tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/princess-diana-21885/articlesPrincess Diana – The Conversation2024-02-07T12:03:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2218272024-02-07T12:03:09Z2024-02-07T12:03:09ZWhat recent Netflix shows – including The Crown and Beckham – get wrong about the British press<p>Twelve years after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hacking-affair-is-not-over-but-what-would-a-second-leveson-inquiry-achieve-29715">Leveson inquiry</a> and the closure of News of the World, the British press are having a reckoning on Netflix. Recent celebrity documentaries Beckham and Robbie Williams, and the final season of TV drama The Crown, have painted a portrait of the UK tabloids as cruel, sadistic and predatory of its homegrown celebrities.</p>
<p>While criticism of the British tabloids – particularly the ethics and methods of the News of the World – is often justified, the specifics offered by all three shows fall flat. Focusing on the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Princess Diana, Robbie Williams and David Beckham were each at the height of their fame, they prioritise individual stories over the big picture. </p>
<p>In doing so, these Netflix releases paint specific paps and a broad, amorphous “press” as demons, but ignore the broader socio-political forces, corruptions and collusions uncovered by Leveson in 2012 and the #MeToo movement in 2017.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571232093-retromania/">music journalist Simon Reynolds</a>, mass-market pop culture operates by a “20-year-rule” which sees trends and preoccupations return every two decades. This makes the turn of the millennium ripe for nostalgic and critical reflection in the 2020s. </p>
<p>The Crown explores the death of Princess Diana 25 years after her death. Robbie Williams tells the story of the singer, 25 years after the release of his biggest song, Angels. And Beckham explores the aftermath of the footballer’s infamous World Cup red card, 25 years on. </p>
<p>While these shows all try to claim part of the noughties nostalgia trend, they feel politically and contextually vacant. They each miss the opportunity to rigorously critique constructions of celebrity in the 1990s and 2000s.</p>
<h2>The millennium press</h2>
<p>Something all three shows miss is how textured and transitional the media landscape of the period was. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13183222.1998.11008685">By 1998</a>, only 8% of editorial in The Sun and The Mirror could be classed as “public affairs” – the rest focused on gossip, sports, or both. </p>
<p>Inevitably, as celebrity culture became news, news also became gossip and both categories <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443711411005">disintegrated</a> into what we now call “clickbait”. </p>
<p>In the 2000s, internet publishing and blogging also changed the way news was circulated and reported. As literary critic <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-the-essay/essay-online/BD8747CA96D6E6FF398B2392223A6E0D">Jane Hu</a> argues: “The commercial internet generated an economy of attention that rewarded stories that were at once sensationalist and relatable – personal and universal – in a drive for content that would go viral among the broadest range of readers.”</p>
<p>This changed not only the way stories were reported, but how subjects of those stories were treated. As The Crown dolefully shows, one picture of Princess Diana could sell for millions to print newspapers in 1997. A decade later, the economy of attention cultivated by internet journalism would <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/claudiarosenbaum/downfall-of-the-paparazzi">drive the price of those pictures down</a>, even as the demand for content rose. Photos were now readily available online for free, and regular people could upload favourite “spotted” photos of their favourite celebrity for anyone to see, making the work of the paparazzi less valuable. </p>
<h2>The Crown</h2>
<p>The final season of The Crown covers the last eight months of Princess Diana’s life. The late princess’s treatment at the hands of her husband, the royal family and the British press had previously been covered in <a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270">eight hour podcasting</a> deep dives, various documentaries, and the Oscar nominated film, Spencer (2021). </p>
<p>These works largely stressed how sexist cultural responses to Diana were both before and after her death, when she was depicted as <a href="https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/81f2c07a-ece0-4bb7-841f-08baeab9e0c3">“bitter”</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/princess-diana-bbc-interview-martin-bashir">“unbalanced”</a> and “<a href="https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/81f2c07a-ece0-4bb7-841f-08baeab9e0c3">silly</a>” by the British media.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vL7N89XiPk4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A scene from The Crown shows Diana speaking with the paparazzi.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For a drama once well regarded for the breadth – if not the accuracy – of its historical storytelling, The Crown’s monomaniacal fixation with the final weeks of Diana’s life marked a season one critic called <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/16/the-crown-season-6-review-so-bad-its-like-an-out-of-body-experience-netflix">“so bad it’s basically an out-of-body experience”</a>. </p>
