Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I'm Speechless. Seriously.

UPDATE:

The Girl Scouts of America have issued a statement regarding this matter. It can be found HERE. Thank you, Lord, it appears this was wrong!! I will add the statement from the Girl Scouts at the end of this post. My dear friend Erin found the statement from the Girl Scouts, and I think her for it. I am going to be able to sleep tonight!

ORIGINAL POST:

I am very careful about my blogging style. I have no desire to be a bloggy basher, I have never wanted to go off on rants about politics or current events.

But I am about to.

It takes a lot to disturb me so greatly that I will get on my blog and rant about it, and I am sincerely hoping this is incorrect info. I am really, really hoping that the three separate news articles saying the same thing are based on fabrication.

Warning: if you have a child who can read over your shoulder, you might want to ask them to leave.

Seriously.

Are they gone? OK, read on.

World Net Daily published and article that started off like this:

A new campaign by the Girl Scouts, with the help of Planned Parenthood, is offering girls ages 10 to 14 the inside details on how to be "hot."

This week, the World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides held a no-adults-welcome panel at the United Nations in which Planned Parenthood distributed a brochure entitled "Healthy, Happy and Hot."


And do you know what else was in the brochure? Oh, it was info for girls telling them this, which I copied from the World Net Daily article:

"Many people think sex is just about vaginal or anal intercourse… But, there are lots of different ways to have sex and lots of different types of sex. There is no right or wrong way to have sex. Just have fun, explore and be yourself!"

It then makes some specific suggestions to "talk dirty."

"Improve your sex life by getting to know your own body. Play with yourself! Masturbation is a great way to find out more about your body and what you find sexually stimulating. Mix things up by using different kinds of touch from very soft to hard. Talk about or act out your fantasies. Talk dirty to them," it suggests.


Is it just me, or did anyone else just throw up in their mouth?

If this is really the truth, I am overwhelmed that anyone would think this is an OK topic for anyone, much less 10-14 year old girls.

I would love to offer my opinion, to go off in a snarky way about how this is so horrifying and what it is teaching our kids, but I'm speechless. I'm just... in shock.

The World Net Daily article can be found HERE. An article about this same subject from Life News is HERE. And another one from Parent News is HERE. (Thank you, Brenda, for the links!)

I have no more words. I am truly speechless.

UPDATE:

The statement from the Girl Scouts, as taken from the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry:

Statement from Girl Scouts USA

Earlier this month, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) was honored to attend and participate in the 54th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, where girls were encouraged to take action on global issues concerning women and girls. Our participation in that conference was recently the subject of numerous internet stories and blogs that are factually inaccurate and troubling. Here are the facts of that meeting:

  • The Girls Only Workshop was jointly hosted by Girl Scouts of the USA, UNICEF’s Working Group on Girls, Girls Learn International and The Grail. The meeting was only open to the girls and participating sponsors.
  • Only seven adults were in the room at the time of the meeting, each representing one of the sponsors of the event. No one from Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute was in the room to report on the event.
  • 30-35 girls from across the world participated in this event. All teenagers.
  • The girls received a copy of the only document they were working on titled (“The Girls’ Statement”). No other documents were given to the girls as part of this event.
  • The room in question was also used to host other events over the course of the multi-day conference. Prior to our girls entering the room, we did not “sanitize’ the room to ensure that no trash or other items were left behind. We did request that those not associated with the sponsors to leave the room prior to our session.
  • The Girl Scouts of the USA was not contacted by Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) regarding its initial story to discuss the facts of this event. Had they applied these basic journalistic standards, perhaps the true details of this event would have been reported.
Our Mission in Girl Scouting is to build girls of courage, confidence and character–who make the world a better place. We continue to be proud of our girls and look forward to showing the world what our girls can do. We thank everyone for their support of Girl Scouting.




9 comments:

Snow Mommy said...

That is just wrong!

Stephana said...

OMG......wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!! What the hell is wrong with this world?????

Jenn @ Cuddles and Cameras said...

SERIOUSLY?! DISTURBING! I have a 10 yr. old daughter, and I was trying to find a 'girl scout' chapter for her to be in. Needless to say NOT ANYMORE. Ugh, I feel sick, and I just can't even believe what is passed off as 'ok' nowadays. I also was hoping to find these articles debunked, but haven't had any luck... ugh...

CulyQFun said...

I am going to ask my friend whose MIL is involved in Girl Scouts & so are her girls.
This is wrong!! Not something I want taught to my girls.

DeAnna said...

I just went on Girlscout of america and Girlscouts of USA on facebook and this is one of the things they said:
"Let’s be very clear: GSUSA did not provide girls with any materials from any third party at the Girls' Only workshop conducted on March 1 at the United Nations. While we are happy to share the facts, our approach in addressing this issue is to refrain from fueling speculation about a situation that factually never happened." Hope that helps. You may want to visit those two sites yourself. Girl scouts of America is a great organization and what you are hearing is not the full story.

Erin said...

As someone whose BA is in Communication / Journalism, I'd tend to not believe these sources. From the same Life News website, I found an article that claims American Idol is promoting sex and abortion. Until I see this reported on more mainstream media (not left nor right, just acccountable), I'd question its validity.

Erin said...

Here's a response from the Girl Scouts of the USA, as posted on a Catholic website: http://www.nfcym.org/news.htm

Very different from what's being reported.

The Campbell Family said...

So glad it appears the links I came across are wrong!!! Seemed a little far-fetched to be true but never can tell these days with morals being tossed out the window everywhere we turn.

Briana and Bella said...

That's honestly bizarre -- I mean it's wrong too but it is also bizarre I mean WHY?????? that's just so ergh.

We've had talks about being 'healthy happy and hot' but there all like self motivation and you are beautiful talks. Nothing like that in the post...,