Girl Scouting was a really big part of my early life. So, when I stumbled upon an article today supplied by our local article today about the subject of scouting, I found that I had mixed feelings on the subject. (I'm the girl in the orange shirt during one of our troop ceremonies.) The article is about four girls becoming the first ever to join the Cub Scouts, because The Boy Scouts of America have decided to allow girls into the organization as troop members. It's sort of a weird bitter-sweet moment for me. The entire reason that The Girl Scouts of America even exist is because men said that girls couldn't be scouts, so Juliet Gordon Low basically said "fuck you, yes we can!" So, while it's (Girl Scouts) a nice slap back towards men for saying girls are too week, I believe that Low herself would have just simply wanted kids to be scouts together. So, she'd probably be happy by the news, at least somewhat. I, myself, really wanted to join the Boy Scouts when I was younger, and it was strictly because I got to see and hear some of the really cool things that my cousin was getting to do, unlike myself. From a young age he was learning to tie all sorts of different rope knots, build fires, build things, learn how to trek through the woods, primitive camp, etc. In Girl Scouting, for the most part, collectively, all we were really learning were arts and crafts and how to sell cookies, so it was a bit of a bum-wrap. You weren't allowed to join primitive camp until you were at least 17, which is where you'd learn all the cool things that the Boy Scouts were learning. And by "weren't allowed", I mean to say that at Girl Scout Camp during the summers, you couldn't enroll in that particular camping experience until you were of a certain age. It's not to say that Girl Scouting was terrible. It was a lot of fun and I did and learned a lot of cool things, and partly I have my mother to thank for this. While earning badges, it's really up to the troop leader as to which badges she's going to let her troop members earn. A lot of troops in my area did not pursue a lot of the badges, but my mother did. There really is more to Girl Scouting than handicrafts and cookie sales. You can certainly earn badges in community service, learning about other cultures and ways of life, primitive camping, trekking, and all sorts to do with nature. There are a lot of badges that I earned (real badges), that other troops from my district weren't even thinking about tackling. Girl Scouting was different before the 1980s & 1990s, when I was involved. Nature skills were a big part of the collective whole (camps, round-ups, etc as opposed to individual troop badge earning). My grandmother was part of one of the very first Girl Scouting troops in the US, in Ohio. She even started the first Girl Scout troop in Laurel, Mississippi. Both of her daughters were in the Girl Scouts in the fifties and sixties. My older sister was a Girl Scout in the seventies and early-mid eighties. Which this is the reason why I know so much about Girl Scouting prior to my time and why I kind of feel this matriarchal familial pull towards it. I'm a third generation, after all! I also had a lot of support from my grandmother and aunt in different ways. Both were totally onboard that I be a Girl Scout or were supportive of the excellent education I was receiving and were sad to hear about other girls from other troops not being able to go out for the same badges (lack of interest on the leader's part? on the troops part? I don't know). Not that there should be competitiveness between troops and regions, but perhaps more enthusiasm and support for actually hitting more than the bare requirements for maintaining a troop would have been a good idea from the organization in general. Participating in summer camp or day camps was always kind of a bore because there wasn't anything to learn except some new handicraft, and certainly nothing worthwhile. Only one time was camp interesting and that was the one year they offered horses. I'm not even fond of horses. I don't dislike them, I like them just fine, but they're really big and I'm nervous to ride them. But, it wasn't normal camp & this is the one I wanted to sign up for. We did ride them a little, as in trail riding through the woods, but mostly it was grooming and cleaning their stalls, which was actually really nice. What was sad though, is that the camp wasn't even centered around the horses, it was just a small bit of time squeezed in amongst all the hiking to the dining hall and more handicrafts. However, I would sneak away from handicrafts and lounging time just to hang out with my horse. I'd brush his coat and just talk to him... and would then be found and chastised for spending too much time with my horse. (insert shocked face here). My sister ended up having the opportunity for this same camp years before me and it was more centered on the horses, so it's a shame my camp time wasn't. But just because camps weren't much fun doesn't mean my troop wasn't. Well, it technically wasn't until my mom took over as troop leader, because the lady we had before... well, we paid monthly dues, sat around and didn't do anything and I don't think we ever earned one badge. And I did go primitive camping and trekking because of my parents via my grandparents. So, my grandmother was the girl scout and leader and my mom got that from her. My grandfather owned land, but not just land, woods, which my mother inherited because of him, and which my dad maintained and took care of because he loves the woods. So, dad knows the woods, they both know camping and how to get around if your lost and all sorts of nature things and these were actual badges you could also earn so Boom! I actually did end up getting to do cool Boy Scout things. They do, or did, have Father Daughter dances with Girl Scouts. Dad was really big into that and took both my sister and I to them when they had them. But beyond that, my dad was actually kind of an honourary Girl Scout in our troop; Troop 267 of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was always there and helping out. I think he really enjoyed it. He wasn't around when we did have to do handicrafts (because those were part of badges to be earned as well) because, well, he's not into handicrafts either. I like being crafty, but I don't like making a million Gods Eyes or popscicle stick things. But he'd gladly pal along on forays to lake or rivers or to the woods, for camping/trekking outtings with all the girls in the back of our (now long dead) 1971 Red International Truck, which