Robert Baden-Powell: differenze tra le versioni

Mentre i primi lavori sulla vita di B.-P. tendevano verso l'agiografia,<ref name=Jeal>{{cita libro|nome=Tim|cognome=Jeal|titolo=[[Baden-Powell (libro)|Baden-Powell]]|editore=Hutchinson|città=Londra|anno=1989|id=0-09-170670-X}}</ref>, due autori moderni di biografie Michael Rosenthal dell'università del Columbia e Tim Jeal nel suo libro ''Baden-Powell'', hanno raggiunto la conclusione che probabilmente era un omosessuale represso<ref name=Rosenthal>{{cita libro|nome=Michael|cognome=Rosenthal|titolo=The character factory: Baden-Powell and the origins of the Boy Scout movement|editore=Pantheon Books|città=New York|anno=1986|id=0-39-4511697}}</ref><ref name=Jeal />

Baden-Powell "…consistently praised the male body when naked. At [[Gilwell Park]], the Scouts' camping ground in [[Epping Forest]], he always enjoyed watching the boys swimming naked, and would sometimes chat with them after they had just 'stripped off.'"<ref name=Jeal /> Jeal cites a revealing account by Baden-Powell of a visit to Charterhouse, his old public school, where he stayed with a bachelor teacher and housemaster who had taken large numbers of nude photographs of his pupils. Baden-Powell's diary entry reads: "Stayed with Tod. Tod's photos of naked boys and trees. Excellent."  In a subsequent communication to Tod regarding starting up a Scout troop at the school, Baden-Powell mentions an impending return visit and adds: "Possibly I might get a further look at those wonderful photographs of yours." (According to R. Jenkyns, the album contained nude boys in "contrived and artificial" poses.)<ref name=Jeal />

However Jeal also shows that paintings of nude boys were regarded as art, being hung in the Royal Academy each year without causing particular stir. Tod's photos were accepted by parents and school authorities until the sixties, when they were destroyed, "to protect Tod's reputation."<ref name=Jeal /> Baden-Powell's admiration of the male body was physical, as being the best example of the beauty of nature, and with that of God, the creator: "A clean young man in his prime of health and strength is the finest creature God has made in the world." As an example he told about some Swazi chiefs with whom he met some gymnastic instructors. The chiefs were not fully satisfied until they had had the men stripped and had examined themselves their muscular development."<ref name="RtS">{{cite book | last = Baden-Powell | first = Robert | year=1955 | title = Rovering to Success | page = 119}}</ref> Baden-Powell himself did not write about or draw males in an erotic sense, although he was a good amateur artist.<ref name="Boehmer">{{cite book | last = Boehmer | first = Elleke | year=2004 | title = Introduction to Scouting for Boys | publisher =  Oxford University press | page = XXXiii}}</ref> Jeal stresses that Baden-Powell is not known to have acted on his attraction to boys, nor did he tolerate scoutmasters who indulged in sexual escapades with their charges, recommending flogging for such offenses.<ref name=Jeal />

Geoffrey W. Bateman remarks, "Jeal's conclusion may or may not withstand scrutiny, but his discussion emphasizes an important undercurrent to Baden-Powell's life. He intensely identified with and enjoyed all-male culture and the activities that accompanied it. Whether this interest was simply an extension of a Victorian sensibility toward male friendship or a latent indication of homosexuality, we may never know."<ref> {{cite web |url= http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/baden_powell_r,2.html|title= Baden-Powell's Sexuality |accessdate=2008-08-22 |author= Geoffrey W. Bateman|date= |work= Baden-Powell, Lord Robert (1857-1941)|publisher= glbtq}}</ref>

A third biographer, [[William Hillcourt]], who collaborated with Olave Baden-Powell in the writing of ''Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero'', makes no mention of any homosexual tendencies and said of Baden-Powell's courtship of his future wife, "From the moment Baden-Powell met Olave [aboard the ship ''Arcadia'' in 1912], his mind was filled with thoughts of her. His whole being was stirred as it had never been before."<ref>{{cite book | last= Hillcourt | first = William | authorlink = William Hillcourt | coauthor = Olave, Lady Baden-Powell | title = Baden-Powell: The Two Lives Of A Hero | year = 1992 | publisher = Gilwellian Press | location = New York | isbn=0-8395-3594-5 |id= {{LCCN|64||024263}} |pages=320&ndash;325 }}</ref>