RIP Boy Scouts

[Kath]

It may say Onion, but it's prolly true anyway.

NEWS IN BRIEF
Girls Scouts Announces They’ll Never Ever Let Gross Fucking Boys In

[Ph64]

It's sad when the satire of the Onion is probably more true than the mainstream news, but I've been noticing it happening more and more in recent years.

[MilSpecs]

It's the death knell for girl scouts. My grandmother, my mother, and I were all girl scout leaders, so I'm sad. I went to camp too. It's the girl scout organization's own fault though. They made it very hard to join or start a troop and they did nothing to update the offerings. It was a big deal to be an eagle scout but the gold award didn't have anywhere near the prestige. The goal every year was to make money for management selling cookies. A lot of moms were asking themselves why their daughters were in a second class organization. Girls went into sports instead, and I can't blame them. My girls were so bored they didn't want to join again after the first year.

Fuck that.

It's only a death knell if you just standby and don't push back against this bullshit. You have to reframe the issue. Now Girl Scouts is exclusive. It's girls only. Make that special.

Anybody can join the "scouts BSA". Only girls can join the Girl Scouts.

Just be better than the Boy Scouts, which honestly isn't that difficult now that the entire organization is fucking pozzed.


My humble suggestion is that you make a Girl Scouts version of the Eagle Scouts, and instead of focusing on the homemaking stuff, make it about adventures like the Boy Scouts used to be about. Just make it better. You could literally hire retired female soldiers and professional athletes to build a program. And those girls could probably run circles around what is left of the Eagle Scouts.

It's an organizational issue. It would probably be easier to create a new organization that functions more like the Boy Scouts. It's also a legacy of second-class citizenry as far as respect for the organization is concerned. Eagle Scouts get scholarships and recognition that aren't available to gold star girls. The organization's leadership didn't fight for that recognition and thus doesn't have the same prestige.

Athletics also changed the way girls spend their time. Games and practice is every day during sports seasons and it doesn't leave much time for anything else. Once scouting lost my girls, athletics got them and they didn't want to quit their teams to do other things.

[DBTrek]

It seems like the opportunity is ripe for someone to simply restart the traditional Boy Scouts of America. They could even take the name back. Then the “Scouts of America BSA” would have to compete with the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts.

[clubgop]

This truly does give me the sad. Some of my best childhood memories involve girl scouts and camping and all that. It never made me feel jealous that my brother had boy scouts, and I'm not sure why girls are being taught that it should.

This is taking the "toys are not gender specific" to a creepy level. I agree that a boy or girl should not be chided for playing with a toy that is perceived as being the wrong gender, but dammit, there should be places for girls to be girls and boys to be boys.

Fuck this.

It's the death knell for girl scouts. My grandmother, my mother, and I were all girl scout leaders, so I'm sad. I went to camp too. It's the girl scout organization's own fault though. They made it very hard to join or start a troop and they did nothing to update the offerings. It was a big deal to be an eagle scout but the gold award didn't have anywhere near the prestige. The goal every year was to make money for management selling cookies. A lot of moms were asking themselves why their daughters were in a second class organization. Girls went into sports instead, and I can't blame them. My girls were so bored they didn't want to join again after the first year.

We’re in Year 2 right now, and I swear I keep waiting for Girl Scouts to get cool for my daughter. I thought they’d be camping more regularly and doing outdoorsy stuff. The emphasis on the cookies for a 1/4 of the year is annoying as fuck.

I guess there’s always Junior Rangers?

To my mind that is the best thing about the Girls Scouts. The entrepreneurial spirit, teach them a work ethic. Just merge them and be done with it, that way cookie sales will soar.

[Ph64]

To my mind that is the best thing about the Girls Scouts. The entrepreneurial spirit, teach them a work ethic. Just merge them and be done with it, that way cookie sales will soar.

Wouldn't work. Teaching young women to smile and be cute and get men to open their wallets is training for their future. Try to get boys to do that and they're more likely to get "mow my lawn and I'll buy some cookies off you".

[clubgop]

To my mind that is the best thing about the Girls Scouts. The entrepreneurial spirit, teach them a work ethic. Just merge them and be done with it, that way cookie sales will soar.

Wouldn't work. Teaching young women to smile and be cute and get men to open their wallets is training for their future. Try to get boys to do that and they're more likely to get "mow my lawn and I'll buy some cookies off you".

That is not anywhere near the extent of the training. The older girls go full on. They learn accounting, contracts, and basic management. It's an AP business class.

[MilSpecs]

It very much teaches business: business owners will make a great deal of money off your hard work and compensate you as little as possible. Learn to take praise instead of a reasonable wage. Smile and don't rock the boat. You can't beat the system.

Athletics, OTOH, teaches successful business: deliver a consistently great product, run over the competition, and reap both praise and tangible rewards. Girls are smart creatures and often choose athletics.

[C-Mag]

Boy Scouts have already lost over half a million members............ouch.

So, What's the model for the Scouting organization that will pop up to replace the tired old cowardly BSA ?
H/T to BSA, they did a lot of good for a century, but grew to old, too corporatized and too cowardly.

I think a new organization could probably steal a 50-70 year old model of the BSA and put it into their by laws and get tons of families to enroll their young boys.

[Speaker to Animals]

I think the major Christian denominations will work something out. Without them, Boy Scouts cannot exist as it is.

Would be better to refocus on tradition, but center that on the Commandments anyway.