Tony Perkins has it in for the Girl Scouts

[doggie]

I can just picture the duggers giving the evil eye and handing out anti abortion pamphlets to the girls selling cookies to the store.

[Cleopatra7]

My Senior Girl Scout troop (high school age) once had a female doctor come in and talk about sex and the female body. I don't remember the specifics of what was said (this was around 1999 or 2000), but I don't remember her saying anything shocking or controversial. For some parents, though, the very idea of another person talking to their children about sex, even if it's only from a biological perspective, is unforgivable.

I think the conservative opposition to the Girl Scouts is similar to their hatred of public schools in that they were for them when they had cultural dominance, but now that they're on the retreat, they don't want to play anymore, so to speak.

[Destiny]

Thank you Tony, for reminding me that it is that time of year. I will now find a Girl Scout to sell me my usual two cases.

[Hane]

Thank you Tony, for reminding me that it is that time of year. I will now find a Girl Scout to sell me my usual two cases.

And now that the Girl Scouts offer us the option of contributing cookies to US servicemembers instead of having to eat all the cookies ourselves, I plan to order VERY generously when the cookie drive begins around here.

[PennySycamore]

One of my granddaughters is about to turn 5 and old enough for Daisies. I'm thinking about becoming a GS Leader. What a great way to stay young!

[thekate]

This anti-GS feeling has been growing in conservative groups for a while. Girl Scouts at its very core is a feminist organization because it wants to empower girls. They've even started their own counter-group for girls, The American Heritage Girls.

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/ ... genda.html

[Cleopatra7]

This anti-GS feeling has been growing in conservative groups for a while. Girl Scouts at its very core is a feminist organization because it wants to empower girls. They've even started their own counter-group for girls, The American Heritage Girls.

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/ ... genda.html

There are actually a multitude of scouting groups that operate outside of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Some are designed to be more conservative and others are designed to be more progressive. Google independent scouting movement and you'll see what I mean. I wonder if fundamentalists were ever very interested in scouting, even during the period of Protestant cultural dominance. So many of them had separatist tendencies even then that I wonder if they would have been interested in sending their kids to a group where they might be around outsiders.

[YPestis]

I find it interesting that while conservatives, in general, love love LOVE Boy Scouts, they feel decidedly uncomfortable with the Girl Scouts. The love for Boy Scouts is so much that the Mormon Church has incorporated the scouts into their church training. The Girl Scouts gets no such love from conservatives. I think it *is* because the Girl Scouts has a decidedly feminist view. They focus on empowering girls to be strong women, to interest girls in careers (and not just as homemakers), they teach girls that marriage and family are not the only things they should work towards in life.

For even mainstream conservative groups such as the Mormon Church, these ideas espoused by the Girl Scouts probably makes some uncomfortable, even if they don't oppose it out of hand. I think there's a segment of America---maybe 1/4th to 1/3rd---that would prefer to tacitly encourage their daughters to be family oriented; to go to college (sure!) but to focus on marriage and kids and maybe work if there's an opportunity to supplement the family income (preferably after staying home when the kids are young). Again, nothing wrong with that attitude either. It probably makes some feminists just as uncomfortable thinking about training girls to be family minded as it is for some conservatives to train girls to be career minded. However, because the Girl Scouts are advocating a more modern view of womenhood, I think conservatives shy away from them.

For fundies, it's even worse. They openly oppose career women and see Girl Scouts as indoctrinating girls against patriarchy (which it is). I can see the "cultural clash" of fundies vs Girl Scouts, and it's symbolic of the changing roles of women in our society. Still, it seems awfully harsh to deride the organization like that. This is a beloved children's group which has made wonderful memories for millions of young girls. It's sad to see that even in the 21st century, some would feel threatened by a children's organization that teaches girls to be strong citizens of the future.

[cindyluvs24]

I am old enough to remember earning my "Hospitality" and "Housekeeping" merit badges as a Junior Girl Scout. We also went camping and learned how to make little camping stoves using cardboard, paraffin wax, a tunafish can and an empty coffee can.

