Monarchy revisited: why should sexism in the choice of monarch be acceptable?
Well, well. My raising of the issue of how women get bumped for men when it comes to succession to our throne has caused a bit of a fuss!
And my old sparring partner at the GLA, Tory Brian Coleman, does in particular seem to have got really quite excited! (He also distorts our monarchy’s actual history. He says we shouldn’t touch something that has been in place for hundreds of years, but in fact the monarchy has been repeatedly reinventing itself and much of what we now think of as traditional was actually started in the twentieth century. Why should attitudes towards women from several hundred years ago be one area left untouched and preserved?)
For me the basic point is quite simple: the monarchy is meant to be a symbol for our country, so what does it say that we enshrine sexism right at its heart – in the rules for who gets to be monarch? Banishing sexism from the monarchy would be a powerful symbol for the rest of society – where there is still so much to do.
Anyway – the New Statesman has now published a further piece from me on the topic, and there was also coverage in the Evening Standard. Fingers crossed for Women’s Hour next week too, unless some other story comes along to bump it off the schedule.
UPDATE: Also hit The Observer too.
Related posts:
- Sexism and the monarchy: what do other countries do? In response to one of my earlier blog postings about...
- Appearing on Woman's Hour: the monarchy Well – having referred one institution (the monarchy) to the...
- Who gets to be our monarch? So – Gordon Brown is finally ‘having discussions’ about the...
- Our sexist monarchy Well – I’ve referred to the Equality Commission the demotion...
- Changing the rules on the monarchy: 25 and counting Following my taking up the cudgels on behalf of women...
Comments
Add a comment
Published and promoted by and on behalf of Liberal Democrats, 62 High Street, Hornsey, N8 7NX.
Site produced by Puffbox in association with Harrisment.
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Bloody good start to your new job – good symbolic issue – imaginative idea – more press coverage – and annoying smug Tories – well done Lynne!!
Surely much of the objection is from people who believe that a good wife does what her husband tells her (thereby giving the throne to a male consort rather than a queen) — harder to counter than a simple “boys and girls should inherit equally”.
[...] in the last Parliament, with Lynne getting widespread media coverage for her mini-campaign and commenting: For me the [...]
Well well, fancy us being taken back to the days when Lynne was pretending to be an opponent of the Tories rather than actually being one.
Needless to say her argument then was pseudo Tory in any event- not shall we address the issue of the monarchy- but rather there is sexism in the law of succession blah blah.
How about we go a logical stage further and recognise that we are a mature democracy that does not need a monarchy- constitutional or otherwise- and all the associated inherited hierarchical claptrap that goes with it?
[...] in the last Parliament, with Lynne getting widespread media coverage for her mini-campaign and commenting:For me the basic point is quite simple: the monarchy is meant to be a symbol for our country, so [...]