Reflections From a Murky Pond

The Boy Scouts Of_^In America

So..The Boy Scouts are “removing” boys in favor of being gender neutral. They’re now calling themselves Scouts BSA and are allowing girls entrance and membership. Many Americans are worried about the Scouts making other fundamental changes.

A New Scout Oath?

On my honor I will do my best to be politically correct, to establish safe spaces, to fill all gender-diversity quotas, and to check my toxic micro-aggressive make privilege, so help me Whatever.

Well, The Old One Was “Offensive”

On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Yeah, let’s me see. The actual Scout Oath invokes God, Country, references Morality, and uses the word “Straight.” So…Christofascist, Nationalist, Intolerant, and a dog-whistle / trigger for Homophobic.

Honestly, given how many changes in core organizations of America have been forced through political correctness and other expressions of oikophobia, misandry, and anti-White racism, I can understand the concern. I just think it’s misplaced this time.

Boy Scouts Then and Now

BSA’s Venturing, Sea Scouting, and Exploring programs – all for the problematical ages of 14-20 – have been coed for some time with no newsworthy issues. Venturing and Exploring have been coed since 1971.

Also, Cub Scout “dens” will be single-gender, with separate groups for boys and girls, allowing the organization “to maintain the integrity of the single-gender model while also meeting the needs of today’s families.” Or, as like to put it, to minimize the exposure to- and exchange of “cooties.” 😉

I just can’t see where the addition of the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts will suddenly cause an issue for the BSA or for concerned Americans. Sure, they could suddenly go all PC but, as they haven’t really bowed to most of that so far, I’m not worried about it much at all.

No, the only ones who are having and going to have more of a problem with the Boy Scouts going coed is the Girl Scouts. They’re already incensed because they’re staunch advocates of single-gender scouting, believing that only in a male-less organization can girls be safe and thrive.

Girl Scouts is the best girl leadership organization in the world, created with and for girls. We believe strongly in the importance of the all-girl, girl-led, and girl-friendly environment that Girl Scouts provides, which creates a free space for girls to learn and thrive.

The benefit of the single-gender environment has been well-documented by educators, scholars, other girl- and youth-serving organizations, and Girl Scouts and their families. Girl Scouts offers a one-of-a-kind experience for girls with a program tailored specifically to their unique developmental needs.

— GSBlog

So, the Girl Scout are still a She-Woman Man Haters Club, to riff on a staple of Our Gang, with boys not being allowed to join – except for case-by-case exceptions for full lifestyle T-Girls, and men only allowed in troop leadership positions with heavy restrictions, e.g., never being allowed to be in the presence of the troop’s girls with at least one non-related woman present at all times. So, just the all-to-normal anti-male prejudices and double standards once again at play in society.

And, of course, there are no great, or even noticeable, numbers of people who want the Girl Scouts to change the sexually exclusive policies…though many wanted the Boy Scouts to change theirs. Yet, I don’t believe this is political correctness winning over Boy Scouts’ traditions or anti-male ideology trumping fairness in the case of the Girl Scouts.

Pragmatism Over Ideology

Simply put, I firmly believe that both the Boy Scouts’ choosing to allow girls to join the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and the Girl Scouts’ anger and strident vitriol over it are primarily rooted is pure pragmatism and the organizations’ respective existential realities.

Scouting, much like youth sports, is in sharp decline. The Boys Scouts are down to about 2.3 million scouts from a peak of more than 4 million, and the Girl Scouts have dwindled to 1.8 million members from a high of 3.8 million. So, in my opinion, this is just the Boy Scouts taking a deliberate step to increase its odds of surviving into the next generation.

Similarly, the Girl Scouts’ complaints, while couched in the terms of special privileges, special “needs,” and misandry, are more than likely fueled by the fear of their organizations’ demise due to no longer seeming to have a monopoly on girls’ scouting.

Tags: America | Americana | Boy Scouts | BSA | Competition | Feminism | Free Market | Girl Scouts | Political Correctness | Scouting | Scouts | Society

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2018 at 10:22 am and is filed under Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

On November 6th, 2007 Cambridge, MA election officials have ruled that collecting toiletries, magazines, candy and other items for care packages for US Troops stationed overseas is far too political and violated a Massachusetts State law prohibiting political statements pertaining to a particular election within 150 feet of any polling station . They forced Troop 45 Cambridge Boy Scouts to remove every flyer and every box from the environs surrounding the polling stations despite having twice previously giving their approval for the collection drive!

The troop 45 Cambridge Boy Scouts scouts earned some money in an unexpected fundraiser. Instead of using for the originally suggested purpose of trips to Water Country, Six Flags, white water rafting, or skiing they chose to use it to fund collecting donations of toiletries, magazines, candy and other items for the US troops at the polling sites on Election Day. That’s right, the children chose to give up their fun in order to support American troops who are far from home.

But sadly for us all, on Election Day, Marsha Weinerman, executive director of the Election Commission, removed the boxes from all the polling stations because one woman, a poll worker, complained it was a political statement.

Scouts Had been given verbal permission by the city election commission twice and at the polling stations as well. A promotion for the polling place collections was still up as of November 5th on the Veterans’ Services Department section of the city’s Web site. But it was all in vain; Marsha Weinerman, executive director of the Election Commission had all the flyers taken down and the collection boxes removed because of the complaint that claimed that supporting our troops is implicitly “pro-war.”

The location where this female poll worker was complaining about the flyer was on a bulletin board with 70 or so other flyers, including ones promoting: Get Out of Iraq, Campus Green, College Democrats of America, China’s New Property Law, Save the Non-Proliferation Regime, and Global Warming. The only flyer the Election Commission removed was that of the Boy Scouts collecting things for the troops.

What is truly sad is that, while sickened and enraged, I and many others aren’t even that surprised by Cambridge’s attitudes and behavior. We’ve come to expect such thing from “The Kennedy State.” In the current Massachusetts social and political climate one has to wonder how long it will remain safe for the Boy Scouts to operate. They are in uniforms after all.

Tags: Boy Scouts | Military | Politics | Troop 45

This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.