As a Girl Scout for over ten years, I have heard the slew of comments about it being a club for lesbians, a respite for the awkward and ugly, yada yada. I've heard about the rumored Planned Parenthood donation connections (but let me tell you, we learned nothing about birth control in our first aid units and the only rubber I ever saw as a Girl Scout was the band that held together my goals folder.)
Nevertheless, I was clearly part of a satanist, lesbian-agenda, communist, etc. group that aimed to *gasp* allow women to rise up in the marketplace? Ok that last part might actually be true. Girl Scouts did encourage us to break through the glass ceiling, go into untraditional jobs (engineering and math being "untraditional" at age eight), and to stand up for ourselves in front of any gender. But clearly, my years of selling cookies have just been a ploy to try to "put a Communist in the White House." Sorry neighbors, those thin mints you bought are tainted with the sin of an unholy agenda. But fear not! Read the end of the article to find out what the two talk show hosts suggest you do if you can't resist these delightful cookies.
Take a look at this article and see why Girl Scouts are just so darn evil: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/23/girl-scout-cookies-plot/
Here is the transcript of the radio show if you'd like to learn more: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/kevin-swanson-begs-you-not-buy-communist-lesbian-girl-scout-cookies
Thanks so much for bringing this up! I am a Girl Scout leader for 80 amazing girls ages 4 to 12 and am heavily involved in Girl Scouting in general! Girl Scouts is a truly amazing force for feminism in the United States that often goes unnoticed or is assumed to be about the three C's (crafts, cookies, camping). I find this assumption to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is frustrating for the greater organizational objectives to be overlooked in popular culture due to our perception of little girls as weak, innocent, and nonthreatening. But on the other hand, it provides an umbrella of ignorance under which Girl Scouts has been able to forcefully and professionally make history.
ReplyDeleteInclusion in a Girl Scout troop is nearly always an indicator that a social group will win its civil rights within American society. Their founder, Juliette Gordon Low, confirmed tirelessly that she wanted the organization to remain a space of refuge for any girl who wished for it to be. Girl Scout troops were established on American Indian reservations in the 1920s, in Japanese Internment camps in the 1940s, and in 1956 Martin Luther King Jr declared publicly that "the force for desegregation" was Girl Scouts. Girls with disabilities were included decades before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, and today girls are able to register for an age level that best matches their emotional and mental age, rather than their biological one. Girl Scouts allows girls to omit God from their promise, and have already loudly affirmed that transgender girls are to be welcomed into troops.
I can see why right-wing pundits are so angry on occasion with Girl Scouts, because female empowerment is so unabashed within the organization. Every so often, a conservative politician pays attention to the organization past their preconceived notions and receives a wake up call. In fact, a recent study analyzed published materials for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and compared them psychologically. They found that Girl Scouts encourages critical thinking and child-led learning, whereas Boy Scouts relies on militaristic regimentation and direction-following.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/boy-scouts-are-from-mars-girl-scouts-are-from-venus/253957/