Is this an “about time” situation or the end of a noble tradition? Will there be clothing jokes over her new 1,400-pound (Sterling) uniform? The creation of the first female Beefeater is certainly an event of impact, considering that the group has been made up strictly of men for over 500 years.
A 42-year-old Scottish woman became the first female “Beefeater” on Monday, taking up her post as a guardian of Britain’s Tower of London. Moira Cameron started duties as a Yeoman Warder after beating five men to secure the coveted position.
Today, there are 35 Beefeaters, plus the Chief Yeoman Warder and Yeoman Gaoler. To apply to become a Beefeater, candidates must have earned medals for long service in the armed forces and good conduct.
Personally, I think women can serve in any position that they demonstrate competence in. Everyone should. This is good, not bad, for the Beefeaters.
Pretty hefty price tag for a really silly looking uniform. More to the point though, I’d bet on her to be more able to defend the place than the obese guy on her left (our right). Anyone want to take bets on how far that guy can run before ending up in the hospital (or morgue) with a massive M.I.?
I’m waiting for them to appoint the first vegetarian Beefeater.
From the story… “Moira Cameron started duties as a Yeoman Warder after beating five men to secure the coveted position.”
I love the phrasing there. It sounds like five men went home black and blue with a lot of explaining to do. Any woman who can administer a beating to five men deserves our respect, if not outright fear 😉
Hear hear! I salute her!
#1. They don’t run. #2. I’m waiting for the first Seikh Beeteater.
#4 – edwinrogers,
Perhaps they should do a bit of running. As for the Seikh, I bet a turban would fit under that hat. It’d probably just take a non-traditional coiling pattern to get it there, but it’d fit. It looks like a big enough hat to allow for plenty of multiculturalism. I can easily imagine the dredlocks of a Rastafarian up there. A spiked mohawk might take a bit of work, perhaps some strategically placed holes …
Why have a never heard of a feminist who pushes for women to serve in front line combat? Individual women do but none of the feminist leaders.
“Personally, I think women can serve in any position that they demonstrate competence in.”
I don’t mind women doing anything they want with their lives, but I DO Mind those bitches with the “Is that a men’s only job/club/group/school? I wanna go in just because it’s only for men and if you don’t let me in I’ll sue because my chesticles tell me to barge into it!”
#3
She beat 5 men? And I thought american porn stars were the sluttiests.
>>#8 I DO Mind those bitches with the “Is that a men’s only
>>job/club/group/school?
Ya, and the darkies who want in to the whites only job/club/group/school.
Are you wearing a pointy white hat and bedsheets by chance?
Oh fuck off, brainwashed PC parrot.
More of your “everybody’s exactly as wonderful as everybody else, and anybody can do anything – except those evil, racist, inferior whites / males / Americans who cause 100% of the worlds problems.”
Go stick your head back up your ass. It should fit with room for a friggin’ refrigerator alongside it. Knee-jerk Commie multiculti moran.
#10
I seem to have touched a nerve. Perhaps YOU were wearing your pointy white hat and bedsheets today hmmm?
Fellas Fellas Fellas calm down. I’m having a real hard time trying to figure out why this thing is dominated by men. BEEFEATER! Do any of you guys really want to be called a beefeater (not that there is anything wrong with that. your sexual preference is your own). My congrats to the people that earned the position but it is 2007. Consider a name change
nightstar, I too think that segregation and discrimination are wrong.
However before you start pointing fingers and talking about pointy hats you need to acknowledge that the U.S. is permeated with it.
We smackdown insults to “minority”(the quotes are there because often the people we perceive as minorities are slowly becoming the majority and depending on where you live may already be, yet we continue to call them the minority) and women as we should, yet we have the Congressional Black Caucus and black only TV programming. The U.S. will never be an equal society until it fixes the embedded hypocrisy.
Even if we ever manage to fix segregation and discrimination based on race and sex, discrimination based on looks and social status remain to be huge issues that rarely get discussed.
