If parents think that a young girl would have to join Boy Scouts instead of Girl Scouts in order to have the opportunity to do the things that they imagine Boy Scouts do, then I’m sorry to tell them that they are sorely undereducated on Girl Scouts. I’m appalled with these parents. Did these mothers and fathers never read the Girl Scout handbook? Did you learn anything about Juliette Gordon Low? Well I did, multiple times, so sit down and listen. Girl Scouts was formed because JGL was told girls couldn’t join Lord Baden-Powell’s Boy Scouts. So she formed a place where girls could learn the same things, but in an all-girl space. But you answer, “Yeah but Boy Scouts have better activities than Girl Scouts…” Here is a short, not-all-encompassing list of activities/badges I earned while a Girl Scout:
* Hiking
* Survival and Emergency Training
* Camping (including backpacking)
* Kayaking/Canoeing/Swimming
* Leather work and Metal work
* Archery, Axe Throwing, and BB Gun Shooting
* Rope and Knot work
* Fishing
* Flag ceremonies and Color Guard
* Horse riding and basic wild animal education
* Skiing, snow shoeing, and snow tubing
So for those parents signing their girls up for Boy Scouts, here’s a lesson: GS has all these fun activists but it’s also a space for girls to learn girl-things without hesitation or ridicule. No “girl-things” are not sewing and cooking (although I did learn those important skills too). As a Girl Scout I felt comfortable talking about topics in an all-girl environment that I would otherwise not have felt comfortable expressing. Here’s a short list of things Girls probably won’t learn in Boy Scouts that I learned in Girl Scouts:
* Women’s health and wellness
* Lessons on domestic violence and abuse (children, women, and men)
* Women’s rights (in the US and Internationally) including voting, education, and human rights
* Women’s work experience in specific industries (for examples, industries I learned about included: film/tv, marketing, engineering, space exploration, and business)
* Breast cancer awareness (a disease which ultimately took JGL’s life)
* A multitude of other “"Girl”“ activities that boys would find too emasculating to learn.
Source: 11 years of being a Girl Scout, with a Bronze, Silver, and Gold Award.
T H A N K Y O U
Like, there are troops that don’t do a lot of the “active” stuff, it’s true, but you know how you fix that??? Get your ass involved and make it happen.
We went camping. We learned knots. We did cool outdoors shit and kicked major ASS at the local jamboree despite being a younger-skewed and smaller troupe, because the leaders that we had worked together and let the outdoorsy ones actually lead that sort of stuff for us while the more inside-activity moms were able to lead on crafts and those sorts of badges, and we got a very well-rounded experience in my troop.
GSA has the opportunity to do everything that these families are thinking they need to be part of the BSA to do, they just didn’t want to be the ones to have to help out and make it happen. Plus a side helping of NOT having a history of being fuckin bigots.
This ^^!! Maybe for some troops it’s all cooking, sewing, and just traditionally “girly” stuff, but I was a leader for years until my daughter aged out, and there are PLENTY of opportunities for camping and other fun activities. We camped many times, and we also took a 3-day trip to NYC (from the Boston area) that the girls loved. It kinda pisses me off that this is being sold as some wonderful NEW opportunity for girls when it’s more likely a membership ploy by the BSA.
EDIT: Just want to add the ‘not being fuckin bigots’ is a huge deal for me as well. I gave my Eagle Scout husband endless shit about it when the BSA was having its big debate about whether gays were too icky to be members of their sacred organization.
THANK YOUUUUUU, MY POINT HAS BEEN MADE.
Published
sparksoffandommagic 