I was hoping to avoid another archive trip to finish this article, but it looks like I'm going to have to go. Part of this project is to compare two editions of a book. Or rather, two printings of a book—specifically, the Girl Scout Handbook; more specifically, the fourth and sixth impressions. (I'd also like to see the fifth, of course, but I'm pretty sure the most significant changes happened between the fourth and the sixth.) So it would seem that a trip to the Girl Scouts archive is in order. I feel tired just thinking about it.
Interlibrary loan: my savior, and the bane of my existence. I requested "the 1953 edition" of the Girl Scout Handbook. Little did I know that it had gone through so many impressions. The one ILL got me was from late 1955. But it's the right "edition," so I guess I can't be mad.
Ever wonder about those Girl Scouts? Where did they get their marching orders from? Let's peruse the 1953 handbook (eighth impression, November 1955) and see if we can find out.
According to a report submitted to Congress, the most popular Girl Scout badge in 1953 was Cook. (What, not Truck Gardener?!) To earn this badge, a Girl Scout had to "Prepare a breakfast, lunch, or supper for your family or patrol." Now, lots of scholars have jumped all over the Girl Scouts for trying to mold girls into compliant homemakers. But my subversive reading of this badge requirement is that the handbook offers "patrol" as a legitimate alternative to "family": a chosen community of girl peers gets equal billing with a bio family. Let's see, what else. "Cook eggs in three different ways." Hmmm, an activity that undercuts ovobinarisms. Moving on: "Make cocoa with three kinds of milk and decide which kind you prefer." While the signifying Other (the dark "cocoa") here is singular, and outnumbered and thus dominated by the plural, decidedly Eurocentric subject (the light "milk"), the passage also suggests a post-racial hybridity in which the Other can be both "pure" ("unmixed" cocoa powder) and "mongrel" (milkified cocoa for drinking); moreover, one's hybridity may be chosen. Just for fun, let's open the book at random and see what badge we get. OK, how about Wood? You'll be interested to know the badge pictures a totem pole. Oh, this is great! One of the three absolute requirements to earn this badge: "Make some article of wood for the comfort of your animal friends." I don't know why, but "litter box" comes to mind. Mine would for sure have a totem pole on it.
Here's one called Minstrel—ulp! It's 1955, I don't know what we're in for. Ah, phew, nothing to do with minstrel shows (thank you, Girl Scouts, thank you). "Write a story about the meistersingers in Germany, troubadours in France and Spain, or minstrels of England. Learn several of their songs." Do I have to sing them too?
Finally, Clerk. Oh dear. Absolute requirements: "Dramatize the courteous way to approach salespeople, to wait on people, and to receive visitors in an office"; "Learn how to use and care for the following: typewriter, hand-stapling machine, fountain pen, and automatic pencil. Be able to read a postal scale"; "In a skit show how to apply for a job." According to eBay, this is a rare badge. I guess I'm happy for that. I wonder if the seller can read a postal scale to know how much to charge for shipping!I'd write more, but I have to go learn to care for my automatic pencil.
3 comments:
If it makes you feel any better, when I was a girl scout, my dad did pretty much every project for me required to earn a badge. He then sewed them on my sash. I'm pretty sure all I did was eat the food at meetings. I could erect a tent better than anyone else, though.
As a Lifetime Girl Scout, I LOOOVE your critical analysis of the handbook - thanks! The 3 types of cocoa bit is genius.
What I think is so cool about early-GS handbooks is the shifting of informational power from authority (in the form of parents and teachers) to that of the girls themselves. Finally, girls were encouraged to find out things for themselves, experiment, form their own opinions, and take active roles in constructing knowledge.
Also, your fears of the handbook containing racist wording and imagery were ungrounded. GS was the first youth organization to be intentional about integrating troops (esp. in the south, in the 20s), and they currently run really awesome programs for girls living on reservations, for example.
Another source of material is through your local GS council - just type in the name of your town and Girl Scouts, then call the number and ask for the head of the Archives Committee. The head of the Archives is typically a retired GS volunteer, and best reached by phone. Each GS council has an Archives, and sometimes there is even a museum the Archives Committee operates.
Viva Girl Scouts!
Thanks for your insights, AG! You're right, the handbooks I've been looking at tended to ask questions rather than give answers, and they told girls their leaders were there to help them do the activities the girls chose.
I actually have been very impressed with the Girl Scouts, although I think they had a lot of trouble convincing (white) people in southern communities that integrated troops were a good idea. But they did get written up in Ebony in 1952 for the work they did. Their international program was way ahead of its time. I am trying to figure out how they managed to sustain their mass membership (which included conservatives, liberals, and everyone in between) while maintaining politics that were pretty progressive. Maybe homemaking and patriotism could make up for promoting racial and ethnic equality.
Which is all to say that the GS were more complicated than historians usually give them credit for.
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