My take on what happened. Boy Scouts of America started allowing females to join a number of years ago. They did this to avoid bankruptcy. Boys no longer have a male-only scouting organization. Boy Scouts of America lost funding due to its homophobic attitudes, so they figured they needed support from allowing girls. Girl Scouts, on the other hand, has never admitted male members to this date. They don't need to in order to stay in business. They never have had a homophobic attitude, so they get plenty of financial support still. Girl Scouts have also marketed their iconic cookie products for decades. Boy Scouts never had an iconic product of their own to raise funding. America is plagued with social Leftism. The "silly old-fashioned notion" of having something "male only" is "sexist", "toxically masculine" or a "cardinal sin" to some. Who suffers in the end? Male youth and the parents of male youth.
Yeah well the kid diddlers had a big part in the down fall. My son was in the scouts for a while and it seemed like a constant fund raiser. That being said my kids lived a semi rural life on a hobby farm so they had unlimited outdoor activities.
Apparently, adult staffers (man or woman) didn't do anything bad to female members in the Girl Scouts. The Boys Scouts may have lost male membership (at one time all membership there was male only) out of parents' fear of pedos. It seems like boys these days aren't safe in any establishment for youth. This is why mothers are sheltering them at home to make soy boys out of America's sons. These are dark days for many to raise sons. Scouting is more than outdoor activities, however. It could be about science, police forensics, medicine, civics, business, culture, engineering, space exploration and other academic subjects as well as personal conduct and social graces. Youth may find their futures through scouting.
Whoe you best watch blaming mothers sheltering sons. Try blaming men not showing up to be fathers. That said there are many a in home father's not showing up to be fathers as well . Now when our son started boy scouts ,hubby was half way across the country working. That was my fault, I went out to Calorado ,tried to find a home...Then in one week I came back to nearly kiss the ground in NYS. NYS that should tell you how bad it was and my understanding of that states future. This said I took him to meetings, I did a wood working badge class. I did a potluck dinner. Out of this country group it was all moms save 2 dads and the Pac leader. Dads did show for the camp outs. BTW it was the same thing for the little league, 4H,and karate. . Now I'm 64 so this was quiet a while ago. For us ,hubby was here after 2yrs of once a month and managed the camp overs and fishing trip. The other dads were at home. It was mom's at the fairs staying with their kids that had to live at the fair grounds with livestock. Now with wrestling hubby did it all,track for daughter,hubby. I couldn't tolerate either and for the ski team we both showed up,even though neither ski. So when the men do not show up don't blame the woman because not all woman were raised the way I was,yet many are still showing up.
A number of things seemed to have ruined American boy scouting (as a male-only youth organization) as America has known it for over 100 years. Bad press: homophobic attitudes, banning homosexual adult leaders, reports of child molestation by adult leaders Loss of funding: mainly attributed to bad media No commercial endeavors: no iconic products for fundraising; the fact is, the Boy Scouts never had a national iconic commercial product of its own like the Girls Scout had with cookies for fundraising; why wasn't there ever a commercial fundraising product like an official Boy Scout Compass that could parallel with the Girl Scout cookies? Would people buy Boy Scout compasses peddled in public the way they do Girl Scout cookies enough to make it a feasible fundraiser? Cookies are food items, consumables, however. People tend to buy yummy consumables repeatedly. The Boy Scouts might have done well then to market a consumable product like root beer, a very high-quality root beer under its own trademark, as a fundraiser. Root beer does have somewhat of a masculine appeal as a consumable just as cookies have a feminine appeal. Then again, root beer has to be refrigerated and it's not ready to consume on the streets as cookies are unless the boy scouts selling them would have them in ice chests but that would add overhead. Maybe an official Boy Scout Jerky, beef jerky. Jerky has manly appeal and can be eaten right on the spot. How about official Boy Scout Dog Biscuits for a boy's best friend? It's a little-to-no-overhead non-perishable consumable that can be sold repeatedly and dogs are very popular to make this fundraising venture feasible. Dog biscuits (in various yummy flavors) will certainly hold up better than iced cookies on hot summer days. I blame the organization itself for its own downfall. We've short-changed American boys in scouting just as we do in public education. Yes, the American family unit is in total disarray these days. The Waltons were my model for an American family.
Why didn't Boy Scouts market something like Boy Scouts Dog Biscuits to generate revenue? Beef, liver, cheese, bacon and chicken flavors for every boy's best friend. The cookies sure kept the Girl Scouts in business. The Boy Scouts was poorly managed. No good business sense. Apparently, girls in scouting were never molested by adult leaders or those leaders did a damn good job of covering it up.