What’s next? Captain Morgan bottles with an Angelina Jolie Pirate on the front?
Hm, actually thats not a bad idea.
Ya. pedro, j’ever notice how the fucking PCers are suddenly struck mute when their hypocrisies are pointed out, like you did there?
Me, I think I’m gonna agitate to join the La Leche League. Who do these sexists think they are, excluding men?
In the meantime, I expect our PC contingent to come out of the closet as the bisexuals they obviously must be, since there’re no differences between men and women, to hear them tell it… 🙂
16,
Why not address the issue of qualified people trying to participate in roles they are capable of handling? I don’t see any advocation of unqualified people for PC reasons here. The lady in question bested multiple alternate candidates, don’t forget.
Let’s try and keep the straw men out of the discussion, please?
“Bested” – in some carefully unspecified way, it would appear.
‘Beefeater’ is not some ordinary, commonplace job of work, it is a highly symbolic, traditional and ceremonial occupation. Centuries of tradition are what dictate a Beefeaters duties, uniform, conduct – and gender.
I’m sure that this is a great leap forward in opportunity for the world’s over one billion working age women, to whom this position was previously unavailable. Now they all have a chance to do something maybe 5 of them actually want to do.
Bravo. Such progress.
• • • • • • • •
I’ll go so far as to declare that there is nothing irrational about giving equal opportunity in employment to any person who is qualified.
That said, for a ceremonial position held by men for centuries, the qualifications naturally include being male. It has nothing to do with ‘ability to do the job.’ It’s about being what a person in the position has always been, by dint of historical accuracy and the desire to both adhere to and honor the traditions of that job.
Far more germane is the continued lack of desire on the part of women to take traditionally male jobs that entail danger, extreme effort or onerous work conditions. Open minds will have their eyes opened as well, should they read an important work on this very subject, The Myth of Male Power.
In the battle of the genders, as in those of other human groups, an objective examination reveals that each side in these conflicts has advantages that they’re loath to give up – they want to keep what they have while getting the alleged advantages of the other side. That’s human greed at work, and liberals are no less susceotible to it than conservatives.
#9
Naw, I’m not balding so I don’t have the need to wear a hat.
And as I said before, I don’t mind at all if women want to do with they lives and as Alix has pointed out, she bested others because she was qualified.
It’s the ones bitching to get in just because they want to are the ones who annoy me.
Traditional? If having and retaining an attached penis throughout the entirety of one’s Beefeater career was truly a primary job requirement, then this was a tradition that was overdue to be reexamined in the bright light of reason. I don’t think there’s any point in time where civilization’s progress couldn’t have been slowed or halted using the argument “but it’s traditional!”
If it turns out that this job is almost entirely ceremonial, I would argue that there’s all the more reason to extend gender inclusion to this little corner of a changing world. In 30 years, we’ll see it as a fine old “tradition.”
Hey as long as the gin stays the same, I’m ok with it.
#21 Gary you slick bastard, you beat me to it!
I too was wondering what having a penis had to do with “historical accuracy and the desire to both adhere to and honor the traditions of that job.”
#13 JMB you’ve hit the bullseye. The concept of a Black caucus has always pissed me off. Thats nothing but racial discrimination. Just like affirmative action. These so called “reverse racism” initiatives are anything but.
Lauren and Pedro you are so caught up in your own dominant white male ego, latent homo-erotica bullshit that you can’t see what the real issue is.
#19 BTW Angel. Sorry for hitting below the belt. I was attempting to make a point.
I’m glad you have a sense of humor and some resilience.
#26
S’okay, I know some women who are damn overachievers and have their damn right to be what ever they want, but then there’s the “It’s like equal rights okay? It’s like we deserve to be there? It’s like if you don’t let us in then it’s sexist okay?” that just get on my nerves..
#7, Ha!
Q: How many WMs (women Marines) does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None, her Gunny does it for her.