Comments on: “Canada has dropped a proposal to change the country’s national anthem by making it more gender-inclusive.” http://www.feministlawprofessors.com/2010/03/canada-has-dropped-a-proposal-to-change-the-countrys-national-anthem-by-making-it-more-gender-inclusive/ Nearly all of us root for fairness, not for our own sex. - Nicholas Kristof Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:26:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: hysperia http://www.feministlawprofessors.com/2010/03/canada-has-dropped-a-proposal-to-change-the-countrys-national-anthem-by-making-it-more-gender-inclusive/comment-page-1/#comment-6902 hysperia Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:10:06 +0000 http://feministlawprofessors.com/?p=15253#comment-6902 Unfortunately it was palpably clear that there was no support for this change. The Prime Minister's cabinet made it perfectly clear they wouldn't support a change. Tons of media and online polls showed an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the idea. To be fair, it was clear from the beginning that the offer to change the anthem was a benighted effort to divert us from focussing on real change - this government has undermined pay equity, cut funding for women's groups across the nation and for a Court Challenges programme that was likely one of the best tools we've ever had for challenging discriminatory legislation, done all it could to undermine women's abortion rights, ignored the plight of hundreds of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and just generally done all it could to set us back by a decade. Changing a word in the anthem was never likely to impress us. On the other hand, the media has reported that it was the Conservative "base" that was outraged. I don't hang out with Conservatives but I heard nothing but howls of protest from my supposed progressive allies, mostly men, but women too. I was actually called a "femininazi" simply for saying I didn't think it was a bad idea. We were offered a bright shiny thing that we never asked for and would never have thought of requesting. And got thrown directly under the bus for extending our hot, grubby little hands. Dispiriting to say the least. Was that the point of the exercise? Who knows. Our government is full of troglodytes and it's hard to believe there are any neurons firing. Unfortunately it was palpably clear that there was no support for this change. The Prime Minister’s cabinet made it perfectly clear they wouldn’t support a change. Tons of media and online polls showed an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the idea. To be fair, it was clear from the beginning that the offer to change the anthem was a benighted effort to divert us from focussing on real change – this government has undermined pay equity, cut funding for women’s groups across the nation and for a Court Challenges programme that was likely one of the best tools we’ve ever had for challenging discriminatory legislation, done all it could to undermine women’s abortion rights, ignored the plight of hundreds of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and just generally done all it could to set us back by a decade. Changing a word in the anthem was never likely to impress us.

On the other hand, the media has reported that it was the Conservative “base” that was outraged. I don’t hang out with Conservatives but I heard nothing but howls of protest from my supposed progressive allies, mostly men, but women too. I was actually called a “femininazi” simply for saying I didn’t think it was a bad idea. We were offered a bright shiny thing that we never asked for and would never have thought of requesting. And got thrown directly under the bus for extending our hot, grubby little hands. Dispiriting to say the least. Was that the point of the exercise? Who knows. Our government is full of troglodytes and it’s hard to believe there are any neurons firing.

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