There's No Reason for Boy Scouts to be Exclusively for Boys
- Feb 2, 2017
- 3 min read
I must admit right off the bat, that I have never been a scout. I have no interest in the outdoors or learning survival techniques or any of that. I have a basic understanding of what the scouts do, how they operate, and the prestige that it brings. Recently, there has been a lot of media coverage over whether or not the Scouts should allow inclusion to genders that aren’t male. The scouts on Monday said that they will begin accepting all children, who identify as male. This brings up a plethora of debate over certain societal questions, but one problem remains the highest of priorities. The Scouts should not even consider gender to be a factor for membership.
When talking about the scouts and what the purpose for the Scouts is, it does not become apparent as to why it should be exclusively male. The Boy Scouts of America is a great organization that provides a very important service to young men. It gets them active in nature, teaches them survival skills, and promotes general values and good citizenship. Scouts is the picture of what America should be. So, why would we limit that exclusively to boys? These skills are not gender specific. In fact, it would be a great thing to instill the same qualities and abilities in all kids. As a society, we should treasure these ideals, and support access for all of our children. We could restrict access to Boy Scouts, but it makes no sense to deprive children of an opportunity that will better themselves. To do so would simply be unfair.
Not allowing all children into Scouts puts some at an obvious disadvantage. Being a Boy Scout holds with it a certain status, and those who are excluded from that will not have access to it. One could say that girls have the opportunity to join the Girl Scouts, but the sad truth is that the Boy Scouts are held to a higher prestige than Girl Scouts. That means that a girl with the highest rank in Girl Scouts is seen as less valuable, than a boy, who has achieved Eagle Scout status. There should be no question to whether or not girls should be allowed to at least attempt to become an Eagle Scout; it is unfair for them not to be able to do so. Like in young men, some women will achieve the status and some will not, but I am certain that there is no difference between what a male can do versus what a female can do. To allow women to have the same access to the opportunity is promoting true equality, which should be the goal of every person. Some may say that this causes an issue, because mixing genders could be a safety liability. There can still be separation between genders; the key is the actual access to the titles and the skills.
This is also to say that people of all genders should be allowed in the Girl Scouts as well. Both organizations have accepted those, who claim to identify as the proper gender, but identification should not matter. These organizations offer a valuable experience that would benefit anyone, and should be open to all people. Why force a child to, potentially, lie about themselves to gain access, when we can just include them? This course of action would instill bad qualities, like dishonesty and a lack of self-acceptance, in kids. This will lead to a worse society, instead of promoting the core values that these organizations instill.
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