll so threatening? She's not the first American Girl who's the product of hard economic times; Kit Kittredge, who lived during the Great Depression, not only has a whole line of books and accessories but was portrayed in the first American Girl doll movie by popular child actress Abigail Breslin.