Girls Will Be Girl Scouts
On the wedge heels of last week's International Women's Wear Day™ comes a celebration of one of the gender's spring-bonnetted forebears, one Juliette Gordon-Low, whose Girl Scouts® was founded on this day March 12, 1912. A woman of profound purpose and beauty (the inner kind), Gordon-Low didn’t trade on her obvious (inner) sexiness to earn her place in the history and/or cook books. An adventurer who traveled the globe at a time when women paddled barefoot about the kitchen tending to the spicy sweet Hot Cross® buns in their ovens, Gordon-Low broadened her horizons and desired to do the same for young girls. After making the platonic acquaintance of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, British founder of both the Boy Scouts® and the auxiliary Girl Guides®, Gordon-Low endeavored to form a similar group on her side of the cement pond. While Baden-Powell’s Girl Guides placed an emphasis on domestic labor and feminine arts, Gordon-Low challenged her charges to master dexterous skills associated with the Boy Scouts, such as camping, canoeing and live animal torture. (This explains why modern women prefer the primitive toileting facilities of rural campgrounds over the luxuries found at 5-star hotels.) Today, the Girl Scouts find themselves with membership of more than 3.2 million girls and adults, spanning 90 countries. To these girls, I say: Bravo, young citizens! You are part of an esteemed history, but be mindful: You can wear the neckerchief and clasp the woggle at your throat with your insignia rightly centered, but if you fail to accessorize your uniform with the proper pink shoes, starry charm bracelet and spangly fuschia purse, you'll never pass muster with Yours Truly Dooley™! Commit yourselves to noble pursuits as envisioned by Juliette Gordon-Low, but do so with fashionable self respect as it may well assist you in the selling of thin, minted cookies door-to-door or at www.girlscouts.org. (I’ll take three boxes!)
On the wedge heels of last week's International Women's Wear Day™ comes a celebration of one of the gender's spring-bonnetted forebears, one Juliette Gordon-Low, whose Girl Scouts® was founded on this day March 12, 1912. A woman of profound purpose and beauty (the inner kind), Gordon-Low didn’t trade on her obvious (inner) sexiness to earn her place in the history and/or cook books. An adventurer who traveled the globe at a time when women paddled barefoot about the kitchen tending to the spicy sweet Hot Cross® buns in their ovens, Gordon-Low broadened her horizons and desired to do the same for young girls. After making the platonic acquaintance of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, British founder of both the Boy Scouts® and the auxiliary Girl Guides®, Gordon-Low endeavored to form a similar group on her side of the cement pond. While Baden-Powell’s Girl Guides placed an emphasis on domestic labor and feminine arts, Gordon-Low challenged her charges to master dexterous skills associated with the Boy Scouts, such as camping, canoeing and live animal torture. (This explains why modern women prefer the primitive toileting facilities of rural campgrounds over the luxuries found at 5-star hotels.) Today, the Girl Scouts find themselves with membership of more than 3.2 million girls and adults, spanning 90 countries. To these girls, I say: Bravo, young citizens! You are part of an esteemed history, but be mindful: You can wear the neckerchief and clasp the woggle at your throat with your insignia rightly centered, but if you fail to accessorize your uniform with the proper pink shoes, starry charm bracelet and spangly fuschia purse, you'll never pass muster with Yours Truly Dooley™! Commit yourselves to noble pursuits as envisioned by Juliette Gordon-Low, but do so with fashionable self respect as it may well assist you in the selling of thin, minted cookies door-to-door or at www.girlscouts.org. (I’ll take three boxes!)