Those no-good Girl Scouts

September 1, 2005

Pandagon’s Amanda Marcotte had a really funny post yesterday about the right’s paranoia about “radical lesbian feminists” having taken over the Girl Scouts. What Amanda may not realize, however, is that this paranoid fantasy has been around for a while.

The item that caught her attention came by way of Robert Knight and Concerned Women for America, which wants to discourage conservative families from getting caught up in the Girl Scouts’ nefarious web.

Some years ago, the Girls Scouts began purging materials of positive references to homemakers. Instead of being family-centered, the group now promotes “girl empowerment,” with programs that focus heavily on a narcissistic devotion to self, but then steered into collective action for liberal causes, such as environmentalism.

For example, “The Ten Emerging Truths: New Directions for Girls 11-17,” published by the Girl Scout Research Institute, includes “Truth 6: Girls Need Empowerment: By Girls, for Girls.” The report notes that a majority of the 3,000 girls surveyed said they preferred the term “advisor” or “counselor” over that of “leader.” The girls are apparently and approvingly supposed to be self-driven and equality-oriented, with minimal adult supervision. The report also relies heavily on feminist and liberal sources, such as Ms. Foundation for Women, Planned Parenthood and Human Rights Watch, the latter of which is cited for its “Hatred in the Hallways: Violence and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Students in U.S. Schools” (2001).

These craft-making, tree-hugging, anti-bullying monsters must obviously be stopped before they strike again.

I wanted to add, however, that the conservative disdain for the Girl Scouts isn’t new. It rarely generates headlines, but the far-right has targeted the group with pointed attacks for several years.

Leading the way has been James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. In a 1994 article (which is no longer online), a Focus magazine delivered a scathing attack on the Girl Scouts, insisting the group “lost their way” after the Scouts made a religious oath optional for membership. (In Dobson’s world, faith shouldn’t be voluntary; it should be mandated on children by authority figures demanding vows of allegiance.)

Dobson added that the Girl Scouts are “pushing a philosophy — a philosophy that includes humanism and radical feminism.”

Moreover, a group of conservative families in Crawford, Texas organized a boycott of the group and its delicious Thin Mints a year ago.

The furor was started [in February 2004] by the leader of the anti-abortion group Pro-Life Waco, who sent out e-mails and ran ads on a Christian radio station urging people to boycott Girl Scout cookies because of the “cozy relationship” between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood.

Parents were upset to learn that the local Girl Scout organization had given a “woman of distinction award” last year to a Planned Parenthood executive.

For that matter, in January 2001, Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote a hatchet job on the Girl Scouts for National Review, which claimed, among other things, that that the Girl Scouts are under the sway of radical feminists and lesbians. “There are currently 2.7 million Girl Scouts in the U.S.,” Lopez said. “That’s a lot of liberal feminists to look forward to.”

It’s funny; when the ACLU challenged the Boy Scouts’ discriminatory policies, Congress rushed to the group’s defense. For some reason, when the right goes after the Girl Scouts, lawmakers seem a lot less interested.

I should rank you higher on my blog roll.

Being both sane and, at-least-reasonably-well-informed are rarities.

  • Typical of the wingnuts…..

    I did find the name of the anti-abortion group a bit amusing:

    Anti-abortion group Pro-Life-Waco

    Maybe they should add a “k”.

  • I have myself boycotted Girl Scout cookies on occasion because everything except the Thin Mints tastes like spackeling compound. By the same token, I’ve often bought them purely as a gesture of support for the organization. Now I intend to buy as many as I can at every opportunity, and encourage my friends to do the same.

    What the heck, I can always give them to the guys in the tech department. They’ll eat anything.

    What exactly is the complaint here? That Girl Scout training turns out women who are smart, self-sufficient and productive? Ooooo, how terrible. Sounds like the wacko right are having wet dreams about thousands of Hilary Clintons in crisply starched uniforms and weeping bitter tears about it.

    Why, oh why, won’t they just pipe down and crawl back to their subservient kitchens and bedrooms and stop trying to interfere with man’s work? Oh sin, oh fie, oh horror.

  • I had a short stint in the Brownies when I was a wee little one. I thought I would be doing the cool things my older brother got to do in the boy scouts. After a couple of months, I quit out of shear boredom. It ssems the Girl Scouts have taken a turn for the better. Good for them. But why all the backlash? God forbid we produce strong, free thinking women. Does the no child left behind act include stifling the minds of young girls?

  • Nothing is as frightening to a fundie male of any religion as an intelligent, free-ranging, free-thinking female. Consistently, women are accused of being potentially disruptive because of their womanly powers to fog mens minds and make them lose control and respect in the eyes of their fellow males and in the eyes of God. Women must be controlled and the earlier the better. Their beauty must be hidden and their intelligence must be subverted. Their accomplishments must be underrated and their potential must be constrained.

    The degree’s to which men are afraid of women varies greatly, but many, many men are absolutely freaked out by the thought of unfettered females.

    Dobson is one of them. Ms. Lopez has lost her way.

  • I think anyone that can be against or talk against girl scouts need to get a life. The people, mainly men, that talk bad about girl scout are just afraid of Girls growing up and getting power in this male dominated world. Men have always counsidered them selves better but the thing is they are not! I spent 11 years as a girl scout and plan to become a girl scout leader.

    -Girl Scouts where girls grow strong-

  • I can’t beleive anyone thinks GS is a feminist training ground… don’t you all know that most of the leaders are straight women from nuclear families, looking for a way to spend more time with their daughters?? Go find something else to be paranoid about. Smart girls and women aren’t all feminist, lesbian, liberal, and don’t all come from scouting, either.
    Buy those GS cookies to support the local girls in their pursuits of crafts, camping, and service projects. The overworked soccer moms running the troop need your support.