[m0drnmoonlight]

Former Girl Scout here too. Started as a Daisy, finished as a Senior and earned both the Silver and Gold awards. My troop had the same core members all those years and I still remain friends with a good number of them to this day, 10 years after graduating high school.

Never once did we learn anything about abortion, so I have no idea where this "Girl Scouts = Planned Parenthood" propaganda is coming from. Wasn't it someone on the national Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts a former executive of Planned Parenthood? If so, who gives a damn.

Our time was spent singing carols at the nursing home for the holidays and making cards for the residents, sorting food and toys at the drives the local church held, becoming "sister troops" to younger girls and helping them earn badges and teaching them stuff with camping. We went camping a lot too but I never liked that because I'm not a huge outdoor person heh.

We did learn how to cook and sew, but we also learned lots of skills camping, like how to build a fire and first aid. And my friend's dad taught me how to play pool when we went on another camping trip, so there's that too LOL.

But the Girl Scouts is a wonderful organization that I'm so proud to have been a part of. Whenever I see scouts selling cookies, I will always buy a box because I want to support them. It's my way of giving back to an organization that gave me so much. And yes, I bought some boxes from a coworker the other day and you can now check off if you want the boxes donated. Operation Cookie Drop sends thousands of boxes to troops each year.

It all makes sense though. Girl Scouts turns girls into strong, intelligent women and instills in them the belief that they CAN make a difference in the world. Conservative groups like FRC want girls to grow up to be stay at home wives and mommies who do nothing but smile at their husband and pop out babies.

In conclusion, the FRC can go fuck themselves. I'm going to buy me some more Thin Mints!

edited for riffle

[DomWackTroll]

I bet he secretly buys girl scout cookies and enjoys eating them.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if he was outed as a Girl Scout Cookie fan?

Or perhaps there's something even... darker in his past.

[RosyDaisy]

They're available starting today :D

We've already sold a dozen boxes. I'm tempted to buy the rest of my daughter's allotment for us to eat!

Oh, good. That means my neighbor's daughter will come knocking on my door soon, and I'll be ordering a lot from her.

[tankgirl]

I don't believe this guy or the FRC deserve these delicious cookies, but, "I ate them in your honor" type campaign might be great. I think we should send all our empty boxes to the fundies so they can be mad and sad at the same time. No cookies for sexists!

I also want to say I was involved in GS as a girl and an alternative group as well, our troupe wasn't the best, which is why we tried another group, but no PP, sex talks for us, just the basic stuff, sane people expect to see scouts do. I think the GS's tend to be a great organization, which I proudly give money to in exchange for cookies.

[Mice]

And now that the Girl Scouts offer us the option of contributing cookies to US servicemembers instead of having to eat all the cookies ourselves, I plan to order VERY generously when the cookie drive begins around here.

I read this then promptly went and ordered a 5 boxes of cookies from every person at work who has a kids selling cookies. Suck on that Tony Perkins.

[Cleopatra7]

I took a brief look at the Girl Scout USA wikipedia entry (which is well foot-noted and worth a look), and it listed the following things under "Controversy":

1. They have a "don't ask, don't evangelize" policy with regard to lesbians acting as troop leaders and/or volunteers. This means that you shouldn't ask a volunteer about her sexual orientation or try to advocate for a specific position on the issue. There are people on both sides who object to this, but it seems to be conservatives who take it personally.

2. You can choose to take "God" out of the Girl Scout Promise if you want, which acknowledges the existence of atheist girls in the movement. Cue conservatives who think Girl Scouts USA is trying to banish God from their organization.

3. One transgender girl was accepted into a troop in Colorado.

This article from the Baptist Press explains some of the problems conservatives have with the Girl Scouts in more detail.

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=25503

(religious, but a news source, so I don't think it matters)

Basically, they don't like that GSUSA won't discriminate against gays, teach girls to be homemakers, and lie to girls about sex. The article mentions that GSUSA has a "relationship" with Planned Parenthood, but they were awfully vague about what that connection entails. As others posters have said, we never talked about abortion when I was a girl scout. The only ones who seem to intent on talking about abortion to kids are conservatives.