Graduate Program

Communication Studies

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2010

Thesis Director

Marita Gronnvall

Thesis Committee Member

Olaf Hoerschelmann

Thesis Committee Member

Sherry Holladay

Abstract

The centennial anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) marks the perfect opportunity to critique the rhetoric of an organization that has influenced millions of young boys across America. Over the last 100 years, the Boy Scouts have remained a solid pillar and exemplar of a certain set of dominant Western values and ideologies, primarily those associated with hegemonic masculinity. Through a critique of the rhetoric of this organization, we can see the various constructions of the dominant ideologies as well as various manifestations of subversions and transgressions from the dominant ideology. With this thesis, I explore the impossible possibility, namely, that through a polysemous subversive read of the written and visual texts of the BSA, gay Scouts are enabled to carve out a counterhegemonic space for themselves within the organization.

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