Tuesday 29 November 2016

Camp Songs for the 21st Century


Well, as we've already shown, we're not ones to stick by tradition for tradition's sake alone. So what happened when a teachable moment presented itself in the form of a camp song?

As many of you will know, there's a little camp song well loved by many called "Yogi Bear." It goes like this:

(Sung to the tune of Camptown Races)
I know someone you don’t know, Yogi, Yogi,
I know someone you don’t know, Yogi, Yogi Bear.
Yogi, Yogi Bear, Yogi Yogi Bear,
I know someone you don’t know, Yogi, Yogi Bear.

Yogi has a little friend, Boo-boo, Boo-boo,
Yogi has a little friend, Boo-boo, Boo-boo Bear.
Boo-boo, Boo-boo Bear, Boo-boo, Boo-boo Bear,
Yogi has a little friend, Boo-boo, Boo-boo Bear.

Yogi has a girlfriend too, Cindy, Cindy,
Yogi has a girlfriend too, Cindy, Cindy Bear.
Cindy, Cindy Bear, Cindy, Cindy Bear,
Yogi has a girlfriend too, Cindy, Cindy Bear.

They all have an enemy, Ranger, Ranger,
They all have an enemy, Ranger, Ranger Smith. (POW!)
Ranger, Ranger Smith (POW!), Ranger, Ranger Smith, (POW!)
They all have an enemy, Ranger, Ranger Smith. (POW!)

They all live in Jellystone, Jelly, Jelly,
They all live in Jellystone, Jelly, Jellystone.
Jelly, Jellystone, Jelly, Jellystone,
They all live in Jellystone, Jelly, Jellystone.
And each verse has actions. Traditionally, you make bear ears on Yogi, flick your bottom lip when you say "Boo-boo," swish your hair over your shoulder for Cindy, mock pointing a rifle for Ranger, and jiggle your whole body up and down for Jellystone.

Two things happened that night. First, we realized that Cindy's action was ridiculous. The hair flip seemed a bit vapid for our tastes. Instead of a hair flip our girls now flex their muscles to show off their proud Cindy Bears! When we sing this song with girls from other units, our leaders exchange smiles to see our girls show their strength for Cindy! We've already claimed the title of feminists on our blog, so why not bring Cindy along for the ride?

The second thing that happened surprised us. One of the girls started into a verse a few seconds before the rest of us (try synchronizing 25 Brownies, I dare you), but started with: "Yogi has a boyfriend too..." I have no idea if that was a slip of the tongue, she genuinely thought that was the next line, or she thought she was being funny going off book. Either way, that was a moment where we had to make a decision.

Option 1: move along, singing the song the way it has always been sung
Option 2: sing it, sister.

So, of course, we went with option 2. Here's the new verse of Yogi Bear that is sung after the Cindy Bear verse every time we sing this song.
Yogi has a boyfriend too, Charlie, Charlie,
Yogi has a boyfriend too, Charlie, Charlie Bear.
Charlie, Charlie Bear, Charlie, Charlie Bear,
Yogi has a boyfriend too, Charlie, Charlie Bear
Put on the spot as we were, Charlie's action is perhaps lackluster. He puts his hands on his hips and grins. (You can't win 'em all, right?) 


Why? 

While we could have moved along, even perhaps acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with a Charlie Bear, the best thing we could do was to keep calm and sing along. We sung about it, and we moved on. We didn't laugh it off. (It's not a joke.) We didn't have a conversation about it. We just let it happen.

Here's why that was the right choice.

In that moment, we accepted the notion of a boyfriend for Yogi Bear as a normal and real possibility.   In this world of non-nuclear families, increasing acceptance for difference, gay-straight alliances more and more common in schools, and GGC's resource on supporting trans members, burying or ignoring this moment would have been wrong. We are not going to pretend that the Charlie Bears of the world don't exist. We're not going to turn them into a joke. But we are going to make space for them in our song.

Do the girls think of Charlie Bear as a boyfriend or a boy friend? I don't know! But I do know that we're not going to be the ones telling them it's not okay to have either. So now we have a Charlie bear (sorry purists, I know he wasn't in the cartoon) and a strong and confident Cindy. 

Our Bear Clan is ready to take on the world.