he inherited from my maternal grandmother because it was my grandfathers truck which was used to tromp around in those woods. He'd teach us military versions of marching songs (because marching songs were used at camp, but they were "Mustard Mustard sure is yellow, gee I wish I had a fellow..." >_<). And I believe once there was a fishing badge, so he was there for that, teaching us all how to bank fish with a rod and reel. He was there for troop ceremonies too, not simply because I was a his kid, but also because his wife was the leader and I think he kind of felt like a Den Mother which is adorable. My grandmother and aunt would always nod in approval over all the nature things I was learning or even that dad was such a huge help within the troop. I will say that for crafting, I did enjoy learning how to sew, which I believe was one of the other troop leaders' idea since she's a wiz with sewing and probably set up the field trip to the 4-H at the Agricultural High School so that we could learn. It was always a bi-leader troop and once a tri-leader troop because I suppose a troop leader needs a lot of help. So, it wasn't just my mom, but I think some badges were agreed upon because of her, while others were agreed upon by one of the other leaders. But I wasn't a leader, so I don't know for certain. But we had all sorts of people come and speak to us, or else trips to the local university for special exhibits about other cultures and ways of life, which was really always exciting to me. My aunt would even send me things to do with the Girl Guides or tell me about that, which is Girl Scouting in other countries. I think the only thing, collectively, that the entirety of the Girl Scouts did during my time that was awesome was that they were huge in to Earth Day and recycling and Thinking Day. Thinking Day is a weird title, but all girls all over the world were supposed to be doing the same eventful and impactful project on the same day so as to unify all of us in friendship, while contributing something great to the world. Which is a really great concept and I always enjoyed the special group days of actually doing something worthwhile and possibly in conjunction with other girls around the globe. I was also really big into planting a tree for Earth Day. So, I think that the Girl Scouts and the Girl Guides are still a great organization, they just missed the boat there for a bit on rallying troops to actually be troops and participate in things. Perhaps not all over the country but in my town and the close surrounding areas troops with lose all other their girls, not even because it was so uncool, but because they weren't doing anything but selling cookies and doing boring handicrafts and it was sad. Now they have this negative connotation amongst very ignorant people of being pro-baby killing, which is terrible. They're not pro-aborition, their pro-girl. As in girls will grow up to be women and women's rights should be VERY important to any female of the human race. My own dad, sadly, gets mired down in all of the hate mongering he hears on Fox News and Conservative Talk Radio to where he confronted me with "The Girl Scouts are now having sex and body talks with the young girls. Disgusting." "Umm... dad. That's what Girl Scouts do. I mean, it's part of being a girl scout is to learn about being a girl. Mom had a lady come in and talk to us when we were ten or eleven, which I believe is the proper age for these things." I had to go on and kind of explain that that film reel he saw in middle school (I'm sorry Junior High as he refers to it) about boys bodies and how they change, where only him and other boys watching the film reel, and then later the girls would have their turn with their own film, and later y'all'd both watch the Miracle of Life reel (baby making film)? Yeah, they did that when I was in middle school. Boys watched their own changing body film, girls their own, but both had to watch how babies are made. How babies are made is the sex film. You learn about sex, but you don't learn how to have sex. There's a big difference. In Girl Scouts we just learned girl bodies right before we were all about to change and start having our periods so that we were prepared (being prepared is the Girl Scout motto, after all), instead of at age 14 after all that had happened, like in public school. He couldn't say anything against it. Why should he? His wife and daughter. Girl stuff that he knows nothing about... and that's exactly the point. You don't know what it's like for a girls body to change, though obviously he knows enough consider him and my mom did make two children, and he didn't know she bled monthly and there were her miscarriages or her bleeding tumor woman parts fiasco when I was eleven. He didn't shy away from things when it came to my mom, he was there trying to help. So he doesn't know, but he knows things happen. But he should have anything to say against it because girls do need to know what's going to happen to their bodies before it happens and men can scream all day long that they shouldn't know, but fuck them. As for the topic of abortion, no one in Girl Scouting is teaching girls to get abortions. What they are informing them about is what it's like to grow into woman hood and to think for themselves and to not have sex until they are ready and waiting really is best, but that contraception is hugely important for not contracting STD's or for stopping unwanted pregnancies. It's not demonic talk and it's not anti anything except modern self righteous anti woman "Christian" sensibilities. I am using Christian in quotes because I don't believe these people to be real Christians. If you're a real Christian then you'll know that Jesus basically says in the New Testament to forget everything you were taught and to follow him. If he doesn't say it, then it's not some sort of issue with him. Besides no where in the bible is abortion considered a sin or murder. Once it is stated that a woman was beat by some man and lost her baby. The man who did the beating had to pay the husband money for the damage and subsequent loss of his property. Property, people. There's no burnin' in hell for that man beating a woman nor is he going to roast on a pitchfork for murdering a baby. Because the bible doesn't consider a fetus as an actual person, but property. When it's born it's a person more so than a woman, but not a second before. I could go on all day, but the point is that a woman choosing to do with her body what she wants was only limited in the mid-late 19th century. Because some