So Japan finally has a male heir to the throne. Everyone in the country should be rejoicing now that the throne is secure. Due to this, all plans to change the succession policy to allow females to ascend the throne have been postponed indefinitely.
I believe my more feminist and sexist friends will be making a big hoo-ha out of this. I guess Japan is still a relatively chauvinistic society (although things are getting better) so they still uphold the tradition of passing on the family fortune and property only to males.
Come to think of it, how many females have actually been able to have a smooth ascend into the throne, especially in an Asian society? I am not talking about empresses who ruled alongside the emperors, but empresses in their own right as sole rulers.
Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty as well as the Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty both went through hell before they could ascend the throne. Both women came across as ambitious, ruthless and very unpopular among their subjects.
Perhaps they went through so much just to get the throne despite all the protests, so they had to be merciless in order to keep the throne? Plus the fact that they were both heads of the country, so all the more they could do as they pleased and killed off whoever who opposed them?
But female rulers-of-states never had it easy in the first place. Queen Mary I set the precedent by being the first queen of England in her own right. Previous queens like Matilda and Jane Grey were not counted as they only managed to hold on to the throne for less than a month.
She proved to be a very unpopular ruler, upholding the Catholic rule and killing off all Protestants. Prince Philip of Spain married her just to get the English throne, but when he realized she was not going to let him rule, he left and she died, a miserable middle-aged lady.
Her sister Queen Elizabeth I fared no better when she ascended the throne. All her courtiers wanted her married so there could be an heir, but she vehemently refused, always declaring that she was married to England.
However, Queen Elizabeth I was more popular than her sister, even though she restored Protestanism and Catholics had to go underground to practise their faith. Yet her rule saw peace and wealth, with arts and culture.
Centuries later, Queen Victoria, by far the longest-ruling monarch yet, also did a pretty good job in managing the country. It was during her time that the British conquered Hong Kong, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Now, her descendant Queen Elizabeth II has been a pretty good ruler of England so far. Although nowadays, it is more the Prime Minister ruling the state than the monarch, but still, she has done a good job.
Who is to say that female mornaches will not do as well? History itself has proven, at times female monarches could be even better rulers than male monarches.
England is not the only country to have female monarches. There was the late Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and her daughter Queen Juliana. There was Corazon Aquino of the Philippines.
Strangely, with more than two hundred years of American history, there has never been a female President. How I wish I can live to the day when I see America, Singapore and Indonesia having their first female President.
I believe my more feminist and sexist friends will be making a big hoo-ha out of this. I guess Japan is still a relatively chauvinistic society (although things are getting better) so they still uphold the tradition of passing on the family fortune and property only to males.
Come to think of it, how many females have actually been able to have a smooth ascend into the throne, especially in an Asian society? I am not talking about empresses who ruled alongside the emperors, but empresses in their own right as sole rulers.
Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty as well as the Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty both went through hell before they could ascend the throne. Both women came across as ambitious, ruthless and very unpopular among their subjects.
Perhaps they went through so much just to get the throne despite all the protests, so they had to be merciless in order to keep the throne? Plus the fact that they were both heads of the country, so all the more they could do as they pleased and killed off whoever who opposed them?
But female rulers-of-states never had it easy in the first place. Queen Mary I set the precedent by being the first queen of England in her own right. Previous queens like Matilda and Jane Grey were not counted as they only managed to hold on to the throne for less than a month.
She proved to be a very unpopular ruler, upholding the Catholic rule and killing off all Protestants. Prince Philip of Spain married her just to get the English throne, but when he realized she was not going to let him rule, he left and she died, a miserable middle-aged lady.
Her sister Queen Elizabeth I fared no better when she ascended the throne. All her courtiers wanted her married so there could be an heir, but she vehemently refused, always declaring that she was married to England.
However, Queen Elizabeth I was more popular than her sister, even though she restored Protestanism and Catholics had to go underground to practise their faith. Yet her rule saw peace and wealth, with arts and culture.
Centuries later, Queen Victoria, by far the longest-ruling monarch yet, also did a pretty good job in managing the country. It was during her time that the British conquered Hong Kong, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Now, her descendant Queen Elizabeth II has been a pretty good ruler of England so far. Although nowadays, it is more the Prime Minister ruling the state than the monarch, but still, she has done a good job.
Who is to say that female mornaches will not do as well? History itself has proven, at times female monarches could be even better rulers than male monarches.
England is not the only country to have female monarches. There was the late Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and her daughter Queen Juliana. There was Corazon Aquino of the Philippines.
Strangely, with more than two hundred years of American history, there has never been a female President. How I wish I can live to the day when I see America, Singapore and Indonesia having their first female President.
3 comments:
Indonesia already had a female president few years ago namely MEGAWATI!!! U r not aware of that?????
Sorry my mistake. I meant Malaysia, but somehow wrote down Indonesia instead.
"Men are rational, they do not need control; rational beings have no need of a state, or of money, or of law-courts, or of any organised, institutional life."
- Isaiah Berlin
I am not really big on rulers.
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