Now, usually I could give a rats ass about Will and Kate. Yea...i said it! AND WHAT?!? *bucks violently* loool. But The feminist in me just had to give this article a go. I just love how the rules of male dominance are being challenged world wide. EEEOOOW!
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In England, women have the same rights as men—that is, unless they're royalty. The old-school rules of the British monarchy state that gender, not age, dictate lineage to the throne. So if Kate and Will had a girl, she'd only become queen if she didn't have a younger brother.
But the royal era of gender inequality is on the precipice of change, and not a moment too soon. Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed sweeping bans against the monarch's discriminatory, outdated laws.
Under his new proposal, Kate and Will's firstborn girl would have the same rights as their firstborn boy. And, on a larger scale, the rules would no longer favor kings over queens.
"We espouse gender equality in all other aspects of life, and it is an anomaly that in the rules relating to the highest public officer we continue to enshrine male superiority," Cameron wrote in his letter to the monarchy's commonwealth leaders.
Cameron also wants to toss out another dusty rule that bans royals who marry Catholics from succeeding the throne. This law was created during the tumultuous period of church and state upheaval in the late 1600's and Cmeron doesn't believe there's any justification for it in modern day times.
Palace officials haven't weighed in on the proposal officially, neither have Will and Kate. But the fact that the proposal has been raised now, only months into their game-changing marriage, probably isn't coincidental.
Kate and Will have already ushered in a new chapter for the royal family: they lived together long before they were wed, they're actually good friends, and nobody agreed to "obey" anybody else during their wedding vows. Although Will has the royal blood, Kate holds the proverbial conch with the public. This is not your "Sleeping Beauty" fairytale and it seems like a no-brainer that their union would be the perfect time to spark some change in the old-world sexism of the monarchy.
Still, Cameron's proposal isn't a done deal. In order for the changes to take place, he'll need approval from the 16 commonwealth countries under the rule of Queen Elizabeth. He'll also have to contend with the kind of royal-watching purists who are still reeling from Kate and Will's "unorthodox" wedding. Yes, they're out there.
Also surfacing are speculations as to the timing of Cameron's proposal: why now? Could there be a future queen already on board? Consider royal bump-watch officially on high alert.
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/sexist-royal-succession-rules-tradition-favoring-boys-could-change-for-will-and-kate-2583515/
