BSA textiles merit badge: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/Merit_Badge_ReqandRes/Text...

BSA cooking merit badge: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/Merit_Badge_ReqandRes/Cook...

Cooking is a required merit badge for Eagle Scout, as is Family Life. (One of the requirements for Family Life is doing chores around the house, which is usually going to include laundry--arguably a more useful skill for teenagers going off to college soon than sewing is).

Mastering various cake mixes in a dutch oven is already part of camping with boy scouts, at least in the midwest.

There's enough outrageous stuff out there that it's not worth getting worked up over hypotheticals.

It's funny alright. Sewing is an excellent skill to have for outdoorsy stuff. Incredibly useful.

A lot of young boys wouldn't care at all and would probably enjoy sewing, baking and other traditional 'girly' activities.

Its the dad's with fragile masculinity and out-dated opinions that would stop them going or teach them that those activities are 'girly'.

That kind of thinking results in an inevitable chicken and egg problem.

How did society get this way if it's all a construct? A secret cabal decided what constitutes a "masculine" activity and what constitutes a "feminine" activity, some indeterminate amount of time ago?

If I only like playing with toy cars because my father liked playing with toy cars, and my father only liked playing with toy cars because his father liked it, who was the first father and why did it stick?

The reality is that men and women have different biological compositions with different hormones and different instincts that organically give rise to different behaviors. Sure, toys are toys, and generally any kid will probably be happy with any toy, regardless of gender. But the idea that preferences in childhood development didn't arise organically is honestly not founded in reality.

But if you introduce it as cooking, that's a whole different ball game. Besides, baking is a little bit impractical while camping compared to, idk, cooking eggs over an open fire?

I'm not really against the STEM push in Girl Scouts I guess, I'm indifferent to it. Maybe it'll get a few more women interested in the field which is cool.

> baking is a little bit impractical while camping

You can bake lots of stuff with a campfire and a dutch oven.

Sure let me pack icing, maybe some cupcake molds, and a pie dish too?

It's impractical.

Let's see:

* There's a brand of dutch oven endorsed by the Boy Scouts of America

* Scouting magazine has printed many articles with recipes for dutch ovens https://scoutingmagazine.org/category/outdoors/cooking/dutch...

* Boy's Life magazine runs articles about cooking in a dutch oven

Sure ok. Clearly when we think of "having boys bake" we're talking about Dutch ovens and not baking cookies. Yup.

I was only addressing baking while camping. As a man, I also bake while I'm not camping, like many other men.

Right but you are doing so in an disingenuous way. I like baking too. Referring to "girls baking" implies cupcakes, cookies, frosting, and cakes. All of which are impractical while camping.

I'm not being disengenuous at all, and I don't imply that when I say "girls baking".

Ya you do. Otherwise nobody would have been talking about it. The cultural norm when somebody mentions baking in this context and "boys doing it" revolves around things like cupcakes and cookies and what not. It's obvious. It's not a point of contention to anybody here except you, for reasons unknown to me.

Not to mention roasting potatoes, corn, or even eggs in the coals of a fire, which is a close relative to using a dutch oven.