"KILLING THE MINDS OF MALE BABIES" - Pastor is unhappy about American Girl adding a boy doll

[Rachel333]

I just thought this story was funny.

http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2017/02/15/american-girl-introduces-boy-doll-local-minister-enraged/97945048/

Quote

"This is nothing more than a trick of the enemy to emasculate little boys and confuse their role to become men," the minister said in the e-mailed statement he sent at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday after watching a segment about American Girl on "Good Morning America."

[...]

In the meantime, Ogden said he has no plans to stay quiet. As long as he is living in Western North Carolina, the preacher will speak up when he feels it is necessary. On Wednesday, his outrage was sparked by a child's toy.

"There are those in this world who want to alter God's creation of the male and female," he wrote. "The devil wants to kill, steal and destroy the minds of our children and grandchildren by perverting, distorting and twisting (the) truth of who God created them to be."

Later that morning Ogden told the Citizen-Times that he doesn't think that boys should play with dolls, that he thinks American Girl's move will confuse children.

"Now you are going to have little boys playing with baby dolls and that's not cool," he said. "We need to get back to our old values and morals."

 

[Bad Wolf]

Some people get worked up over the stupidest things. There are more important issues out there like hunger, poverty, oppression, homelessness, etc. Wonder if it's anatomically correct. 

[CTRLZero]

Well!  I haven't felt such a need for a fainting couch since John Shrader commented on the neckline of a cake-topper!  *swoon*

It says he is moving out of the area--is he being driven out?  Has anyone heard of this guy?  And the article says:  "As long as he is living in Western North Carolina, the preacher will speak up when he feels it is necessary."  Does this mean when he finally moves away, he will shut his damn mouth?

Like @Bad Wolf says, he's not focusing on the important issues.

 

[DaniLouisiana]

What, pray tell Pastor, bad things will little boys learn? How to take care of their children? And just what do you do when you wife is ill or in the hospital having another baby? Let your children go hungry or lay around in a dirty diaper because you're a MAN and can't be expected to do "those" things?!? It would unman you? Guess what? You're not a "man" anyway if you cannot/will not do those things!

[Mercer]

You would think if you expected your son to have eleventy billion kids when he grows up, it would be a good thing for him to practice skills of child caretaking by playing with a doll.

[Rachel333]

He says that "It's not natural for a girl to want to be a boy." The irony is that it's this belief in strict gender roles that is responsible for a lot of girls wanting to be boys and boys wanting to be girls. I was one of those girls who wanted to be a boy, but that was because I didn't feel comfortable in my religion's narrow idea of what a girl should be like. It's only since realizing and internalizing that a girl/woman can look, act, and think however she wants that I've become comfortable being female.

This guy is only making the problem he imagines worse! If a boy who wants to play with a doll hears that only girls should play with dolls then I think that would only strengthen the feeling that he wants to be a girl, not make him feel good about being a boy.

[Gobsmacked]

pp will be swooning, raging and dancing on his pulpit at this news. He doesn't like American Doll anyway. ( I seem to recall).

This Ogden chap sounds a right Plonker. 

[PennySycamore]

Considering he lives in Asheville, he must be hoarse from all the protesting that he has to do.  My daughter thinks of Asheville as Vermont South.  (Yep, she went to school in Vermont.)   Asheville is very liberal and artsy. 

[BlackberryGirl]

So little girls shouldn't play with  boy dolls? what if they someday give birth to a boy?  these loons are crazier than my aunt Sally.

[mango_fandango]

But seriously. In all likelihood, it's mostly going to be girls buying the toy to use as brothers/fathers/friends for their existing dolls. (Of course boys will buy it too, not saying they won't. But seriously, it's ONE boy doll amongst I assume hundreds of girl dolls.)

[Cleopatra7]

I don't get the outrage, other than the existential rage the American Girl dolls cause in conservatives in general. There have been boy dolls, both for boys and of boys, since the invention of dolls however many thousands of years ago. American Girl isn't doing anything new or revolutionary. Conservatives control all three branches of government, and they're still complaining about being oppressed by dolls and pop culture.