<p>Through fictionalised monologues from actors playing real photographers and journalists, the press compare themselves to “hunters” and “killers”. It’s as if the show – which was once semi-critical and adamantly contextual of the Royal family – wanted to reframe them as powerless innocents, exploited by the dastardly press. </p>
<h2>Beckham and Robbie Williams</h2>
<p>Unlike The Crown, the main characters in the documentaries Beckham and Robbie Williams are not only living subjects but also active participants in the programmes. This means they must balance the egos of their subjects, justified critique of the press intrusions they experienced, and appeals for audience sympathy, which often minimises the role of the celebrity in their own media dramas. </p>
<p>Beckham consults a litany of talking heads – former managers, teammates, Spice Girls and two suitably shame-filled paparazzi – to build a portrait of the footballer and his union with wife Victoria. </p>
<p>Produced by Beckham’s own company, the programme is a portrait of how the couple <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/beckham-shows-us-how-david-and-victoria-beckham-see-themselves">“see themselves”</a>. This is reinforced by the <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/10/david-beckham-netflix-doc-doctored-truth-spin-narrative-say-fact-checkers-1235586518/">errors journalists have found</a> in the narrative Netflix presents. These include exaggerations of the level of hostility Beckham experienced at Manchester United and cuts in footage which imply he was fouled at times he wasn’t. </p>
<p>When it’s done right, and particularly with the benefit of hindsight, critiques of the tabloids adhere with wider critique of other institutions – like the royal family, music industry, or Premier League football. In doing this, they can show how hostile to difference or dissension our dominant systems really are.</p>
<p>Two things can be true. The Beckhams can both manufacture tabloid interest to engender lucrative brand deals, and be unfairly stalked by predatory photographers and highly sexist critiques of their family, relationship, and parenting. As Williams notes: “When you become famous you want to give away the privacy you want to give away. You don’t wanna have your privacy taken from you.”</p>
<p>With their hyperfocus on sympathy for the celebrity, and lack of wider context, all three Netflix shows fall short of offering larger analysis of the British press.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Sykes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While these shows all try to claim part of the noughties nostalgia trend, they feel politically and contextually vacant.Rachel Sykes, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180292023-11-17T04:34:41Z2023-11-17T04:34:41ZThe Crown season six: an overly detailed, unimaginative soap opera – I needed a martini to get through it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560111/original/file-20231117-29-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C26%2C5850%2C2929&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Bernstein/Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The opening scene of season six of The Crown sees a man walking his dog under the light of the Eiffel Tower. It’s 1997 and a Mercedes car speeds past and ends in a horrendous crash in a Paris tunnel. The man’s dog is being recalcitrant and refusing to take its evening wee.</p>
<p>When The Crown debuted in 2016, the quality of the story lines, acting and impressive production standards were so striking that millions of viewers discovered the addiction of bingeing a television program; episodes would be viewed on a loop and toilet breaks would be delayed. </p>
<p>Unlike the dog in the first episode of season six, however, I suspect I won’t be alone in being one of the viewers who found it quite easy to hop up and make cups of tea and trips to the loo throughout the four episodes of The Crown’s final season.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1weI6ICx-hg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-hidden-agenda-of-royal-experts-circling-the-crown-series-4-151293">Friday essay: the hidden agenda of royal experts circling The Crown series 4</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>All about Diana</h2>
<p>Season six breaks away from The Crown’s formula of royal story lines that depict key moments in the monarchy’s private and public life. Previous seasons followed the same line of representing some aspect of the Windsor’s private upheavals, set alongside the queen’s interactions with her prime minister of the day. Story lines covered decades rather than short time spans; the narrative arc was expansive.</p>
<p>The focus this time round is on Diana’s (Elizabeth Debicki) last summer, a frenzied rush around the south of France and through the streets of Paris with her new paramour, Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla). </p>
