Sixteen years had past since girls were first accepted into the family of Boys' Brigade. The initial idea of starting the Girls' Wing was a noble idea of optimising the limited resources of churches that could not afford to have both Boys' Brigade and Girls' Brigade concurrently and yet not depriving girls from receiving the opportunity to be trained physically, mentally, socially and educationally through the twin pillar of discipline and Christian Education.
I have the privilege of listening directly from the person who initiated the proposal as to why Boys' Brigade needed to have Girls' Wing. I agree that circumstances at that time (early 1990s) pointed towards the need of Girls' Wing. Sadly after sixteen years, the following problems seem to have outweighs the benefits.
Identity and Uniform Crisis
From early-1990s till late-1990s, girls in the Girls' Wing were wearing knee-length skirt (or rather pants plaited with skirt). The fairer gender do not wear marching boots but only black shoes; with the rest of the uniform remains the same.
However, since late-1990s, girls were beginning to wear long pants - similar to what the boys were wearing. Today, both boys and girls wore exactly the same and most of the girls are now wearing boots. The only different is the little asterisk on the name tag of the girls.
I am a person who agrees with gender equality but at the same time, I also acknowledged that God made Man and Woman differently. Therefore gender equality should not be taken blindly. The same principle applies into this issue. Yes, Boys' Brigade has accepted girls through the Girls' Wing. However, after 16 years, why isn't there a proper identity given to the fairer gender?
The Boys' Brigade in Hong Kong started accepting girls in 1986. Our friends from Hong Kong has provided such a beautiful identity for their sisters in the Boys' Brigade where boys and girls wear different uniform while both were still Boys' Brigade members.
Many argued that girls of this generation do not want to wear skirt. I am not suggesting for the current Girls' Wing uniform to simply change from pants to skirt. My suggestion is to give the girls a totally new uniform that perfectly portrait them as girls although they are in the Boys' Brigade. Simply saying girls do not want to wear skirt and we subscribe to that argument shows how immature the officers and decision makers are in handling this problem.
If our girls really hated skirt so much, then why are they still going to school? All female school uniforms, be it in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea etc...enforced that girls must wear skirt. Why are these officers and decision makers in the Brigade simply just fall for such shallow argument that if girls' don't like skirt, then Girls' Wing uniform should not be skirt. Are they more concern for the development of girls or the threat of withdrawal from the girls which affects the statistics?
God made Man and Woman differently. This means that an identity must be given to both gender that enables distinction, not merely separated with an asterisk on the name tag. To me, that's a mockery of respect to the fairer gender.
Educational Development
I agree with education experts worldwide that co-education is more effective to the development of teenagers. The opportunity to interact and communicate freely under the guidance of officer (adult) is indeed a good learning experience for both boys and girls.
Unfortunately, the lack of initiative to provide separate identity for boys and girls could have dangerous consequences simply because boys and girls might not be able to fully comprehend the differences between the gender. A simple illustration is a couple who already have three sons and then took home another baby girl to be their daughter. However, until the age of 16, the parents raised the little girl like their three sons. The daughter wore the exact same clothes, play the same toys, and carried herself exactly like the three brothers. How could the daughter ever learn that she is a girl and how could you expect the three brothers to respect and see the sister as a girl? This illustrated what is taking place in the BB with the Girls' Wing.
I have the privilege of listening directly from the person who initiated the proposal as to why Boys' Brigade needed to have Girls' Wing. I agree that circumstances at that time (early 1990s) pointed towards the need of Girls' Wing. Sadly after sixteen years, the following problems seem to have outweighs the benefits.
Identity and Uniform Crisis
From early-1990s till late-1990s, girls in the Girls' Wing were wearing knee-length skirt (or rather pants plaited with skirt). The fairer gender do not wear marching boots but only black shoes; with the rest of the uniform remains the same.
However, since late-1990s, girls were beginning to wear long pants - similar to what the boys were wearing. Today, both boys and girls wore exactly the same and most of the girls are now wearing boots. The only different is the little asterisk on the name tag of the girls.
I am a person who agrees with gender equality but at the same time, I also acknowledged that God made Man and Woman differently. Therefore gender equality should not be taken blindly. The same principle applies into this issue. Yes, Boys' Brigade has accepted girls through the Girls' Wing. However, after 16 years, why isn't there a proper identity given to the fairer gender?
The Boys' Brigade in Hong Kong started accepting girls in 1986. Our friends from Hong Kong has provided such a beautiful identity for their sisters in the Boys' Brigade where boys and girls wear different uniform while both were still Boys' Brigade members.
Many argued that girls of this generation do not want to wear skirt. I am not suggesting for the current Girls' Wing uniform to simply change from pants to skirt. My suggestion is to give the girls a totally new uniform that perfectly portrait them as girls although they are in the Boys' Brigade. Simply saying girls do not want to wear skirt and we subscribe to that argument shows how immature the officers and decision makers are in handling this problem.
If our girls really hated skirt so much, then why are they still going to school? All female school uniforms, be it in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea etc...enforced that girls must wear skirt. Why are these officers and decision makers in the Brigade simply just fall for such shallow argument that if girls' don't like skirt, then Girls' Wing uniform should not be skirt. Are they more concern for the development of girls or the threat of withdrawal from the girls which affects the statistics?
God made Man and Woman differently. This means that an identity must be given to both gender that enables distinction, not merely separated with an asterisk on the name tag. To me, that's a mockery of respect to the fairer gender.
