Post by Souriquois on Nov 28, 2018 10:45:44 GMT -4
I dunno, I am no fan of Theresa May (well her politics anyway, I have no idea what she is like as a human being), but I saw a clip of her being grilled during PMQs over the fact that no matter what happens with the Brexit deal, average Brits will end up poorer, and it made me think of the concept of the "Glass Cliff", which I suspected Theresa May is being pushed off for a long time.
Basically, the Glass Cliff is when men in positions of power screw things up, step down, and then hire a woman to replace them and deal with the screw-ups. Then, when the failures come to roost, the woman is blamed, not the man who caused the problem.
David Cameron called the Brexit referendum, arrogantly thinking the Remain side would win, and that it would turn UKIP voters towards the Tories and silence the pro-leave people in his own party... basically, he fucked up... then he stepped down and Theresa May was his replacement, meaning she has to deal with the mess. His mess. Not just that but, Labour made serious gains on the Conservatives in the last British election. I mean, yeah, that would be viewed as a positive by most on here, but from the perspective of Conservatives, it's not good at all... I mean, even traditionally Tory voting regions went for Corbyn's Labour Party, meaning people who usually voted Tory either switched to Labour or stayed home on election day, that is a sign of the mess.
AFAIK, Theresa May was even on the Remain side (British people can correct me if I am wrong).
Seriously, I kinda feel bad for her. She must be stressed the fuck out. There is no way she can come out of this looking good. The Remain side will be upset for obvious reasons, and probably the Leave side will be disappointed with her deal.
Usually the textbook example of the Glass Cliff given in feminist theory is the example of Canada's first female prime minister, Kim Campbell. Basically, she was appointed after a male PM, Brian Mulroney, signed onto NAFTA, which was unpopular among Canadians at the time, as well as the collapse of cod stocks and decline of the fur trade (the two industries that built Canada and were still linchpins of the Canadian economy at the time). Mulroney promptly stepped down after signing the deal, the economy collapsed, and in the next election, the Tories were defeated so bad they lost official party status (less than 8 seats in Parliament). She was blamed for the party's and the country's failures (and the economic downturn was bad, I remember it, and even some of my friends not having enough food to eat).
It's sad because I was a little girl at the time Kim Campbell was PM, and even though I had no knowledge of politics or gender or anything like that, I implicitly understood the positivity of it, and remember thinking how awesome it was that our prime minister was a girl. I don't know, maybe if we never had a female PM when I was that young, I wouldn't have pursued a career in tech, and maybe would have went with social pressures on girls to not be interested in science and stuff like that.
Another example of the Glass Cliff given is appointing Ellen Pao as CEO of Reddit. At that time, Reddit was getting a lot of heat for allowing so much hateful rhetoric on their site, and she had to clean it up, resulting in a backlash. She had to step down.
Do you think the "Glass Cliff " is real? Do you think Theresa May is the latest victim?