American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopedia

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Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was founded in 1910 as an organized youth movement meant to revitalize American manhood. Based on a philosophy of “muscular Christianity,” the group created a practical program of activities meant to develop the young man’s physical, mental, and moral fitness.

In the late-nineteenth and early- twentieth century, white middle-class men experienced a “crisis” in masculinity caused by a number of factors, including devastating economic cycles, immigration, and urbanization. Just as the military hero Lord Robert S. S. Baden-Powell created the Boy Scouts in England in 1908 to toughen young British men in physical fitness and moral character, so the men who founded the BSA worried that an increasingly urban, industrial civilization was distancing men from the positive effects of the more primitive wilderness. Also, they feared that the increasing influence of women in the domestic sphere and in more public roles, such as teaching, was leading to a “feminization” of American boyhood.

In 1910 several men gathered to create the BSA, including Ernest Thompson Seton, who was experimenting with a youth movement (“Woodcraft Indians”) based on Native American cultures, Daniel Carter Beard, who had created a youth movement (“the Sons of Daniel Boone”) based on pioneer life, and three men with extensive experience in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)—Edgar M. Robinson, John L. Alexander, and James E. West. Borrowing heavily from Baden-Powell’s ideas, the BSA also “Americanized” the movement in its first Handbook (1911) and in the design of its uniform, ranks, badges, and programs.

The BSA bases its programs on the idea of “the patrol,” which consists typically of eight boys who form the basic friendship group in a larger “troop” of patrols. Adult men serve as scoutmasters of troops (usually sponsored by schools, religious organizations, and fraternal organizations), and boys aged 11 to 17 fill the leadership positions in the troop and in patrols. Boys learn to lead other boys and to teach each other a range of skills, including first aid, camping, lifesaving, and other skills for living. The program also stresses character training, including service to others.

Through most of its history, the BSA has enjoyed great public support and admiration for its work. The Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest earned rank, is widely recognized as a mark of fine manhood. The organization became very popular in the 1950s, especially for white, middle-class boys, and the BSA’s fusing of citizenship, patriotism, masculinity, and America’s “public religion” (a generalized Judeo-Christian, largely Protestant, ethic) suited the culture of the Cold War. The anti-military and anti-establishment culture of the Vietnam War era, however, began to make the BSA a more controversial organization, and by the 1980s the BSA was defending itself against a series of lawsuits. Atheists sued the BSA when they were denied membership, and girls and women sued to be admitted to the organization. The most visible controversy in the 1990s was the battle over the BSA policy of excluding openly gay men and boys from membership. In June 2000, a 5-4 split decision by the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the BSA’s position that they are a private organization with the right to exclude members whose beliefs and practices differ significantly from the official philosophy and goals of the organization. The court’s decision did not settle the controversy; social and political movements, such as Scouting for All, still work to get the BSA to change its policies on admitting gays and atheists, and various local governments and charitable organizations struggle with conflicts between their own anti-discrimination rules and the special status they have accorded BSA troops.

Although the BSA has tried to respond to social changes and has tried to move beyond its white, middle-class base, the BSA stands on the side of traditional values in the “culture wars”; its 1990s advertising slogan, “Character Counts,” and its stress on male honor reflect the nineteenth century values of its origins. As in the 1890s, the middle class in the United States in the 1990s felt a “crisis” of white, middle-class, heterosexual masculinity, and a number of popular books and magazine articles addressed the worries of parents, teachers, coaches, and youth workers over American society’s impact on the development of boys. The BSA, an organization that has registered over 100 million members since its founding, socializes over four million American boys at present, while continuing to find itself at the center of the public debate over the meaning of American boyhood and manhood.

Bibliography

Macleod, David I. Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.

Mechling, Jay. On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.