The Garrick of London, home to one of the world’s most infamous ‘old boys clubs’ is to finally open its creeky doors to women, for the first time in nearly 200 years. To many, such a club is a bulwark of male domination; where the powerful rub shoulders, count their money, and guffaw with delight as they tighten the manacles of oppression tighter, and tighter still, onto the legs of society’s women. Yes. If ‘the patriarchy’ had a mailing address, it would surely be ‘The Garrick’. Such an iconic club, brought to its knees, is yet another highly prized scalp at the feet of fierce feminist crusading. And to be clear, I don’t have sympathy for The Garrick, and frankly, if a bunch of rich male assholes, want to open their doors to their rich-asshole female equivalents, then I won’t lose much sleep over it. But another world famous club has followed suit this week; one whose decisions shall reverberate much farther, to an effect that will likely hurt everyone. That is, the formerly named ‘Boy Scouts of America’ is to finally drop gender from its name, to become ‘Scouting America’. And so a space for the boys to be with other boys; to learn about boyhood, bond with male peers, to understood masculinity, hormones, puberty, and the emergence into manhood… is no more. It’s not the same for Girl Scouts of America of course, which will proudly keep its name, and remain strictly girl only, with no plans to change. So is this yet another sign of equality for one, but not the other? Is something special and important lost, as we lose yet another formative space for boys? And why is there so much shame around private spaces where men can bond with other men, and will this start a movement where there are no same sex spaces at all? What do you think? ~ Shaniqua Davis article Images by Nikldn, Brooks Libee, Danny Onishenko, Rick Barlett. #garrick #boyswillbeboys #boysclub #mensmentalhealth

2024-05-11