Live data from Hacker News

Boy Scouts Announce They Will Accept Girls

nytimes.com

41–46 of 46 posts

Re: Boy Scouts Announce They Will Accept Girls

#41
Having a 10 year old boy and 7 year old girl. This is great; my daughter always lamented about how her brother was able to more as a cub scout.

She tried girls scouts for a year, then her troop leader left which caused her troop to fold. We could have moved her to another troop, but she didn't want to, she liked the way things were. I would intermittently bring to her different Cub Scout functions. Every time I would she would be included in the activities and encouraged to participate by everyone from leaders to parents.

I wasn't keen on the idea of my son joining a god loving, gay hating, etc. organization. It was his choice, his friends were doing it and I went along to make sure nothing happened. After three years of cub scouting I can say that each troop operates on it's own and does what it's leaders feel is best for the kids. If you don't like how your local troop is run try another one, or just take your kids camping, do weekly exercises on rope tying, building bird houses etc.

In Canada they just have Scouts of Canada the genders are treated equally. My daughter is excited, I'm only saddened she missed out a few years of fun.

Re: Boy Scouts Announce They Will Accept Girls

#42
post #10

What if it turns out that there is a deep-seated psychological need present in many (NOT ALL) humans to participate in peer groups defined along lines of gender - and what if it turns out that if society denies them acceptable outlets for this need, that they fill the need by joining socially unacceptable groups (ie. gangs)? If we suspect that this psychological need is present, do we persist in denying acceptable ou…

So in fewer words you're asking, "what if by allowing girls into scouts, boy scouts will be driven to join gangs?"

That was a poor attempt at argument by ridicule. You didn't actually address anything I said.

Re: Boy Scouts Announce They Will Accept Girls

#43
post #3

This is sad. Not that they accept girls, but that the Girl Scouts apparently suck so much at understanding their audience. Fallout from this would probably result in either 1) the Girl Scouts becoming much better at satisfying their target audience or 2) the Girl Scouts essentially becoming an irrelevant organization. I hope the first, but the latter looks more likely. They’ve hidden behind cookie sales for years, an…

Where did you get the impression that Girl Scouts "suck so much at understanding their audience"? I'm fairly angry that someone would read that article and assume that if Boy Scouts decided to admit girls to help offset the decreasing memberships in Boy Scouts (noted in the article), that somehow that means Girl Scouts is to blame. SERIOUSLY? This is exactly the kind of sexism that girls have to deal with day in and…

I agree that equal opportunity should be available to both, which is why I support Girl Scouts opening up their membership to boys too.

Re: Boy Scouts Announce They Will Accept Girls

#44
post #14

Just merge the two organizations and call it "scouting" - solved

Rather than merge the organizations, have the Girl Scouts start accepting Boys.

This.

Make no mistake here. This has nothing to do with giving "equal opportunity" of activities to all.

But a way of suppressing healthy masculine development.

The girl scouts will never accept boys and probably cite some bogus reason due to "safety from icky boys" as the reason.

There is nothing wrong with having groups for people based on ethnic background (Black Lives Matter, etc), gender or religiosity.

Having girls join the Boy Scouts was a massive shit test, and they failed it.

Re: Boy Scouts Announce They Will Accept Girls

#45
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that Boy Scouts teaches that you don't think girls should be taught?

Maybe it isn't about what's being taught, but acknowledging that boys will behave differently when girls are present. So then an environment where no girls are present can be an opportunity to engage with teenage boys in a different context, which I do think is important to provide some kind of mentorship or guidance that isn't possible in a mixed environment. There aren't many situations where this is still the case…

Yes, thank you.

Boys behave differently around girls and will form weaker bonds with each other.

Boys grow up to be providers and need to be pushed hard because life is hard on them.

Men's income forms the largest tax base. The average man provides a net positive return on tax base whereas women a net negative in North America.

Men are disproportionately representing in:

- Wars, army (98%)

- Suicides

- Occupational death and injury

- On average tend to work longer hours

- Die many years younger lofe expectancy

- Hard, but important jobs like coal mining, drilling, construction, etc)

There are almost as many rapes of boys and men as there are girls and women each year.

I dare you to dig through and find the stata yourself and when you understand why these stats are buried, you will start to see what we have been tricked into.

Re: Boy Scouts Announce They Will Accept Girls

#46

Putting aside the context of whether this makes sense with the existence of Girl Scouts, as an Eagle Scout I’m pretty happy that the organization has made strides to turn around its image of exclusivity. It’s certainly about 15 years later than it needed to be, but such a huge organization that is dedicated to inspiring ideals in young people should be sending the right message. It’s a far cry from the early 2000’s e…

Make no mistake, they were asking if you believed in "God". The BSA prohibits atheists / agnostics [1] My troop told me to lie. I chose to not participate. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20080509074048/http://www.bsaleg...

Interesting about agnosticism. I didnt specifically process as an agnostic and I was not directly asked the question. The simple question was “Do you believe in a higher power” and no more detail was requested upon my initial answer of “yes”. I imagine if I had elaborated the answe night not have been to the liking of the reviewers.
Post reply on HN