religious person decided he didn't like it. Not because he deciphered the bible, he was just crazy. No one had a problem with it before him and basically after that it was simply used to make women more of the property that the collective group of men wanted them to be. The people making all of these decisions about womens bodies are men. They are a vast majority of men who know nothing about the workings of the female body. Period. They don't know anything about it. They didn't get to watch the film in middle school and they didn't take anatomy and physiology classes. They also are not female. Simply because this one random guy with a medical degree wants to say something also means nothing. He also did not learn about female anatomy or else is an idiot you wouldn't want anywhere near your body or is being paid. He's one guy. Without it being a hot topic issue, say you are a woman and this one random "Doctor" tells you that if you want your new baby to live that you have to hit it on the head with a sledge hammer. Would you do this? Would you just jump at that chance because he's one lone "Doctor" who says to do it, even though you think this might not add up or that a million other doctors say that this is something you should NEVER do? Say you're a guy? What if this one random "Doctor" tells you that if you want to have amazing sex that you'll need to have your testicles burned or ripped open. Would you do this? Would you just jump at the chance because he said this, even though you thinking it might not be a good idea and all the other doctors are saying this is something you should NEVER do? Ok, those are too far-fetched possibly. So, here's a thing I heard in middle school. Girls didn't know about guys then, and some still don't. It was that when a man as sex with you, he's actually peeing inside of you. It's not semen, it's urine. What if this "Doctor" tried to tell any of you that men ejaculate pee into the woman. Would any of you believe this? I bet more women than men would believe this. Even as adults. There would be women to be like, "Ha! I knew it!" and would possibly believe it. Men would say no. Why would they say no? Because a million other doctors have already told them that they will always and only ever ejaculate semen; wether it's from masturbation, intercourse or a nocturnal emission. It is never ever urine. Men know this because they've been told a million times, they've seen the boys only video about boy becoming man, and they know what they're own penis does and does not do because they live with it 24/7. However, crazy thinks that seem akin to this puberty era school yard talk, constantly spill from men's mouths about women. From that one random "Doctor" who honestly is a quack and if you had any lick of sense you wouldn't listen to him, to political officials, and talk show hosts. Men saying all sorts of nonsensical and ridiculous things about organs and body parts they've never seen, much less own in any capacity, though they're trying to "own" these parts, even though their not in their own bodies. Cockamamy things about menstruation and sex to miscarriages and hot flashes. You don't have ovaries and a uterus then you don't even get to think about discussing them and things that happen with them. Especially since what really happens in OUR bodies, their trying to tell you weird ridiculous things like men peeing when they ejaculate. What are you listening to them? Men, stop listening to men about women's bodies. Listen to men about your own bodies. When women are standing up in droves and saying that YES, she can absolutely have started having her period at age 9 or that she didn't have it until age 17, listen to her. That she tried and tried to have babies with her husband and kept having miscarriages, listen to her. She's not aborting babies, she lost them because her own BODY decided that the egg/sperm combo wasn't viable and flushed it, or else that her uterus can't attach it properly. It's not her fault. It's her body doing what HER body does. You can't say that there's no such thing as miscarriage and then say if a woman is raped that the body will stop that pregnancy. That's not how that works scientifically or biologically and you sound like an ass, because you don't understand anything that you're talking about. Which leads me into the comments on the article that I have referenced here today. These people are the idiots listening to the "Doctor" say that men pee in women, basically. In just these few comments we see examples of:
I actually do like scouting being separated, but I always thought it would be cool to partner up once in a while. In Disney's original Parent Trap (1961), while at camp, the girls side and the boys side were going to co-mingle for a dance. I never liked the idea of a dance, but it would be cool to have like a field day together. Trekking and nature things or being together learning something new. Or I thought that if a girl were very tom boyish and felt that she didn't fit in the Girl Scouts (though she's always been more than welcome I have noticed), that she should be able to join the Boy Scouts if she wanted. The same for a boy who is more feminine or just doesn't mesh well with the Boy Scouts (where I've witnessed that he doesn't really belong on several occasions) and they he should be able to join the Girl Scouts if he wanted to. I don't know, the entire thing is just bothersome. I don't feel like the Boy Scouts are trying to do a good thing. I feel like they're undermining The Girl Scouts. And I have always felt like The Girl Scouts need to step up their fucking game. Yeah, your cookies are beyond awesome (Thin Mints and Samoa's, bitches), but take a breather from the handicrafts for just a bit. It's not all that girls are good at, nor is it all that girls want to do. Your founder would not be happy with this paltry legacy of handicrafts and cookies. Her girls were scouts. It starts with you collectively as the larger group and it also starts individually with the troops. Instead of just the requirement being I don't know, having 1 meeting a month and collecting dues, have the requirement be to earn 10 badges (not in a month), but that's the requirement. Or 5 badges. Make badges (because that's the doing and the learning) a requirement for being a troop, because if the troop leader isn't going to put in the effort, you'll know because you've actually set a goal. Something like this would get the troop functioning and really working and girls would stay interested.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
Categories |