7 - The Republican Debate and Popular Royalism: ‘a Strange Reluctance to Actually Shout at the Queen’

Summary

Debates about relations between Britain and Australia inevitably lead towards proposals for an Australian Republic, constituting a vision of independence from Britain, and the political counterpart of Macaulay’s New Zealander. Where Macaulay’s New Zealander constituted a spectre of future decay used to urge metropolitan reform, the republic offers a counter-vision – equally futuristic – emphasising descendant maturity. Australian nationalism and imperialism have most usually been intertwined and mutually supportive, especially as represented by the Royal Family and a domestic ideal that continues to evoke loyalty, admiration and love. But popular royalism and the deeply gendered meanings of the monarchy are overlooked and disparaged within the Australian political sphere. This emotional configuration highlights a broader ‘double bind’ for women who wish to contest the masculine sphere but are expected to behave in stereotypically female ways to do so. Serious consideration of such cultural meanings is a glaring absence in the present debate, severely limiting the republican movement’s capacity to engage those Australians who remain attached to the monarchy.