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A major shift from the Boy Scouts of America:
Irving, Texas – October 11, 2017 – Today, the Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors unanimously approved to welcome girls into its iconic Cub Scout program and to deliver a Scouting program for older girls that will enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout. The historic decision comes after years of receiving requests from families and girls, the organization evaluated the results of numerous research efforts, gaining input from current members and leaders, as well as parents and girls who've never been involved in Scouting – to understand how to offer families an important additional choice in meeting the character development needs of all their children.
"This decision is true to the BSA's mission and core values outlined in the Scout Oath and Law. The values of Scouting – trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example – are important for both young men and women," said Michael Surbaugh, the BSA's Chief Scout Executive. "We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children. We strive to bring what our organization does best – developing character and leadership for young people – to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the next generation of leaders."
[...] Starting in the 2018 program year, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts. Existing packs may choose to establish a new girl pack, establish a pack that consists of girl dens and boy dens or remain an all-boy pack. Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls. Using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts program, the organization will also deliver a program for older girls, which will be announced in 2018 and projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank. This unique approach allows the organization to maintain the integrity of the single gender model while also meeting the needs of today's families.
I'll admit it, I was a little surprised by the announcement. As a longtime member of the BSA and an Eagle Scout, I find this extremely interesting. I know some who are dead set against it, and others who are totally for it. My personal opinion is that it will be a good thing, both for the BSA and for the young men and women who become part of the organization.
The biggest loser in all of this will probably be the Girl Scouts. I can see their membership numbers dwindling rapidly if/when this takes off.
As a side note, Scouting has been co-ed in many countries for decades.
Both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts have seen decreasing membership in recent years, and both have been trying to find ways to increase their membership. In this context, they now seem to be butting heads:
The Boy Scouts will soon include girls, and not everyone's happy about it.
The 107-year-old organization announced Wednesday that younger girls will be allowed to join Cub Scouts and that older girls will be eligible to earn the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout.
[...] For months, Girl Scouts USA had a notion BSA would try to start recruiting girls. In August, Buzzfeed News obtained a strongly worded letter in which GSUSA President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan accused the BSA of courting girls to boost falling enrollment numbers.
From the letter:
We are confused as to why, rather than working to appeal to the 90 percent of boys who are not involved in BSA programs, you would choose to target girls.
What are your thoughts? Were you ever a boy scout, or a girl scout, or did they ever affect you in any way? And do you think the BSA should be praised for opening their doors to girls or should they be castigated for 'targeting' girls who would be better off staying with their own kind?
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday October 13 2017, @04:03AM (11 children)
Well, probably. I suppose BSA could issue a merit badge for virginity, although it would be hard for a boy to prove that he's lived up to it. I wonder what its icon would be.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @05:34AM
We mandate gene therapy for all kids at birth, adding new chemical signals and receptors to the genitalia. The new DNA causes a permanent color change when you first have sex.
We can use the green florescent protein as an indicator.
Note that the change can be non-local. Signal molecules can be transported via the bloodstream from the genitals to where we want a color change. The part that does the color change can be a pattern, kind of like a tattoo. For example, the word "FUCKER" could appear on the forehead. This lets the scout leaders know at the next meeting, without needing an invasive and improper genital examination.
By taking a major source of dishonesty out of dating, this also helps to keep the scouts honest.
If we use different signal molecules for the penis and each orifice, we can even be more specific. For example, the forehead could read "COCKSUCKER" or "BUTTFUCKER" as needed.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @10:09AM (1 child)
"I wonder what its icon would be."
A game controller?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday October 13 2017, @02:21PM
A stylized DnD wizard or if the graphics arts team freak, the text "/r9k/" would probably do among today's youth.
If we're going to shitpost controversial merit badges I'm thinking of one with the artwork of a simple "red pill".
There's a small subculture of scouts or parents where mom owns a digital embroidery machine or has access at a makerspace or WTF, and somehow they end up with funny/meme fake/artistic merit badges, I've recently seen red MAGA hat merit badges, several variations on topless or nude women presumably the anti-virginity merit badge, the puking in the toilet merit badge for drunkenness, many on the topic of odiferous or flammable flatulence, marijuana leaves of course, sunken canoes, cryptozoologist and several variations on ghost hunting merit badge, a "started a forest fire" merit badge, a dozen variations on "asshole merit badge", many variations on "I burned dinner over a campfire" theme ... every troop has some goofball with a collection of "meme merit badges" its worth finding him for a laugh. The funniest one he had was a "worked all the way to 5 pm" merit badge, LOL.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by RedBear on Friday October 13 2017, @11:27AM (6 children)
Don't even joke about that. Virginity tests are complete and total nonsense for either gender, and one of the tools used to oppress women and girls throughout the world.
This "Adam Ruins Everything" video about the hymen explains in detail exactly why there is no such thing as a valid "virginity test" (superstition and religious fundamentalist BS notwithstanding) and such things are a human rights violation. I feel strongly that every human should understand and spread the truth of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ikXim4wevc [youtube.com]
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 13 2017, @02:08PM (3 children)
Useless virginity tests are the wrong approach.
