Councillor Condemns Town For Allowing Women To Play Santa At Local Festival Because It's A "Male Role."

Dec 09, 2019 by apost team

When you think about Santa Claus, the image of an older man with a white beard and a red suit understandably comes to mind. He lives in the North Pole, rides in a sleigh with eight reindeer and carries a sack of toys slung over his back.

More than that, he is married to Mrs. Claus, who is an equally jolly, grandmotherly figure.

However, what if Santa Claus was actually a woman?

Last year in the small town of Newton Aycliffe, two women stood up to volunteer for the role of Santa Claus in the local holiday festival, as per the Independent. When a local government official reminded residents that Santa Claus is also named Father Christmas and that the role should only be filled by men, some people began to question why this is the case.

One Labour councilor in particular, Arun Chandran, condemned the city council's decision to allow the women to play Santa's role in the local festival, saying it is a "male role."

“Santa Claus being a man is a long-held tradition accepted by the vast majority of society without question and change just for the sake of it, rather than a good reason or necessity is wrong, and will only serve to attract negative publicity,” Chandran told the publciation.

He added that he would only consider a woman playing Santa acceptable if there were a shortage of men volunteers.

apost.com

The dispute represents a new wave of change in regards to gender politics, which has made its way into the festive season as well. Graphicsprings.com conducted a survey last year on what a "modern" Santa would look like, and almost 18% of US respondents said the Festive figure should be more gender-neutral. 

A representative from the LGBT foundation Claudia Carvell spoke to Unilad about the debate and when asked on her to give her own opinion on the subject, she said more gender representation is necessary regardless of Santa. 

"Gender fluidity is an important issue for everyone, regardless of their gender identity," she said. "We have a restrictive idea of what a man or woman is and it assumes women have to be feminine and men masculine – and there’s no room for people who feel they’re both or neither."

"Everyone experiences these gender pressures, whether they’re LGBT or not, so gender fluidity is something we all need to be discussing as part of our everyday lives – whether it’s rejecting a damaging stereotype, using ‘they’ pronouns as well as ‘he’ and ‘she’, or simply not assuming someone’s gender identity based on their appearance. The conversation just starts with gender-neutral clothing lines or gender-fluid imagery – we need to be hearing more of the voices and experiences of gender-fluid and non-binary people and genuinely start moving away from binary gender representations and fixed gender roles."

How do you feel about the gender of Santa Claus? Is it time to modernize the role, or should Santa Claus traditionally remain a male figure? Feel free to express your opinion on the matter in the comments below.