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Should Canada's anthem become gender neutral?
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper may seek to change the country’s national anthem “O Canada” by reverting to an
older “gender neutral” version.
The government will “ask Parliament to examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem,”
according to the text of the so-called Throne Speech given today to
open a new legislative session.
The present lyrics to the anthem include the line “True patriot love in all thy sons command,” while a 1908 poem on which
it’s based has the line “True patriot love thou dost in us command,”
according to the country’s Heritage Department.
(source)
What do you think? Should Canada change its anthem?
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on -
ok, but you didn't answer the question. I'm now aware of what you study and how long you've studied it for (kudos to you, by the way, meant non-sarcastically - it's an accomplishment to be able to go to school for that long and still love what you do) (on a side note, our university is now calling it gender studies not women's studies....just to be fair and all you know). But aside from all of that, you haven't answered the question I posed: did you feel when you first learned the lyric to the anthem and about our government system that you were being served an injustice as a woman or did you just come across this feeling lately since all the controversy started?
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Permalink Reply by Lisa on -
Well, I'm Canadian and I asked my kindergarten teacher for a girl version, and she said just to accept "sons" meaning "people" and yeah, I accepted it. The same way I accepted my French teacher telling us to refer to a baseball stadium filled with females and one male, we use the world illes (plural for he in French). And I shrugged, because that's how the world works.
But now we're smarter than we were as kids, and we realize that we ARE equal, and we demand a language that reflects that. -
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Then create your own language where equality reigns :)
I'm not going to debate anymore...honestly, this is silly. And no matter what we say here is going to effect what the government has already decided. So, /end rant/ on my part. -
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Permalink Reply by Lisa on
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But just because you don't feel the same way, that doesn't make my (our) feelings silly. I think this is important.
Important enough to take precedence over other issues? Maybe. Maybe not. Important enough to use money from a limited budget? Maybe. Maybe not. But still important? Heck, yes! -
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Permalink Reply by Renee on -
I went to a women's college so we called it Women's Studies. :-) Though I do recognize women's studies is encased in the academic house of Gender Studies, correction wasn't needed.
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Permalink Reply by Margarita on -
I think they just should do it and get it over with. Why all the controversy?
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Permalink Reply by Duke Fandango on -
Why don't you just go back to 'God Save the Queen'?
Sure, it's dull, archaic, slow paced and generally a bit rubbish but it does at least it recognises the authority of a woman over a people.
Like an Angela Carter novel...ish... -
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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LOL! Because we are a "multicultural nation" - of which I'm very proud of, so don't take that as sarcasm...which in turn means that we cannot nationally recognize just one religion, which in the case of "God save the Queen" would obviously be God and Christianity. That would be a huge no-no. Good thinking outside the box though :)
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Permalink Reply by Kyle on -
There aren't bigger problems in Canada to worry about than this? If that's the case I am moving to Canada for some universal health care.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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lol apparently there aren't if you're using this thread as a basis... :-S
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Permalink Reply by Jessie May Kezele on -
Wow, what a debate! There is a term for how patriarchy is imbedded into our language and it's called "androcentric." James (and others), you may be interested in familiarizing yourself with what it means. Here is a great article on our androcentric language by David A. Gershaw, Ph.D. http://virgil.azwestern.edu/~dag/lol/Androcentric.htm.
I think that it's awesome that Canada is forward thinking enough to bring awareness to the language used in their anthem and what that language may represent. Yes, there may be many other issues that people can consider more important, but our language is such a fundamental part of our experience, that many people aren't even aware of how androcentric it is and how that androcentricity has an underlying impact on the way women are view and treated.
I am sharing my thoughts, respectful of yours, and I thank you in advance for being respectful of mine. It's fine if you disagree, but please be respectful. Thanks! -
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