How One Episode of The Brady Bunch Changed Everything

It's all Marcia's fault.

Photo courtesy of the Boy Scouts of America @scouting.org

When we were kids, we watched the reruns of The Brady Bunch. One particular episode entitled “The Liberation of Marcia Brady” finds a junior high-aged Marcia being asked by a local reporter her feelings about the equality of girls and boys. Her reply is, “Well, if we’re all supposed to be created equal, I guess that means girls as well as boys.” Later, she is asked if girls can do everything boys can do, and she states that girls should at least have the opportunity.

Of course, she decides to put her idea to the test by qualifying to become a Frontier Scout. This angers Greg who then cajoles Peter to join the Sunflower Girls. Of course, Peter only lasts five minutes because his boyhood is bruised but Marcia, Marcia, Marcia passes her initiation requirements after much hard work and determination. Her becoming a Frontier Scout proves to all females that they can pursue any goal—even though, she decides in the end that she prefers to do more girly things like reading “fashion magazines.”

I contend that The Brady Bunch, this episode in particular, is the reason for state of affairs today. The Boy Scouts have just rebranded themselves as Scouting America with its focus on inclusivity beyond allowing girls to join. Boy Scouts took a massive hit in membership after the sexual abuse scandals occurring over decades rocked the organization. This past February, the Supreme Court “cleared the way for a $2.4 billion plan to settle sex abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America to go forward” (New York Times).

What should have been the obvious, logical step a century-old organization does when facing allegations of sexual misconduct? It should have tightened restrictions on members and leaders. Instead, the Boy Scouts allowed gay participants, gay scout leaders, and transgenders all before allowing girls to join. In other words, they wanted to remain BOY scouts no matter what.

But here, again, we harken back to The Brady Bunch with actor Robert Reed, a closeted gay actor, portraying Mike Brady who’s an architect, husband, loving father and council master of the Frontier Scouts. Fiction becomes fact, as this about sums up the sex abuse scandal that Boy Scouts faced.

Furthermore, in 1971, the writers for Marcia and Peter’s characters attempted to prove a point as the women’s liberation movement was sweeping the country. Marcia proved that girls had more to offer than being housewives. Peter, meanwhile, wanted to prove that boys and girls are different and to stay in their lanes. The moral of the episode is that girls should have more choice in their lives to pursue goals but may tend to fall back into old habits. Certainly, Carol Brady had nothing to do. Alice kept house. Once again, Hollywood treaded into cultural areas with no other goal than to appear provocative.

Before typing this particular episode, writers must have read the conclusions by psychiatrists that girls and boys were conditioned by their parents to stick to traditional interests based on their sexes (e.g. girls played with dolls; boys played with cars). Now anything goes. Males, in particular, are increasingly showing passions for traditionally female interests like sewing or baking and also by cross dressing, identifying as the other sex, becoming drag queens, using hormone blockers, and receiving sex change surgeries. Will there be patches for these pursuits?

We are all meant, you see, to be accepted as anything and into any club. As Roger Krone, Scouting America’s president and CEO, explains, “It sends this really strong message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, they can bring their authentic self, they can be who they are and they will be welcomed here” (MSN). Not surprisingly, the Girl Scouts is unhappy with this move. But the scandals and miscalculations about what the public wants means Boy Scouts has been bleeding money. They had to do something to save their organization, even at the expense of Girl Scouts. Nevertheless, according to the Associated Press, both organizations have seen huge declines in membership.

As upsetting as it may be to see yet another institution bow to woke-ness, I do wish more protesters on today’s college campuses would have been part of either the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts as kids. Perhaps organizations should abolish age requirements. God knows, college protesters are lacking in so many ways.

For example, the X account named @missymarxist reposted a Fox32 report of when police dismantled the anti-Semitic encampment at the University of Chicago. One of the male protesters named Chris described in great detail how the police department arrived in riot gear at night and had the audacity to wake up the protesters. Chris claimed, “[The police] waited like cowards until every student was asleep in their tent, basically. And then they stormed in, maybe 40 or 50 of them, with riot gear…We had no warning.”

If Chris and other men, women, or transgenders had ever read about George Washington, Paul Revere, any war, or had been a scout they would know the motto “Be Prepared.” It’s common sense that not everyone should go to sleep at the same time. Sadly, we can’t teach about our historically horrible colonizers, nor can we teach the skills and patriotism that scouts used to learn.

In spite of this, even watching a National Geographic film on a mob of meerkats shows how the animal kingdom instinctively knows to have a lookout for predators, who will then vocalize to let other meerkats know when danger approaches. These animals of little brain have more knowledge about survival than college students.

Put simply, these “peaceful” activists are unprepared for life in the most basic form. University of Chicago protesters were told that a day was coming when their experiment would have to end. But no university officials or police officers are going to say, “Hey, we are coming to dismantle your tents at 9 a.m. tomorrow, so get your beauty sleep.” That would be absurd.

Adding to this circus, female Princeton protesters’ screeching over bullhorns are annoying enough but when adding their “demands” become comical. One whose button was ready to pop off her jeans was upset because while being on a hunger strike, she was starving. Not only is her statement oxymoronic, the idea that Princeton is somehow at fault for students choosing hunger strikes as a form of protest is idiotic.

If you want to keep from starving, order from Uber Eats. They will deliver your food of choice, so you cease to be “immunocompromised.” However, since all the tents look the same, the delivery driver will need very specific directions to find the correct tent. A second possibility would be to go in shifts to the cafeteria because of the meal plan parents have paid for. However, that wouldn’t look like an appropriate hunger strike on social media. Overall, the best way to boost your immune system is to earn your cooking badge. When you cook your own food, you have more control over its ingredients and learn to be self-sufficient. Sadly, cooking is considered traditional women’s work.

I’m sure these college geniuses would have come up with any of these solutions if only they had enough sleep and food. The United States college system treats its protesters unfairly! All the while organizations bend over backwards to beg these nimrods to like them.

Unlike the Brady Bunch kids’ singing group called the Silver Platters, these daft college students and organizations will keep on, keep on, keep on doing it wrong.

This oath has become meaningless:

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.