Reflections on a Royal Wedding and (Pony) Princess Culture · 10:38pm May 22nd, 2018
Last weekend Britain had the excitement of a royal wedding, which is something that gets many people on this small island a little worked up. Some excitement also spread to America, and to much of the rest of the world. It seems, however, to have not attracted much comment on Fimfiction, despite the prominence of princess culture in our show. Evidently our community is only interested in princesses of the pony variety. The lack of a changeling invasion, or anything like that, meant this would never be as exciting as a pony wedding…
Anyway I thought I would give a few random comments on the ‘American princess fairy tale’ (well that’s what the Guardian say the US media said about it).
The most amusing part has been observing the diverse spectrum of attitudes of my friends and colleagues. At one end, there are the committed royalists, who got up early to put on their best clothes and invited their friends around to sit in front of the television and watch every minute of the ceremony with a glass of Pimms in one hand and a little union flag in the other. They just loved it.
Most people lie in the middle, with varying levels of disinterest. My scientist friends typically claimed to have no interest, regarding monarchy as a fundamentally flawed concept. But still checked out the pictures when they thought no one was watching. Just to see what the dress looked like.
At the other extreme are the more militant of my trade union comrades, who talk about the cost to the public, the displacement of homeless people in Windsor, the feeling that such extravagance is unjustified when so many rely on food banks to feed their families. They have a general hatred of the unearned wealth and power that the royal family represents.
These criticisms are certainly not baseless, but in the current political climate, this does not seem to be a battle worth fighting. The crimes of the right wing establishment against immigrants, the disabled, and benefit claimants, are far more significant than that of a royal couple getting hitched. Might as well let them have this one, and hey, why not join in the party? Where’s the point in having a constitutional monarchy if you don’t get to join a street party to celebrate the wedding with free cake?
And, we can hope, a mixed-race American feminist, like Meghan Markle, is exactly the sort of new princess we need to shake up the British establishment. Or at least stop her husband from doing anything silly like dressing up as a Nazi again.
The other criticism, as I have blogged about before, is that princess culture - telling little girls that they all dream of being princesses - is reinforcing damaging stereotypes, discouraging them from trying ‘unfeminine’ things. Fortunately in recent years, Disney scriptwriters have managed to create more independent interesting princess characters, even if the message doesn’t always get through to the doll marketing department. Unfortunately real world princesses have lagged behind the fictional ones. The constraints of the job seem to make it difficult for them to be much more than ‘shop-window mannequins’, praised for being well-dressed, but not much else. Hopefully things are now changing.
Maybe one day we will get a princess with a degree in engineering, who will join in efforts to get more girls into tech, and work hard to promote science. Then all science communicators will have to forget our anti-monarchy prejudices and join the royalists.
Until then Twilight Sparkle is best princess.
If I remember correctly, Prince William is the first member of the royal family with a college degree? Here's to hoping that becomes a pattern.
The queen has to give the Goverment All her money, and only get a few percent in return in the civil List? The total rebuild of Windsor castle after being burnt down was by public dontations, not by credit, loan etc, so thats two ways the buisness minded hate the idea of the monarchy?
Oh, and send at least the sons into front line conflicts? Etc?
Queen likes to wear wellies and drive around in a Landrover instead of Gold plated custom Offroader SUV, because, why should she? She has learnt to do much above such petty riches?
Or simply. she doesnt have the stress of a job? She has to deal with That lot.
Nice discussion. I was a bit confused by the last sentence though: best princess, clearly, is depicted on the whiteboard.
Ignorant American and staunch republican (small-r) here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this sentiment, or something like it, been expressed about every new Windsor princess since at least Diana? It's a bit much to hope for at this point, no?
I've always had a soft spot for some of the historical princesses; they could be quite bad-ass. Though I suppose that for most of her life, Queen Christina, the "Girl-King" from Sweden, doesn't really qualify as a princess. She was openly gay, which was... not approved-of at the time (early-mid 17th century). She had interests in alchemy, mathematics, and the arts, and strove to improve intellectual pursuits and education until her abdication.
The Roman Empress Eligibus probably doesn't qualify as a princess either, but she was the earliest transgendered individual I've ever read about. She was also one of the more party-crazy rulers of Rome (of course, there were a lot of those). That can be a excused somewhat since she was a teenager for most of her rule.
And of course, who could forget Cleopatra? A dangerous political opponent and ruthless queen, she married her brother, Ptolemy. She later married her other brother, Ptolemy. Then she got mad at the second Ptolemy, so she flirted with a general and overthrew him.
I guess we don't really think of any of these powerful women as princesses, not really. But remember, before anyone can be a queen, they first must be a princess. Except for Chrysalis, I guess.
Tl;dr: Princesses can be pretty awesome and Disney should consider looking into more historical sources for their stories.
(Disclaimer: Most of the information above was from a school report I did in early April, and I can't find it. I'm pretty sure that most of the broad strokes are good, but maybe do your own research on these figures before quoting any of this. I'm especially uncertain about how to spell Eligibus.)
(Edit: looked up correct spelling. It's Elagabalus. I wasn't even close.)
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His dad went to Trinity College, Cambridge. Which raised a few eyebrows in university admissions circles as no one with school results like his would usually be admitted, but I imagine it was difficult for them to say no when they had the palace on the phone.
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The idea of what a princess is has changed enormously over time, and it keeps changing. Did you read 'Princesses Behaving Badly' (Linda Rodriguez McRobbie)? I learned of that from FanOfMostEverything's blog. Read some of it, but can't remember which princesses it included.
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I hadn't! But now I have, and it was quite good. Thank you for the recommendation.