Boy Scouts Name Change

Submission 16,266

Overview

Boy Scouts Name Change refers to the decision for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to change the name of its flagship program to Scouts BSA in February 2019, allowing for the inclusion of all-girl troops.

Background

On May 2nd, 2018, USA Today^[1] reported that the Boy Scouts of America would be dropping the word "Boy" from their name as part of a "quest to become the scouting organization of choice for boys and girls."

Developments

Online Reaction

That day, Redditor snowmansni submitted the article to /r/news, where it gathered upwards of 8,400 points (84% upvoted) and 4,700 comments within 48 hours.

Meanwhile, critics of the decision voiced their opposition on Twitter (shown below). Shortly after, RT^[5] published an article titled "Twitter meltdown after Boy Scouts announces ‘gender neutral’ name change."

The same day, YouTuber Steven Crowder uploaded a video titled "Boy Scouts ARE DEAD: How Feminism Is Destroying Young Men… | Louder With Crowder" (shown below).

Also on May 2nd, Redditor MontanaKittenSighs posted a Now That's What I Call Music photoshop with the phrase "Now That's What I Call Male Fragility" to mock those complaining about the name change to /r/TrollXChromosomes (shown below, left).^[3] That same day, Redditor mkwstar posted a "Ben Shapiro": image macro referencing the Boy Scouts name change to /r/CringeAnarchy^[6] (shown below, middle). On May 4th, Redditor swampfoxz submitted a photoshop of a boy scout with the caption "New Boy Scout Uniform Revealed" to /r/The_Donald^[4] (shown below, right).