Archaic Institutions Trying To Change
by digby
This is one of the most hilariously confusing controversies ever, filled with anachronisms and enlightenment in varying degrees of irrelevance .
The short version is that a Swedish princess married her commoner fitness instructor but insisted on having her father the King give her away even though the Swedes stopped doing that eons ago in recognition of the equal status of women in marriage and the fact that fathers don’t actually “give away” anything. Apparently, everyone in the country was upset about the princess’s sexist request, especially the clergy. The excuse the Royal Family gave was that the King was her monarch who was giving his sanction to his heir, the princess — which only became possible when the Swedes recently became the first monarchy to allow the succession to go to the firstborn regardless of gender.
What a case of archaic institutions colliding with modernity, eh? Wow.
BTW: they ended up compromising by having the King walk her halfway down the aisle and then meeting up with her groom to walk the rest of the way to the alter. I love those Scandinavians.
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