To argue that this should is not a suitable topic for the Girl Guides

[MovedByFanciesThatAreCurled]

Girlguiding is for girls, aged 10-14. So why then do they feel the need to promote this on their social media?

This week is #AceWeek - a time to raise awareness and understanding of the asexual community. So here’s a shout-out to all of our asexual volunteers and members – thank you for everything you do in Girlguiding.

The reference to ‘members’ is quite clear. What on earth were they thinking in making reference to young girls’ sex lives (or lack of them according to the focus of the Tweet). How, as an organisation, have they strayed so far? I have two boys in the Scouts/Beavers and if this came up on either of their social media pages I would pull them out. Why is it seen to be an acceptable for Girlguiding?!!

I don't teach twelve year olds. But I don't think it comes up, no.
Any precocious knowledge of sex I'd be flagging though.

@BelleOfTheProvince

Maternity leave. But all schools back here.

Ah thanks for indulging my nosiness.

(You aren’t the only one who said they were teachers/employed in education though)

@slashlover

Because that’s what sexuality means. Which SEX you are attracted to, but exactly what that attraction looks like or what you choose to do with it. Just what it is. What that attraction looks like and what people do about it is called PREFERENCE which is very different from ORIENTATION. Sexuality = orientation, not preference.

Yes. But people on here have explicitly stated that an asexual person cannot be asexual if they have sex, even if they are not sexually attracted to the person.

Again, young girls do not need to get the message that if they don’t feel attraction they can still be having sex and that’s ok. Every aspect of female socialisation is already geared up to condition them to think that.

So we don't mention asexuality and let the asexual kids think there's something wrong with them?

Not in primary. That's ks3.

So if a 12 year old is getting the sex talk at school then you'd be ok with them mentioning asexuality?

But plenty said they will be romantically or emotionally attracted to the person.

That’s covered by attraction. And I only get the latter one personally.

Again, totally fine to say some people will never be attracted to anyone and that’s fine, just don’t term it asexual when kids Googling that, or god forbid looking it up on sm, will find a fuck tone of descriptions about how ace folx can feel zero sexual attraction but still have sex and that’s ok. Girls already get that shoved down their throats by every aspect of female socialisation. Stop perpetuating that.

@Dixiechickonhols

Bloodingutters I’m not in education but a lot of schools near us have inset today (sensible to tack this side of half term with Halloween) or a lot of teachers are part time.

Funny enough most will be doing safeguarding training today.

Ah thanks for indulging my nosiness.

(You aren’t the only one who said they were teachers/employed in education though)

Also wasn’t the only one to reply to your question. I really can’t say anything right in your eyes on this thread!

I don’t understand why anyone is talking about asexuality. How is whether a person is having sex or wants to have sex an orientation? Why is it part of LGB…. Are asexuals being abused, assaulted, missing out on any rights? The whole thing is a nonsense, an obsession with having a label.

@MolkosTeenageAngst

Ah thanks for indulging my nosiness.

(You aren’t the only one who said they were teachers/employed in education though)

Also wasn’t the only one to reply to your question. I really can’t say anything right in your eyes on this thread!

There were several posters who mentioned they worked in education.

You’re lucky you get days in lie though. I’ve never known a teacher get those.

I got them when I worked in residential schools, but all us social work staff worked weekends/holidays/nights so bit different. Our senior teachers were also required to cover duty senior shifts at weekends but never got the time back during teaching week. Different everywhere I guess though.

@BloodinGutters
My school is also a residential school and we are also sometimes required to work some shifts with students in our classes in evenings/ weekends/ holidays etc, mostly to deliver training to the care staff and ensure the 24/7 curriculum promised on students EHCPs. As such our setting is probably more flexible and for this particular meeting the residential staff and school therapists who don’t work term time only were also needed to attend and so as it fit with everyone else’s schedules the school was happy to arrange a day in lieu for me. As almost all of the students in the school require 2:1 support at all times due to their medical and/ or behaviour needs we are very well staffed and all of the students have individual timetables with very few group sessions (as most can’t tolerate being around peers) so having the teacher out for a day of term time doesn’t impact on the class in the same way it might in mainstream or even a maintained special school. It is very different here to any other school I have ever worked in it is true!

Come along way since my day then. We dealt with kids on place of safety orders mostly, many 2:1 packages, a few 3:1 (the ‘3’ were often made up by teachers or seniors who were busy teaching class instead of helping me with the violent offender we got 10k a week for…) but our seniors, including the few senior teachers who covered it these shifts, could be up all night in restraints and dealing with police and incident reports and still have to deal with a shift the next day. Not fun. Social work managers would always try to send us social work staff home if they could thankfully, but then it’s not like we could hide in a staff room between classes to snooze. And being so tired we couldn’t function meant a rapist or arsonist got out. Or worse, a kid from the girls units who were inevitably victims of the prior types of people.

I do not miss it at all now I have kids.

That sounds really difficult. Our residential setting is registered as it’s own children’s home with the school registered separately (students mostly placed under section 20) and so generally none of our school staff are involved in anything that happens outside of school hours. I’m only involved if I am asked to deliver specific training or if I choose to pick up overtime so there is some distinction between the expectations of school and care staff, I imagine it was very hard in your setting if the hours you were expected to work were 24/7 and even without a break. Our students all have complex and severe learning difficulties, usually with challenging behaviour and/ or complex medical needs and so although our students are vulnerable and can be unpredictable it sounds very different to working with young offenders, I imagine it is emotionally very hard to see the police involved and see the level of abuse or neglect young people have been exposed to and which have gotten them to where they are and even more so to deal with that when you are tired and overworked.