<p>The figure of the queen (Imelda Staunton) makes far fewer appearances than in the first five seasons, and by the time we come to 1997, Elizabeth II has all but shrunk into the mist and rain of the Scottish Highlands, outshone by the former daughter-in-law who is living out her last days in the glare of the Mediterranean sun and strobing flashbulbs of the paparazzi press packs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diana and Dodi" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560112/original/file-20231117-19-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We are given a frenzied rush around the south of France and through the streets of Paris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Escale/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prime Minister Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel) makes a brief appearance, imploring his sovereign to give her former daughter-in-law a royal role on the international stage.</p>
<p>And then it’s back to Diana and Dodi.</p>
<p>Occasionally, there are glimpses of Charles and Camilla’s life. Charles (Dominic West) holds a 50th birthday party for Camilla (Olivia Williams) that the queen refuses to attend. Charles and the queen stage an awkward conversation about the queen’s formal acceptance of Camilla as the most important woman in his life. </p>
<p>Princes William (Rufus Kampa) and Harry (Fflyn Edwards) are the pawns in their parents’ post-divorce jostling for media attention. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The family in a boat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560113/original/file-20231117-27-o2qyb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Princes William and Harry are the pawns in their parents’ divorce.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Bernstein/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville) appears as the only royal to have met some acceptance of her royal lot in life, and Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) appears on the sidelines, merely bewildered by the travelling media circus that is Diana’s post-royal life. </p>
<p>And then it’s back to Diana and Dodi.</p>
<h2>A pale comparison</h2>
<p>The switch from public/private Windsor story lines to a focus on Diana makes for far less arresting viewing than previous seasons. The irony is that it is screenwriter – and the show’s creator – Peter Morgan himself who has jeopardised this period of The Crown by already having done it better in The Queen (2006) directed by Stephen Frears.</p>
<p>The Queen, starring Helen Mirren as the queen, is set during the week following Diana’s death in Paris and charts the royal family’s faltering navigation of the Windsor “brand” through the seismic shift in public perceptions of the royals during that week.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mqL42sjb96I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Morgan’s screenplay was made especially effective by having Diana not appear as a fully fleshed character in the film; instead, she is a pixelated, mediated figure glimpsed on television screens and through the zoom lens of a thousand cameras. </p>
<p>In The Queen, Diana is literally a visual representation: an image so large in the public imagination that her likeness eclipses both the figure of the sovereign and the royal institution itself.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-fairytale-to-gothic-ghost-story-how-40-years-of-biopics-showed-princess-diana-on-screen-173648">From fairytale to gothic ghost story: how 40 years of biopics showed Princess Diana on screen</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Having already produced in The Queen an original and complex portrayal of how Diana was instrumental in changing the royal house forever, Morgan had backed himself into a corner. Here there seems apparently little option than to tell the story again in the form of an overly detailed, unimaginative soap opera.</p>
<p>Worse, he chooses to tell the story this time around by having Diana appear as a ghost who has conversations with both Charles and the queen about how much they can learn from her legacy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diana in a blue swimsuit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560114/original/file-20231117-17-mms70g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elizabeth Debicki does the heavy lifting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Escale/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All the actors do their best (Debicki does the heavy lifting) and the costumes are spot on. You just know that the biscuits and tea that the actors are drinking are the real thing, and it’s only the scotch whiskies the characters slug back on luxury yachts and at Balmoral that are substituted by iced tea.</p>
<p>It was, however, by the stage of Diana’s first ghost appearance in the final episode, Aftermath, that my cups of tea had turned into vodka martinis and the trips to the loo were becoming more frequent – even when I didn’t need to go.</p>
<p><em>The Crown season six, part one, is on Netflix now.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giselle Bastin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When The Crown debuted in 2016, the quality of the story lines, acting and impressive production standards were striking. What happened?Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2158552023-11-07T16:51:29Z2023-11-07T16:51:29ZThe Crown: Queen Elizabeth’s popularity at her death could lead to a favourable depiction of her least flattering moment<p>As the 20th century drew to a close, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/manchester-scholarship-online/book/14473/chapter-abstract/168500076?redirectedFrom=fulltext">support for the royal family was at a low ebb</a>. This decline was precipitated by the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in December 1992. That year also saw the publication of Andrew Morton’s <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/royals/etc/morton.html">Diana: Her True Story</a>. </p>
