From: WAHowland@AOL.COM
Date: Mon Jun 12 2000 - 09:27:04 CDT
Gee, see what happens when you call sexism out in the open? <G>
I have been SA for several yrs and the SM for summer camp for the past 4 yrs
(two different troops). The only reason I can't do it this year is because
I'm burning a week of scarce vaca time on a trip to Philmont Training Center
<G>. I have never heard of "worried about seeing feet in the KYBO.' This is
hilarious... and ludicrous. Do these men ever listen to themselves say this
stuff?
Before I started doing this I DID hear the BS about "We don't want a woman on
camping trips because the boys wanta run around in their underwear (or
less)/pee in the woods/swear/talk rough about girls." (Though never from
anyone in the troops I've been associated with.)
The obvious answer is that YP expressly forbids the underwear thing and
provides for privacy for youth and adults, LNT and basic sanitation forbids
the peeing around the campsite, and the Oath and Law pretty much takes care
of the rest. A leader that can't extrapolate appropriate behavior on a campout
from these three resources needs to check his (and it's always been "his",
in my experience) committment to the Oath and Law and realistically look at
his own suitability as an adult role model.
Many posters have accurately quoted SM resources, like the handbook, and the
Oath and Law, and noted that nowhere does it say somehthing like "...and be
able to pee and write your name with it, " or "... and biologically father
offspring." Although come to think of it, there are probably men who aren't
able to do either, and can be excellent role models anyway <G>.
Others have noted that in this day and age, unlike in our fathers' time, boys
will grow up to work with and for women in far greater numbers than ever
before; also, that boys are being brought up in households where women
provide a healthy hunk of the family income and are more active outside the
home than our mothers. My son was astounded when he was in little League and
I reminisced that I had aleays wanted to play ball but that I was not allowed
to when I was a girl soley because I was a girl. He said, "But you would have
been GOOD!" (Gawd bless 'im, a tot of only 8 at the time.<G>) In his way, he
thought it was wasteful to not have the use of a good player, and he was
right. Same with Scouting.
We would do our boys a major disservice, community standards or not, by not
providing them adult leadersip and role models of both genders. We would
actually be setting them behind if we were explicit about excluding females
from any position based soley on gender. Just as we teach them leadership
skills, we should teach them skills for living in the culture they're in, and
that includes recognizing and working with and for females as authority
figures and role models of all the points of the Oath & Law... helping other
people at all times, being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly... you get
the drift.
YiS
Auntie Beans
SA T47 Sandwich MA
Cape Cod & Islands Council
Abake MiSaNaKi Lodge #393
NSJ 1997 Nat'l Health & Safety and going in 01!
I useta be an Eagle...
<wahowland@iname.com>