I hope it is true that things have come a long way and that less pressure is put on staff like yourself as what you are describing sounds incredibly challenging.

@StartSelect

I don’t understand why anyone is talking about asexuality. How is whether a person is having sex or wants to have sex an orientation? Why is it part of LGB…. Are asexuals being abused, assaulted, missing out on any rights? The whole thing is a nonsense, an obsession with having a label.

Corrective rape is definitely a thing. Asexuals can be abused as we're often seen as a 'challenge' or that we can be 'cured'.

So being sexually attracted to the opposite sex is an orientation
Being sexually attracted to the same sex is an orientation
Being sexually attracted to the both sexes is an orientation
But being sexually attracted neither sex is an not an orientation?

I think you've got a lot to learn OP and I hope your children are a lot more accepting than you are.

@Lockheart

It's important that girls (and boys) going through puberty and starting to develop sexual attraction or not know that whatever their orientation - gay, straight, bisexual, asexual - they're normal and it's accepted.

I tend to agree with this. Surely children in that age group are starting to at least become aware of sexuality as a concept?

If you are letting your child on social media before they are of age (13 for FB I think?) then it’s your problem, not the guides, that your kid has seen something about being ace. Anyone over 13should have at least started sex Ed in the uk!

YANBU! What was wrong with things as they were?

I have no problem with it personally. I’ve already been down the route of explaining transgender and bi-sexuality in kid appropriate terms to my (then 5, now 7yo) son, as his brother is no longer his brother and is now his sister. But I get that not everyone is ok with it.

@marktayloruk

YANBU! What was wrong with things as they were?

Maybe RTFT about the experiences of asexual people and how not learning about asexuality until adulthood caused mental health problems and certain behaviours.

@Finknottlesnewt

How about ITS JUST NOT NECESSARY !!!

Can there be no place where kids can just be kids ? - away from stuff that - as kids they simply don't need to know. Not everyone has to be 'aware' of every sodding thing in life before they are adults .
Why not let girls go to rainbows/brownies and guides and enjoy those clubs without ANY reference to sexually.
As Rangers are in an older age group they would also have had more 'awareness' of whatever label they wish to subscribe to rammed down their throats at school/college and pretty much every media outlet aimed at them.
Just not necessary in girl guiding and people need to stop this nonsense.

Completely agree. Thank you for posting this. Would just like to add that the whole world seems to be hell bent on giving the impression that people are completely defined by their sexuality. They are not. Sex may be a significant part of each one of us - but more important is character eg, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, love, faithfulness, self control. Why can't we have more emphasis on these qualities instead? Let's see organisations heavily promoting these, not just jumping on the latest bandwagons. Any child / adult focusing on these qualities will show kindness and tolerance to people of all sexualities and none.

Call me old fashioned, but some girls actually enjoy belonging to an all female youth organisation, where they can still be innocent
little girls for a bit longer, if that's what appeals to them. Free from laddish culture and all the misery inflicted on them by some of the horrible boys at school! I agree that most untrained volunteers would be uncomfortable about handling these things. I find that children are exposed at far too young an age to sexuality and gender issues. I find the whole WOKE thing abhorrent too. Let children and young people come to discuss and understand these things in their own good time. I speak as a parent of two grown up children and the grandmother of a baby boy. I used to be a secondary school teacher, before retirement. I myself have a strong guiding and scouting background. Both my children benefitted enormously from membership of the Guide and Scout movements in their traditional forms. It did them no harm. There is enough coverage of all the "sex" issues in school. Some would say too much. I am not intolerant. I have gay friends and relations and some who are, I suspect, asexual and quite comfortable to be that way. Why does every facet of modern society feel this constant compulsion to make everything into a big issue, for fear of being labelled intolerant if they don't? I accept that scouting and guiding need to move with the times, but hey, what happened to their core values of good citizenship and selfless acts of kindness? This is what they should be concentrating on. The rest is the responsibility of parents and educators - to teach sex education, in its broadest sense, in a sensitive and responsible way. The Guide and Scout movements have enough trouble as it is recruiting and retaining leaders. Who would volunteer for the roles if they felt that it was their responsibility to deliver sex education as well? The whole thing is ridiculous. Baden Powell must be turning in his grave!

I'm all for supporting young people through issues like this but I do feel that Guide leaders shouldn't be expected to deal with this.. leave this to parents and teachers and let Girl guides carry on building fires and having innocent fun..I've got twins in guides and wouldn't be thrilled about this being a topic for them.

People generally don’t go around telling others if they are having sex or not, how would anyone know? Sex is just one part of a persons orientation, if you’re having relationships or feel a connection to a particular sex then a label already exists for that whether your sexually active or not. Surely the amount of individuals who have zero attraction, interest or feelings to either sex physically and romantically without any underlying medical reason must be vanishingly small and even then nobody would actually know unless they are wearing a badge. Tbh I find it being lumped in with LGB insulting, it’s not comparable.
It’s completely normal for children and teens to not have these feelings or know for who or if they will experience attraction one day, it’s extremely likely they will.

@Mirw

Girls have to be kind and think of all these other possible labels. Boys don't! It is a whole load of nonsense as there are only 2 biological sexes - in this case, girls and boys. Anything else is an urban myth.

Something else I agree with - people are either XX or XY. That's a biological fact.