Girl Scouts and the Media

Question: Why did Girl Scouts of the USA hire as their media relations spokesperson, who signs press releases for their campaign to portray women and girls positively in the media, an individual who has been featured singing in a music video that portrays a woman being strangled, featured in another video supposedly masturbating in a pile of newspapers while the camera cuts back and forth between him and a provocatively dressed woman, and whose band sings songs like "Sick Days Are for Sex?" Click here to see documentation for this question.

Question: Why did the Girl Scouts feature as a role model, Lizzy Miller, a plus size model who is famous for posing nude (WARNING: nude picture, no genitals exposed), to launch their campaign to portray women and girls positively in the media?

Question: If GSUSA's policy is "not to take a stand on or advocate for or against any issue regarding a girl’s health and sexuality, especially outside the confines of Girl Scouts," then why is GSUSA promoting the Healthy Media for Youth Act (H.R. 2513/S 1354), which deals with both health and sexuality?

Click here to see GSUSA’s action alert on this issue and to read commentary pointing out the problems with the bill.

Question: Why does the Healthy Media for Youth Act (H.R. 2513/S 1354), which GSUSA is aggressively lobbying for call for millions of dollars of federal funding for "youth empowerment" groups and allow these groups to use this funding to promote "social change?"

Question: Why did Girl Scouts feature Charlotte Caffey (See paragraph 6 of this article) to launch their "Girl Scouts Rock" campaign, when Charlotte’s band the Go-Go’s had posed in their underwear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine?

Question: In light of MTV’s explicit portrayal of women and girls as sex symbols and considering GSUSA’s campaign to portray girls positively in the media, why did the Girl Scouts invite MTV’s Senior Vice President, Karen Maloney, to serve on the Girl Scouts' Board of Directors? (See page 3 of this document.)

Question: Why did Girl Scouts nominate Brenda Freeman to their board of Directors—a former high-level employee of MTV who is currently responsible for the marketing of the cable television network Adult Swim, which runs vulgar programming that negatively portrays women and girls?

Click here to see an episode on adultswim.com that shows a young college girl accepting employment at a strip bar to pay her tuition and her mom condoning her subsequent prostitution. The Parents Television Council gave Adult Swim an “F” for excessive sex, violence, profanity, and drug use.

Question: Why did Girl Scouts nominate to their board, Cyma Zarghami, who as president of Nickelodeon supported Nick at Nite, which airs controversial sexual programming?

Question: In light of the Parents Television Council's finding that "children watching MTV are viewing an average of 9 sexual scenes per hour with approximately 18 sexual depictions and 17 instances of sexual dialogue or innuendo," a rate far higher than all other prime time networks, why do Girl Scout Journey books refer girls to MTV in multiple places?

Question: Why are the Girl Scouts nominating to their board so many women who are involved in businesses that promote the sexualization of girls in the media?

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