Educational Development
I agree with education experts worldwide that co-education is more effective to the development of teenagers. The opportunity to interact and communicate freely under the guidance of officer (adult) is indeed a good learning experience for both boys and girls.
Unfortunately, the lack of initiative to provide separate identity for boys and girls could have dangerous consequences simply because boys and girls might not be able to fully comprehend the differences between the gender. A simple illustration is a couple who already have three sons and then took home another baby girl to be their daughter. However, until the age of 16, the parents raised the little girl like their three sons. The daughter wore the exact same clothes, play the same toys, and carried herself exactly like the three brothers. How could the daughter ever learn that she is a girl and how could you expect the three brothers to respect and see the sister as a girl? This illustrated what is taking place in the BB with the Girls' Wing.
Drill and Band
There were so arguments of not creating a separate identity for Girls' Wing because this will severely reduced the uniformity in drill and band.
Firstly, I wish to point out that wearing skirt and being dressed more feminise, do not hinder a girl from doing drill. Our sister organisation, the Girls' Brigade, are strongly training their members to do drill and yet they are still wearing skirt. If GB could do so, why can't the girls in Girls' Wing could not do so?
Secondly, having different uniform for boys and girls do not reduce the uniformity of the band. To be a respected band, it is the quality of music that counts. That's why the title for the best BB band in Malaysia always head downsouth, simply because the quality of the music produced is good.
Thirdly, let's pull the argue a little bit further. If uniformity is really so important, is BB going to stop any boy from the Sikh Community from joining us simply because he has to wear a turban and not the Field Service cap? Similarly, if different identity is given to the girls and boys and they wear different uniform, two different uniform posed no problem to uniformity. A quick look at the BB Hong Kong website reassured everyone that two different uniforms is really no big deal.
Is the Name Appropriate?
Critics to the Girls' Wing will further emphasised that the name of the organisation, the Boys' Brigade, is inappropriate to accommodate girls. I agreed that indeed it is confusing. My wife and my sister were both members of the Girls' Wing. When it comes to scholarship application or job application, the impression of a girl being a Boys' Brigade member gives quite a bit of negativity.
There was once, someone after looking at my wife's resume, informed us that she made a typing error of Boys' Brigade instead of Girls' Brigade. At least, we could explain it to the person. I was just wandering how many girls from the Boys' Brigade having their resume and application being rejected simply because the people who access the resume could either assumed the application as:
- not checked properly and have spelling or factual mistake, either in gender information or extra-curricular activities column; or
- this must be a copy-and-paste resume from a friend in Boys' Brigade and the girl forget to change it
In short, much negativity is associated with such application, simply because the girl joined Boys' Brigade and not Girls' Brigade.
Some of the supporter of Girls' Wing might argued that this is just the name. Like other organisation, YMCA and YWCA, the name is gender-based but it is now open to both gender.
I would like to view it differently. Firstly, most of these organisations are social organisation, where the members are adult and their involvement are only social in nature. On the contrary, Boys' Brigade and Girls' Brigade are youth organisation and is closely affiliated to schools and other educational institutions. Such confusion has great implication to the future of the members, particularly those from the confused section of the Girls' Wing of the Boys' Brigade.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the lack of identity to the Girls' Wing is an important issue for the Boys' Brigade of Malaysia to deal with. Sixteen long years had passed and yet, the mentality to deal with this section of the Brigade is still at the infancy level. It took the Brigade almost 12 years to regulate the use of asterisk to differentiate the gender, because the officer at the uniform inspection could not identified whether the child standing in front of him is a girl or boy.
Some of the supporter of Girls' Wing might argued that this is just the name. Like other organisation, YMCA and YWCA, the name is gender-based but it is now open to both gender.
I would like to view it differently. Firstly, most of these organisations are social organisation, where the members are adult and their involvement are only social in nature. On the contrary, Boys' Brigade and Girls' Brigade are youth organisation and is closely affiliated to schools and other educational institutions. Such confusion has great implication to the future of the members, particularly those from the confused section of the Girls' Wing of the Boys' Brigade.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the lack of identity to the Girls' Wing is an important issue for the Boys' Brigade of Malaysia to deal with. Sixteen long years had passed and yet, the mentality to deal with this section of the Brigade is still at the infancy level. It took the Brigade almost 12 years to regulate the use of asterisk to differentiate the gender, because the officer at the uniform inspection could not identified whether the child standing in front of him is a girl or boy.
The mentality to see girls as merely statistics in the membership roll needs to be changed. Decision-makers and officers in the Brigade need to address the core issue that boys and girls were made differently and this indeed is according to the biblical principle where God created Man and Woman to be unique. No one could afford to wait another sixteen years, where at least another 3 generations of girls will have already walked through the ranks of Boys' Brigade with this distorted idea of gender equality. The recognition and identity remains the core of the issue.
2 comments:
Hi, CD:
I thank and praise GOD for your comment and concern.
I totally agree with CD. I was a member of the Girls' Wing in the Boys' Brigade. I remember how in BB Pesta I used to envy the Indonesian Girls who had nice uniform and wished that our uniform will be that nice too. It give the girls a different identity from the boys. As God created man and woman differently, so I support the idea that the boys and girls in the Boys' Brigade should have different identities. Uniformity in the drill and band is not the main objective of these two activities. Their main purpose is to promote discipline each member. So, I really do hope that the decision makers and officers in the Boys' Brigade will look into this matter and make a change.
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