Ours has always been a predominantly working class culture, where women’s labour rarely aligned with traditional gender roles of the time, due to the precarity and hardship of island life. Shetland women never fit into traditional gender rolesįor me, one of the most frustrating aspects of the “tradition” argument was how it simply did not reflect Shetland’s own history, and the centrality of women within it. If you want heritage skills and culture to prosper in the future generation, barring 50% of that generation from such knowledge is an extremely poor survival strategy.Īs for community-building and belonging, these things are hardly nourished through a message that says the labour, creativity and joy of women and girls is of less worth than their male peers.
HAVE THE AUDACITY CROSSWORD FULL
The issue always was, however, that excluding women from full participation in Up Helly Aa upheld none of the collective values it claimed to defend. Under the weight of such anxieties, I very much commend the current LUHA committee for lifting its ban on women. In a world where few things are built with longevity in mind, where islands are often valued more for their resources than their people, where the housing crisis continues to prevent many Shetlanders from returning back home, it is easy to see how local traditions become important tools of continuity, community-building and belonging.Ĭommunity-building and belonging are hardly nourished through a message that says the labour, creativity and joy of women and girls is of less worth than their male peers I know it stems from wider, very valid fears about the survival of island ways of life. Listen, I’m not without sympathy for those who valued the tradition argument as an important one. There was, however, one argument that held a certain significance: “It’s tradition, and you can’t change tradition.” Lerwick in Shetland (Photo: TTphoto/Shutterstock) “It’s not historically accurate”, “it’s a private party the organisers can do what they want”, and “women aren’t strong enough to carry the torches” were a few of the more absurd justifications given.
There has never been a good argument for the exclusion of women and girls in Up Helly Aa, though many were given. Barring 50% of a generation is a poor survival strategy Let’s reflect on that a moment: a grown man walked into a school and told a group of children they could not participate in the biggest event in their community’s calendar, for the plain fact they were girls. On learning of their intent, a member of the then-committee was sent to intervene, ensuring the lasses would not march alongside the boys at the main public procession. In 1985, the all-male committee would again stamp down on the matter, this time squashing the ambitions of a group of 13-year-old girls who had had the audacity to form a squad-act and attempted to join the Junior Up Helly Aa. The first recorded instance of a woman marching in the Lerwick Up Helly Aa procession was in 1902.Īccording to historian CE Mitchell, “the Committee put its foot down on this experiment, and, so far as it is known, it was not repeated”. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Information An icon of an information logo. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark.
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