Salon.com > Girl Scouts

The Girl Scout haters’ biggest mistake

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:39:00 +0000

Last week Indiana State Rep. Bob Morris claimed, in an open letter magnificently disdainful of facts, that Girls Scouts of the USA financially supports Planned Parenthood and is a force of pro-sex, pro-abortion, pro-homo indoctrination, determined to reach our American daughters. Since his original refusal to sign an Indiana statehouse resolution honoring the 100th anniversary of the GSUSA, Morris has made a nonsensical apology, saying that he “should never have written the letter,” while holding to the counterfactual argument that the GSUSA is partnered with Planned Parenthood.

The right still hates the Girl Scouts

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:45:00 +0000

Like alligators in the sewers or aspirin between the knees, certain memes are too stupid to die. For example: the extreme right's continued depiction of green-clad girls as abortion-hungry, traditional values-subverting agents of Satan.

On Tuesday, Indiana State Rep. Bob Morris made headlines for pooh-poohing a resolution celebrating the organization Juliette Gordon Low founded 100 years ago, the one that teaches girls to "make the world a better place." Umbrage mightily taken, Morris declared the Girl Scouts were "quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood" and have been "subverted in the name of liberal progressive politics and the destruction of traditional American family values" by "liberal progressives" promoting "feminists, lesbians or Communists." He also, big surprise, worked in the words "indoctrinate" and "radically pro-abortion." Damn, when I was a Girl Scout, all we ever did was make yarn dolls and sing folk songs.

The right’s latest target: Girl Scout cookies

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:35:00 +0000

For many of us, this is the most wonderful time of the year. The holidays are over, but there's still plenty of time to get the taxes done. Snow remains a pleasant novelty. Best of all – the Girl Scouts are selling cookies. But there are always dark forces conspiring to stand between slavering devotees and their Do-Si-Dos. In years past, they took aim at the cookies for trans fats, so the Girl Scouts eliminated them. This year, the critics are after something bigger: the Girl Scouts' politics.

The conservative hand-wringing started back in the spring, when antiabortion forces rallied their troops against the organization for its incredibly casual association with Planned Parenthood. Now, just in time for Chalet Crème season, those alleged ties to Planned Parenthood have been enough to get a crackpot in St. Louis to call for a boycott, forcing the Scout's East Missouri CEO to meekly promise, "Our girls have nothing to do with this organization." Also, a Catholic church in Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., ousted the Scouts from meeting on its property because of the Planned Parenthood "controversy." No cookies for you, Saint Timothy's!

Is reality TV good for girls?

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000

We all know how to raise girls with healthy self-esteem. Encourage them to be physically active. Set a positive example by showing them you believe in yourself. And let them watch reality TV. Wait, what?

OK, it's not quite that simple. In surprising-to-no-one news this week, a new study from as reliable source as the Girl Scout Research Institute found plenty to confirm all your worst fears about girls who define themselves as "regular" reality watchers. After surveying 1,100 girls aged between 11 and 17 nationwide, the Girl Scouts found that compared with their non-reality TV watching peers, reality fans are likelier to agree that gossiping is a normal part of girls' relationships (78 percent vs. 54 percent), that girls are naturally "catty" with each other (68 percent vs. 50 percent) and that it's "hard to trust" girls (63 percent vs. 50 percent).

Regular reality-TV viewers also report spending a significantly larger amount of time on their appearance and are far likelier to agree with statements like "Being mean earns you more respect than being nice." Apparently, reality fans don't join the Girl Scouts to make friends; they join to win.