Forum Experts Attack American Girl

"I don't think the American Girl is trying to be sophisticated; she wants to be just as simple and naive as the fellow she goes out with," Al Capp, creator of Li'l Abner, said last night at the first Law School Forum.

Capp went on to describe the American Girl as 90 percent mating instinct and 10 percent self-preservation. "Every day is Sadie Hawkins Day for her."

Appearing with Capp in Sanders Theatre were Magda Gabor and Earl Wilson, author of "Look Who's Abroad Now." Miss Gabor, formerly from Hungary, announced that she is now an American girl herself. "American girls must watch the American man," she said. "He is out to conquest or conquer--you know what I mean?" The audience seemed to.

Miss Gabor went on to chastise men in this country for their overpadded shoulders and loud ties. "But a Harvard man," she concluded, "is the best dressed man in the country. Even after twenty years out of college, you can spot a Harvard man by his suit." "Of course you can," Capp countered, "it's the same suit."

Wilson, who never made clear his position on the American Girl, talked instead on "Women Look Better in Clothes." Nudo women, he felt, look awful. Wilson cited his experience in an Atlantic City nudist camp as proof of his stand.

Capp thought, however, "nudism would have been charming during the last campaign. The Nixon speech for example--there would have been something you could believe then."

Capp also took issue with Miss Gaber's charge that American girls were too interested in security. "Maybe they want security," he said, "but did you ever see the list of husbands her two sisters married?"

The American Girl's dress was examined carefully by the panel. Wilson expressed a preference for sweaters, while Capp blasted the practice of wearing blue jeans. Asked if he thought jeans look good on men, Capp said, "I don't think men could be helped by anything certainly not by blue jeans on girls."