Maggie and the glass ceiling
Such a commotion. So much discussion. So many protests. The Dame de fer is no more but she appears to be causing as much controversy now as she did when alive.
My views on Margaret Thatcher were formed by the international media and particularly South Asian media. Her tribulations in Great Britain or her contribution to the tribulations of some in Great Britain were of less inteerst to the world, or at least I was too young to have read much about them.
However in light of all the views floating on social media, newspapers, local radio and television I felt I needed another post- a snapshot of what people are saying in the UK. This quote from Russell Brand's article in The Guardian has been doing the rounds of the internet:
"Barack Obama, interestingly, said in his statement that she had "broken the glass ceiling for other women". Only in the sense that all the women beneath her were blinded by falling shards. She is an icon of individualism, not of feminism."
This is Matt's Bors depiction of the aforementioned glass ceiling in The Nation but affecting all of England here.
The magazine Isis says this:
" Thatcher, like other women in power, also had no choice but to address other people’s “concerns” that her home life would suffer for her career. In her memoirs she described applying to be a parliamentary candidate in the 1950s, when the selection committee for the candidacy asked her exactly that.
In a perfect world where Thatcher is a modern-day feminist, she would have told those men to take a hike off the London Bridge, but not before instituting a mother-friendly workplace with fair maternity leave and childcare.
But here’s the confusing part: she wrote, “I felt that Selection Committees had every right to ask me these questions,” but at the same time, she was hurt by the questions. “They were, after all, an attack on me not just as a candidate but as a wife and mother,” she wrote. “But I refused to be put off by them.” "
This is what Mona Charen says on Free Speech America. Sadly she spells India Gandhi's name wrong but I forgive her as I agree with most of what she says in her article including this:
" Unlike Hillary Clinton, who rode to power on her husband's coattails, or world leaders like Benazir Bhutto and Indira Ghandi whose powerful fathers blazed the trail, Thatcher was completely self-made. She never once complained, as Clinton has more than once, that she was unfairly treated because she was a woman. Many a male MP tangled with her to his cost. She never asked for a vote in the name of women's empowerment. She had no use for such trivialities. She had a country to save."
This interesting quote was also attributed to Maggie T in here article: " The trouble with socialism," she said, "is that eventually you run out of other people's money. "
In Scotland, despite her efforts at building bridges she seems to have got it all wrong says the New Statesman: " But if "Tory" has been a four-letter word in Scotland for the past 30 years, it is largely the legacy of "That Bloody Woman", as she was called on the doorsteps."
Ian Swanson presents the case for how Scotland has become more devolved because of her not despite her: "But even Scots who opposed all her policies do have one reason to be grateful to Margaret Thatcher. Had it not been for her period in power and the unpopularity of her government, there would be no Scottish Parliament. "
And finally, in a few hours from now BBC Radio 1 will play a few seconds of a previously harmless song from the Wizard of Oz which has now shot up to Number 1 after being highjacked by anti-Thatcherites, social activists and probably disenchanted youth who have found another way to vent their anger ? This was on the BBC website today:
" Speaking to BBC News, Mr Cooper said: "You have a track which I believe is disrespectful. It is not a political track, it is a personal attack on an individual who has just died.
"But on the other hand, if I ban the track then you have arguments about censorship and freedom of speech. "
The Wizard of Oz clip has lost its innocence in a way, but hopefully not forever.
There are many people who have expressed their personal distaste at the offensive comments and actions of a handful. Many have resorted to largely peaceful protests in memory of what they perceive to be past injustices of a grave nature. Several have gone a bit over the top looking for streets, statues, airports and buildings to name after her. Some have raised eyebrows at the expected cost of a state funeral.
Such is democracy. I wouldn't have it any other way.
My views on Margaret Thatcher were formed by the international media and particularly South Asian media. Her tribulations in Great Britain or her contribution to the tribulations of some in Great Britain were of less inteerst to the world, or at least I was too young to have read much about them.
However in light of all the views floating on social media, newspapers, local radio and television I felt I needed another post- a snapshot of what people are saying in the UK. This quote from Russell Brand's article in The Guardian has been doing the rounds of the internet:
"Barack Obama, interestingly, said in his statement that she had "broken the glass ceiling for other women". Only in the sense that all the women beneath her were blinded by falling shards. She is an icon of individualism, not of feminism."
This is Matt's Bors depiction of the aforementioned glass ceiling in The Nation but affecting all of England here.
The magazine Isis says this:
" Thatcher, like other women in power, also had no choice but to address other people’s “concerns” that her home life would suffer for her career. In her memoirs she described applying to be a parliamentary candidate in the 1950s, when the selection committee for the candidacy asked her exactly that.
In a perfect world where Thatcher is a modern-day feminist, she would have told those men to take a hike off the London Bridge, but not before instituting a mother-friendly workplace with fair maternity leave and childcare.
But here’s the confusing part: she wrote, “I felt that Selection Committees had every right to ask me these questions,” but at the same time, she was hurt by the questions. “They were, after all, an attack on me not just as a candidate but as a wife and mother,” she wrote. “But I refused to be put off by them.” "
This is what Mona Charen says on Free Speech America. Sadly she spells India Gandhi's name wrong but I forgive her as I agree with most of what she says in her article including this:
" Unlike Hillary Clinton, who rode to power on her husband's coattails, or world leaders like Benazir Bhutto and Indira Ghandi whose powerful fathers blazed the trail, Thatcher was completely self-made. She never once complained, as Clinton has more than once, that she was unfairly treated because she was a woman. Many a male MP tangled with her to his cost. She never asked for a vote in the name of women's empowerment. She had no use for such trivialities. She had a country to save."
This interesting quote was also attributed to Maggie T in here article: " The trouble with socialism," she said, "is that eventually you run out of other people's money. "
In Scotland, despite her efforts at building bridges she seems to have got it all wrong says the New Statesman: " But if "Tory" has been a four-letter word in Scotland for the past 30 years, it is largely the legacy of "That Bloody Woman", as she was called on the doorsteps."
Ian Swanson presents the case for how Scotland has become more devolved because of her not despite her: "But even Scots who opposed all her policies do have one reason to be grateful to Margaret Thatcher. Had it not been for her period in power and the unpopularity of her government, there would be no Scottish Parliament. "
And finally, in a few hours from now BBC Radio 1 will play a few seconds of a previously harmless song from the Wizard of Oz which has now shot up to Number 1 after being highjacked by anti-Thatcherites, social activists and probably disenchanted youth who have found another way to vent their anger ? This was on the BBC website today:
" Speaking to BBC News, Mr Cooper said: "You have a track which I believe is disrespectful. It is not a political track, it is a personal attack on an individual who has just died.
"But on the other hand, if I ban the track then you have arguments about censorship and freedom of speech. "
The Wizard of Oz clip has lost its innocence in a way, but hopefully not forever.
There are many people who have expressed their personal distaste at the offensive comments and actions of a handful. Many have resorted to largely peaceful protests in memory of what they perceive to be past injustices of a grave nature. Several have gone a bit over the top looking for streets, statues, airports and buildings to name after her. Some have raised eyebrows at the expected cost of a state funeral.
Such is democracy. I wouldn't have it any other way.
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