Gendering Boris Johnson’s Cabinet Exit

Description

Boris Johnson’s resignation from his role as foreign secretary in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet was a protest against what he considered a ‘softening’ on Brexit. In his resignation letter, Johnson described May’s strategy as capitulation to “needless self-doubt”, implying both indecision and ineffectiveness. It further developed a narrative steeped in gendered references highlighting campaigns to protect female cyclists and girls’ education. It portrayed women as passive victims in need of protection—in this case from EU bureaucracy—to justify his calls for a ‘hard’ Brexit. 

Interspersed with military metaphors, colonial references, deal-making discourses, and narratives of protection, the language used in Johnson’s resignation letter speaks to a wider problem: the extent to which British politics and the negotiations continue to be dominated by a racialised and gendered linguistic register.