Five girls in Santa Rosa are insisting on entrance into the regional Boy Scout troop, after having attempted the Girls Scouts in their area and found it not as exciting as they'd like. Some arguments made by parents I find quasi-legitimate, such as the idea of shared tents with both boys and girls, which may actually pose distractions for adolescents, but is easily navigable. Same for the argument that insists the girls will take all of the leadership positions, leaving the boys to fall behind. Easily navigable.
These arguments are just far too heteronormative for my taste, especially the comment made by a scout leader which stated, "Maybe their approach should have been to go to the Girl Scouts and say: Instead of painting our nails and clipping our — whatever they do — to do archery and do climbing. Going through that process.”
I particularly love this, especially since we just finished a module which featured a small segment in Tough Guise that demonstrated how hyper masculine, anti-gay and "man boxed" the Boy Scouts were intended to be. Maybe the inclusion of girls will highlight and compliment the different forms of masculinity, rather than the system now which appears to promote only one type.
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