[PennySycamore]

@BlackberryGirl, I was just going to edit my post to say just that:  Why wouldn't a little girl want a boy doll to go along with her girl dolls?   And to be as loony as this crazy preacher, wouldn't a bunch of all girl dolls induce lesbianism or something horrid in girls?

Does anyone else remember the Joey doll that was inspired by Gloria and Michael's son Joey on All in the Family?  It was anatomically correct.  The Joey doll caused a huge uproar out of the religious right.

ETA:  Did people get outraged when Barbie got a boyfriend?  I don't think so.

[Audrey2]

So, it's not okay for a girl to know when she's young that she wants to have a son? Or for a boy to want to be a daddy? Funny, the two year old boy I know well is obsessed with babies (5 stuffed animals and counting). Whenever he gets free play after library story time, he gravitates towards the babies, then the toy cars. It's interesting, the fantastic children's librarian at a nearby library is a man! My brother had his "babies", then played football in high school, coached, and is in  a relationship with a delightful woman. I know he'll be a great dad. 

[Anonymousguest]

3 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@BlackberryGirl, I was just going to edit my post to say just that:  Why wouldn't a little girl want a boy doll to go along with her girl dolls?   And to be as loony as this crazy preacher, wouldn't a bunch of all girl dolls induce lesbianism or something horrid in girls?

Does anyone else remember the Joey doll that was inspired by Gloria and Michael's son Joey on All in the Family?  It was anatomically correct.  The Joey doll caused a huge uproar out of the religious right.

I had one of those dolls! I didn't like that it was a boy and wouldn't play with it.  We gave it to my boy cousin (gasp!) who younger than me. Then his mother had another baby boy and I thought boy babies were ok and wanted the doll back. I don't actually remember any of this, I've just heard it from my mother and aunt, lol.

[MamaJunebug]

Asheville! 

Dadgum, if I'd known, i could've looked him up on my trip to see The Biltmore House -- from the sublime to the ridiculous all in one town!!!!!

[Seahorse Wrangler]

An anatomically correct baby boy doll would have made it so much easier when I had a real baby boy.

The gender-less baby dolls I had in the 1960's were so much pleasant to tend to.

[Hane]

The doll's name is Logan Everett, and my grandson's name is Everett! He has blue eyes and brown hair just like my grandson. Ev is 9.5 and has never been into dolls, but my daughter and I need an excuse to buy the doll anyway!

[DaniLouisiana]

@Hane, start a doll collection? 

[Hane]

Just now, DaniLouisiana said:

@Hane, start a doll collection? 

Thanks to a mob of generous relatives, my daughter accumulated Samantha, Molly, Felicity, Kirsten, and Addie some thirty years ago. I loved making them replicas of the costumes I made my daughter for the shows she was in. I even made Kirsten a postulant's habit when my daughter played Maria in The Sound of Music three years ago!

[DaniLouisiana]

Wow! @Hane, you're a creative mom!

I have a Madame Alexander doll collection-long story. We had to convince the grandkids that those are Mimere's dolls and are "look at, not to play with." Most of them are the late '60s or early s70s versions.

[Mercer]

Random fact: Jennie Chancey used to love American Girl. She brought her Samantha doll to college with her as a keepsake from home. Not sure if she'd admit to any of that now...

[Inthemadhouse]

Eww, I have to share a city with this man?   Gross. 

I'm amazed he has found any traction at all here.   Asheville is also known as the Cesspool of Sin, though, so maybe he likes the challenge.   Because we don't have serious issues with poverty, drugs, or homelessness that he could be focusing on.

[JMarie]

On a related note, people are huffed up about he American Girl's girl doll underpants.  Used to be that you could take them off, and now they're glued on (?).

http://people.com/babies/american-girl-dolls-underwear-controversy/

[Jencendiary]

This is the epitome of white people problems.

 

[Foudeb]

Yeah, there's nothing more emasculating than being prepared for fatherhood. Makes complete sense.