Use chastity protection devices instead. Designed using modern tech. Maybe even chastity protecting drugs. Boys and girls could be trusted to be together without doing or even thinking about naughty things. In time the entire world could stop doing naughty things. What a wonderful world it would be.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Friday October 13 2017, @02:45PM (1 child)
By Everlast!
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @07:07PM
CALL THE LOCKSMITH!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday October 13 2017, @02:46PM
Just have her the fleshy part of her nose surgically amputated at birth. Problem solved.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @07:19PM (1 child)
The hymen is real. Those "virgins" without one are lying. There are multiple motives to do so, but the hymen evolved because it signals value: a lack of disease and a lower risk of cuckoldry.
I get that you don't like this. I get that you want to deny that essentially all women come with a hymen, but that isn't the reality. Women have an anti-tamper seal to ensure freshness.
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Monday October 23 2017, @04:14AM
Oh my non-existent god. Go DIAFF, misogynist troll.
The hymen is not a "seal". Each and every hymen has a hole in it to let out menstrual fluids, otherwise millions of young women would die every year from blood poisoning due to the build-up of menstrual fluids behind the hymen, and you would hear stories of young women routinely having a bizarre sudden explosion of blood from the pressure finally rupturing their hymen. Have you ever heard a story like that in human history? Nope. Because the hymen is designed so that can't happen. There's no such thing as doctors having to puncture the hymen to save a pubescent girl's life, because it already has a natural hole in it. It does very little to keep anything inside, which by definition means that it also does very little to keep anything out.
Having a hole means that there are multiple ways in which a "virgin" with a supposedly "intact" hymen (by someone's arbitrary definition of what "intact" means) can be impregnated. All you have to do is somehow get a viable sperm cell past the partial barrier without doing egregious, visibly obvious damage. Et voilá, a pregnant "virgin". It also means that by the reality of variable human biology, some women will have smaller holes in the hymen, and others will completely naturally have larger holes through no fault of their own. Some women will also have larger vaginal openings and stretchier hymens, to the point that some will be able to have penetrative sex for years without appearing to have a "torn" hymen.
So then it comes down to a completely arbitrary decision by the examining physician as to whether any given female has a small enough or tight enough opening to qualify as still being a "virgin". That's not science, it's superstitious insanity. Where are the published specs on exactly how small or how tight a hole has to be in order to qualify for a virginity medal? There aren't any, because the whole idea is BS. You might just as easily try to measure the tightness of a male anus to see if he's ever been on the receiving end of anal sex. Anyone should be able to see that would be a ludicrous idea. Using any measurement of the vaginal opening or the hymen as a virginity test is equally ludicrous.
The hymen can be torn by something as simple as doing the splits or riding a bike. I've never seen a girl in western society that doesn't do at least one of those things many times while growing up. And let's not even talk about the idea of a human female of any age inserting a foreign object into the vagina, thus completely negating the idea that the state of her hymen could be used as proof she engaged in intercourse with a human male. That could NEVER happen for any reason. *cough* tampons *cough* masturbationaids *cough* fingers *cough* Excuse me.
Every male on this planet that is convinced the hymen is some kind of pop-top bottle cap anti-tamper proof-of-penile-penetration hermetic seal is insane and an active danger to half the human species.
There are two different logical issues here that you can drive the planet Jupiter through.
First, you want to claim that the human hymen "evolved" so that modern day doctors can use artificial devices to examine it and arbitrarily decide that it is or isn't "intact". If you thought about that for even a microsecond you'd realize how silly the whole idea is. Show me a single mammalian species besides superstitious humans that gives one rats ass whether any female of the species has an "intact" hymen. If it were really something that evolution provided selection pressure for, it would be a big deal to many mammalian species. And we've already talked about how there is no such thing as an "intact" hymen as far as science is concerned. So, total illogical nonsense.
Second, the female can easily be exposed to STDs in various ways while still technically being a "virgin" as far as penile-vaginal penetration is concerned, and cuckoldry can occur at any point from moments after (or even before, see above) the first sex act between husband and wife, so the state of the hymen is ultimately irrelevant to either of those issues. An examination of the hymen can't even guarantee the parentage of the first born child, much less have any bearing on any of the succeeding 15 or 20 offspring a woman might be capable of delivering during her lifetime.
What you're really saying is that certain incredibly ignorant modern humans have mistakenly interpreted the existence and variable qualities of the human female hymen as having a certain "value", even though the "value" it supposedly provides is superstitious, anti-scientific nonsense. I am in total agreement with that.
I get that this makes you uncomfortable, and that you want your mind-bendingly misogynist "freshness-seal" mythos to be true, but it simply isn't. There is NO science to support your assertions whatsoever, and a mountain of scientific evidence that negates it.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @11:46PM
They have one already. It's called "Eagle Scout."