Goodbye, Boy Scouts

It was only a matter of time:

NEW YORK (AP) — In its latest momentous policy shift, the Boy Scouts of America will admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year and establish a new program for older girls based on the Boy Scout curriculum that enables them to aspire to the coveted Eagle Scout rank.

Why must girls be allowed into the Boy Scouts? Isn’t there a Girl Scouts for them? These are the obvious questions. The answers are more complicated.
Some background, first. I’m an Eagle Scout, as are both of my younger brothers and several of my closest friends. I was in Order of the Arrow, was SPL of the best troop in Lake Superior Council, attended the ’81 National Scout Jamboree, hiked at Philmont, and taught the guides at Okpik a thing or five about wilderness survival. Scouting was one of the most formative experiences of my life, and I am still close to most the eight guys that made up our Senior Patrol in the early 80s. But I did not encourage my sons to become scouts. The reason is that even 10 years ago, scouting was obviously not what is was when I was a kid. Scouting was ill then. Today it is dying.
Now, the real answers to why girls must be allowed into the Boy Scouts, which are two:

1) Boys are not allowed to have anything that’s exclusively theirs. Girls have girl scouts as a ‘safe space’, but excluding girls from Boy Scouts is deemed oppressive and sexist and all sorts of other bad names by those dedicated to destroying masculinity. As a scout, the most valuable lessons I learned, like teamwork and leadership and how to give* a good snuggie, would have been impossible amidst the sexual tension resulting from the presence of teen girls. This is why under SocJus rules**, those girls must be introduced. It’s not about fairness to girls as much as it is about denying boys a place to come to manhood.
2) The scouts are a dying organization. Membership in the Boy Scouts topped out in 1972 and has been falling since. BSA has a payroll full of ‘professionals’ to meet, and those on the payroll are perfectly willing to change the organization (or rather, expand the customer base) to keep the paychecks flowing. Remember, the primary objective of every organization, whether the scouts or a business or a union or a civil rights league, is to remain in business.
Of course, there are a couple of arguments made by the kinds of people who think girls-in-boy-scouts is a great idea but are not willing to cop to the real answers.
The first is that the girls will be in a separate organization. Yeah, that will last 2 seconds, as ‘separate but equal’ is never a winning strategy. It demands twice as many leaders, twice as much overhead. Dying organizations don’t have extra leadership waiting on the bench so troops will be de-facto combined almost immediately.
But the second argument is the one that guarantees the death of the BSA within a decade: that the Girl Scouts suck. It’s true. The Boy Scouts have been about camping and the Girl Scouts are about fashion. Why is that? Because it’s what attracts your average teen girl. To attract and keep girls, who are generally not interested in sleeping in an igloo or using a map and compass to find a “lost” lake, Boy Scout programs will immediately begin to include the kinds of activities that girls like. In a decade, the Boy Scouts will have a new name and no boys.
Do I lament the death of the Boy Scouts? Not really. It’s not the name of the organization but the experiences that are of import. There are other organizations that can provide those experiences to boys. I just hope that the next Boy Scouts can figure out a way to eliminate ‘professional’ leaders and keep the SJWs far away, or they will die in turn.
* and receive, a lesson learned first.
** SocJus rules first demand the admittance of gay scouts and scoutmasters***, then ‘trans’ scouts. It was only a matter of time once the sexual disorientation dike was breached.
*** Now there’s a great idea: gay guys camping with teen boys.