Introducing The Next Generation Of Leaders And Thinkers

Why Is One Of The Most Sexist Systems Still Running?

The Herald Express, a local newspaper based in Torquay recently released an article talking about a young girl who was kicked out of Scouts due to her, well, being a female. This set off an excessive argument within the comments section amongst locals about whether gender should control what activities we take part in, but it could be that it’s a sexist system altogether.

Boy Scouts started in 1908, twenty years before Girl Guiding began, and even when Girl Guiding began sexism was still well and moving. In between their birth, women got the vote and Marie Curie became the first ever woman to win the Nobel Prize, an award which had been running since 1888.

Since 1908, the equality movement has come so far and women are now allowed to lead more of a life than ever. But why is this blatantly sexist movement allowed to be so open and obvious?

There is a big discussion on the internet about how girls are allowed to join Scouts but not vice-versa, so this hits the problem on the nail. But Lucky74, an inactive member of a forum on Digitalspy has other ideas on how to fix the problem; ‘So really it would be better to revamp the guides and make it more fun, make it for girls and make the scouts for boys.’ But Lucky74 is missing a key element; girls are not born wanting to make scuba bracelets and boys are not born wanting to play video games, we teach these gender roles.

Does this have an impact on how boys and girls grow up? Constantly set apart from each other and making that line more defined between gender, which a lot of people argue shouldn’t even be there in the first place. I decided to go back to the source and look back at the comments. Countless women with their job set as ‘yummy mummy’ on Facebook telling it how they think it is: ‘Let boys do their thing and girls theirs.’ This seems to be a common opinion within a lot of people commenting on things like this.

But the answer becomes more blatant to all of this: Some people still believe that male homosexuality isn’t something you were born with, instead, something you’re influenced into or choose.

A lot of straight males are brought up under this ignorance that if you do the slightest thing that is stereotypically associated with females, you become less manly. That’s how they think you ‘become’ gay.

How many boys did you hear in secondary school use bent as an insult before the other male turns around and tells them to ‘f*** off’? Why would the other male turn around and say anything else when he is told on uncertain terms by his mate, the pope and most religious people that he is disgusting and wrong.

But then I received a link to ‘UK Navigators’ – a group for both genders. They say they welcome ‘all races, religions and genders.’ They do a wide range of things; from arts and crafts to rock climbing. They are the individuals which saw the problem with Scouts and Guides and actively making a change.

Related Posts