Does the Southern Hemisphere still have Boy Scouts?

[Meadmaker]

Some years back, the Boy Scouts of America announced that they would start accepting girls.

And they have. Some 6,000 girls have now become Eagle Scouts.

And yesterday, the Boy Scouts of America announced they would henceforth be "Scouting, America".

But Boy Scouts is an international thing. Have other countries started letting girls in? For those of you on the other side of the world, are there Boy Scouts where you live, and if so, are they boys, or are there now girls allowed? When there are international Jamborees (I think that's the right term for their big gathering) are girls from the US allowed to come?

I did see an article from a conservative youtuber I sometimes watch that thought this was awful, but it seems to me that it's a good idea. I have mixed feelings about it, I must admit. I think there's a place for sex segregated activities, and I would hope that within BSA they would still be allowed to have some activities that were sex segregated, but, on balance, I think it makes sense to include girls in scouting.

Now, the Girl Scouts aren't happy about it at all, because, despite similar names, they are two different organizations, and the Girl Scouts were quite concerned that a lot of girls would rather join the Boy Scouts than the Girl Scouts because, overall, the Boy Scouts did more fun things.

(Anyway, it didn't quite fit in any other thread, but I was curious.)

[President Bush]

A (mostly) Southern Hemisphere country has about eighteen times the times the number of Scouts the US has according to this map.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerakan_Pramuka_Indonesia

The Pramuka Movement incorporates both boys and girls. It is an educational movement through Scouting activities, the education being directed toward a new, just, peaceful and prosperous Indonesian community based on the national ideology. Activities of the boys and girls are conducted separately from one another. They have joint activities whenever possible and necessary. Management of the Scout Movement is carried out by the National Quarter (Kwartir Nasional or Kwarnas).

[arthwollipot]

I was a Scout. We didn't call them "boy" scouts because girls weren't Scouts, they were Guides.

Scouting taught me three things: knots, bullying, and why camping sucks.

[Admin]

For those of you on the other side of the world, are there Boy Scouts where you live, and if so, are they boys, or are there now girls allowed? When there are international Jamborees (I think that's the right term for their big gathering) are girls from the US allowed to come?

Girls don't join, as Arth said -= they join Girl Guides.

They still hold jamborees and the NZ-only ones attract about 4000 kids each year, so they're still fairly big here. I'm not sure what they do with the girls in international events. I was in Sea Scouts, which was highly cool - we got to sail yachts and drive motorboats.

Point on American Scouts - they still don't accept atheists.

[Meadmaker]

Point on American Scouts - they still don't accept atheists.

Yeah...I forgot about that part. To be fair, not many people in the organization care. When I googled the subject, one of the first hits was an unofficial page for atheist scouts giving advice on how to navigate scouting as an atheist. Basically, they said avoid troops sponsored by churches, and give some sort of mamby pamby discussion of morality in general instead of religion or God if you were ever asked about it. However, I've read of cases in the past where some kid was denied an Eagle because they ran into a hard line leader who stuck to a rigid interpretation of the "God" part, and the kid refused to lie.

Overall, I think Scouting is a great thing, in principle, but for any given child, it's only as good as the local leader, and the local leader is a volunteer who is either in it for his own kid, or has some sort of vision that he's trying to impose on the world, one boy at a time. I think they've at least gotten better at realizing there are pedophiles in the world and keeping a better eye out for them than they used to.

[Meadmaker]

This fellow over at National Review doesn't like it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-b ... 5b7a&ei=12

The truth is, I'm quite sympathetic to what he is saying, except for one thing, but that one thing is at the core of his argument. It's from the very first sentence:

"The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was founded 114 years ago by men who were concerned about the disappearance of traditional boyhood and the cultivation of masculine virtues as America rapidly urbanized. "

The autho'rs premise seems to be that the cultivation of masculine virtues can only be performed in an all male environment. I don't see it that way. Indeed, I think it may be better achieved in the presence of women. (Or..girls, as the case may be.)

[Admin]

I've got nothing against Scouts - I was one and my oldest boy was in Cubs (our junior Scouts) and Scouts for a decade or so.

He learned some very useful skills in Scouts and overcame his fear of heights. There was precious little toxic masculinity on show, and the pedos had long been kicked out over here.

[stanky]

My dad didn't encourage us to join. His father forbid it, due to the dehumanizing effect of the uniform.
The scouts I knew tended to be very straight laced and authoritarian leaning. Training for the military or law enforcement. We hadn't heard about the pedos back then. I didn't know about the 'no atheists' until now. I think we learned more camping skills by ditching the adults. They always make stuff slow and boring and difficult.

[President Bush]

Where I grew up was very pretty rural Wisconsin, all farmland and old woods where we could go looking for imaginary abandoned German prison camps. Scouting wasn't anywhere on the radar screen.

[Admin]

Where I grew up was very pretty rural Wisconsin, all farmland and old woods where we could go looking for imaginary abandoned German prison camps. Scouting wasn't anywhere on the radar screen.

When I was a younger kid we lived at a beach that had been used as target practice for NZ's air force during WWII. They'd set up targets on a low hill at the end of the beach, so any dig recovered dozens of bullets.

That was cool.