News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Mike Replies To A Slightly Offended, Not Very Enthusiastic Scout.. Parent comment

Re:Mike Replies To A Slightly Offended, Not Very Enthusiasti... by JoeAltmaier on Thursday June 17, 2010 @05:04PM (#1440338)
I defer to your experiences; only consider Boy Scouts is no different from gym class, the mall or any other place boys congregate.

Also we separate the boys from the girls at this age, because it's helpful (reduces acting out, focuses goals). That's not considered a terrible thing, at least by youth leaders who have a dozen young people to teach/train.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mike Replies To A Slightly Offended, Not Very Enthusiasti... by caryme on Thursday June 17, 2010 @05:48PM (#1440483)
Especially coming from my experiences as a camp counselor, I totally understand the value of separating boys and girls sometimes. I can't think of any circumstance when it would be useful to separate a group of adolescents by sexual orientation, but I won't say such a circumstance doesn't exist.

The problem is, unlike gender (currently disregarding transgender/gender queer/intersexed folks), you can't determine someone's sexual orientation - especially at this age. So it's not so much that the world is a heterosexual mens' club, but more that the heterosexual men think it is. As a result, they speak and behave based on that assumption. This assumption further marginalizes those who may already feel like outsiders within their own community.

[ Parent | on HN ]