  • I am a Gold Award Girl Scout, was one of their camp counselors and up until last year was a troop leader for my daughters. After researching the National Girl Scout Council, I closed my troop last May and have now joined the boycott against Girl Scouts. You call us paranoid, but that is not the case. 90% of Girl Scouts is fantanstic. Unfortunately the Girl Scouts are beginning a huge political Movement with their new advocacy campaign. Check out their website for details. They plan to affect all national, state, and local legislation, policies and ideas that have anything to do with girls. This is in their own words, not conservative right wing paranoia. While most of the things they advocate for are great (obesity problems in children, more math & science for girls, etc.) by their association with groups like planned parenthood and choosing keynote speakers like Johnetta Cole and Kavita Ramdas, they show their allegiance to both abortion and gay rights. I boycott the Girl Scouts simply because I do not wish to financially support a movement that will fight for issues contrary to my beliefs. That would be like asking you to donate money to Focus on the Family. I support my local Girl Scout troops by donating money directly to the troop where it will benefit the girls and not go to the National Council.

  • It’s funny; when the ACLU challenged the Boy Scouts’ discriminatory policies, Congress rushed to the group’s defense. For some reason, when the right goes after the Girl Scouts, lawmakers seem a lot less interested.What would you have the lawmakers do? What lawsuits are being brought against the GSUSA?

  • I recently resigned from being a Daisy Girl Scout Leader for many reasons. I feel that when they are saying No Girls Left Behind, they are not telling the full truth. In the Leader meetings I attended they were informing us at each meeting that they were funded by United Way. We could only raise money in certain ways, because they would lose United Way’s funding. They would cover up how they were raising their money to keep United way funding them. Even with this going on they were telling us they could not opt kids out, becuase of their funding was low. The girls that did not have money to buy uniforms just had to do with out. As for the Planned Parenthood, I think that is some thing that should be left up to the parents of children to teach their children, not the Girl Scouts. Iam glad to see people standing together and speaking out against the Girl Scouts and what they are teaching our children.

  • As a Brownie leader, I’ve just got to say – huh? I, personally, am not trying to pass on any type of politics to my girls or indoctrinate them into any particular lifestyle, etc. As far as I know leaders aren’t even made aware of where the national organizations stands on any issue. Our intent is to give girls some tools that will help them become strong, confident women who can be successful no matter where they end up. Craft projects, field trips, badge activities (which include science, environmental, art, history, home-making and interpersonal relationship topics) and even selling cookies have no more political motive than to teach leadership and problem-solving techniques, build friendships, expose girls the world around them. Believe me, keeping 7-year-old girls from wounding each other emotionally every 5 seconds is all the politics I can handle.

  • The only thing that is sinister and diabolically evil about the girl scouts is my being forced to answer the door and stare into those sad big doe eyes standing outside in the cold selling their cookies right after christmas every year…evil evile evil wanton and wicked… so I am fighting back and only bought 15 boxes this year…the same monthly fee as my health club membership that I don’t need either…I am cutting back on everyhting accept my waisteline!
    Waist not want not I say.

  • The Girl Scouts do not currently have a sex education program, so I don’t know what all the fuss is about with Planned Parenthood affiliations. It’s not like Planned Parenthood employees give lectures to troops. There are some things GSUSA does think are best left to parents (or teachers, as the case may often be). The program goals in scouting, in addition to the Promise and Law, revolve around self confidence, helping others and treating them with respect, and community service. The fact that they are secular creates more opportunities for girls of all religions to join, as the organization believes that religion can be an important part of a girl’s life (girls can even earn a badge for it). In regards to the comment about funding – each council is funded differently, though it seems a goodly number of them are funding through the United Way (I know mine is). While both Girl Scouts and the United Way prohibit certain kinds of fundraising, partly due to United Way’s fundraising efforts and partly due to safety restrictions, individual Girl Scout troops are still encouraged to partcipate in fundraisers, particularly ones that encourage girls to take an active role in in how their money is earned and spent. It’s this money that allows the troop to have activities, go on field trips, participate in Servcie Unit events, etc. I agree that it’s sad when an organization is prohibited by grant restrictions from doing other fundraising, but that’s a concern for any non-profit, including the Boy Scouts.

    What one also has to remember is that each girl’s experience will be shaped by the other girls in her troop and her leaders. Each adult volunteer will have different interests and experiences and will lead their troop accordingly, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the Girl Scout mission and doesn’t compromise the safety of the girls. So some troops may be very focused on crafts or home-making skills, while others will be more likely to go camping or do science projects. As for girls wanting their leaders to be called “counsellors” or “advisors”, that comment is misleading – each age level has a balance of responsibilities between girls and adults. Obviously when the girls are very young, their leaders will be doing all or most of the planning and executing of activities. As the girls grow older, they’re encouraged to take a more active role in their scouting experience, so that when they reach junior high and high school ages, they are deciding on their own what they want to do based on their individual interests, with the adults taking a more advisory role so that the girls aren’t totally on their own.

    To quickly touch upon the Planned Parenthood affiliation once more, I wonder what else people can expect? Women’s organizations have got to stick together in order to make their voices heard. Plus, the Girl Scouts are very firm in their belief that every woman should be treated with respect and friendship. In addition, being pro-choice is NOT the same as being pro-abortion, a mistake all too commonly made by conservatives. Supporting a woman’s right to choose her own path and giving her the tools to make an informed decision is what Girl Scouts is all about.

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