<p>What Queen Elizabeth II called her “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehASvMvrf5U">annus horribilis</a>” (terrible year) was compounded by <a href="https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/charles-interview-jonathan-dimbleby-the-crown/">Prince Charles’s ITV interview with Jonathan Dimbleby</a> (1994), in which he confessed to adultery, and by <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/royals/interviews/bbc.html">Diana’s tell-all conversation with the BBC’s Martin Bashir</a> (1995). </p>
<p>In this controversial interview, Diana said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t think many people will want me to be queen. Actually, when I say many people I mean the establishment that I married into, because they have decided that I’m a non-starter.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Diana, now no longer in line to be Queen of England, resolved instead to be “queen of people’s hearts”. The huge <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-week-of-mourning-for-diana-revealed-about-the-20th-century-british-psyche-81907">outpouring of grief at her death in 1997</a> was testament to her success, prompting <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/04/diana.royals.under.fire/">criticism</a> of Elizabeth for her delayed public response.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/04/diana.royals.under.fire/">queen’s press secretary</a> said at the time: “the Royal Family have been hurt by suggestions that they are indifferent to the country’s sorrow”. There followed a series of concessions. The queen agreed for the union jack to be flown at half-mast above Buckingham Palace. She returned to London from Balmoral and made a televised tribute to Diana’s life. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the following year <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/satisfaction-queen-record-high">Ipsos recorded a temporary drop in satisfaction</a> with the queen from 75% in 1992 to 66%.</p>
<p>This historical moment is central to the upcoming sixth and final season of Netflix’s The Crown. Portraying the death of Diana within the royal family is familiar ground for The Crown’s creator Peter Morgan, who first dealt with the aftermath of the tragedy in his <a href="https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/TheQueenScreenplay.pdf">script for The Queen</a> (2006). </p>
<p>In that film, UK prime minister Tony Blair reassures Elizabeth that “when people come to assess your legacy, no-one will remember those few days”. He was proven right: in the queen’s Platinum Jubilee year (2022) she <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/sky-high-public-approval-for-the-queen-ahead-of-platinum-jubilee#:%7E:text=Two%2Dthirds%20(65%25)%20are,to%2018%25%20who%20are%20not.">rode high in the Ipsos poll with 86% support</a>. </p>
<p>My sense is that The Crown will amplify the broadly sympathetic portrayal of Morgan’s 2006 biopic. Supported by her popularity at her death, it will likely present the queen’s inaction in 1997 as a temporary misjudgement in a long life of public service. </p>
<h2>A rebounding monarch</h2>
<p>Elizabeth’s popularity was bolstered in the years between the release of The Queen and the finale of The Crown. This was partly due to a succession of milestones which encouraged public celebration of the royal family and its matriarch. </p>
<p>These include the royal weddings of 2011 and 2018, the televised christening of Prince George (2013) (the so-called “<a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7765/9781526113047.00018/html">republican slayer</a>”), and the queen’s Diamond (2012) and Platinum Jubilees. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1weI6ICx-hg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>These ceremonial events co-exist with lighthearted media appearances revealing the queen’s more playful side. The most memorable of these are her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AS-dCdYZbo">appearance opposite Daniel Craig’s James Bond</a> in the opening ceremony to the 2012 Olympics, and opposite <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UfiCa244XE">Paddington</a> during the Platinum Jubilee. </p>
<p>Whereas the monarch’s apparently cool response to Diana’s death implied, according to a headline quoted in The Queen, that “<a href="https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/TheQueenScreenplay.pdf">the royals are not like us</a>”, the last decade has stressed their accessibility. These fond cultural memories will form a vital counterpart to The Crown’s treatment of the queen’s brief fall from grace. </p>
<p>The Crown will also have to balance its tribute to Diana against the popular sense of Elizabeth’s exceptionalism, magnified by its own sustained attention to her life. </p>
<p>At the time of her death, even <a href="https://www.cqu.edu.au/news/707324/why-the-world-grieves-grandmother-queen-elizabeth--even-antimonarchists">anti-monarchists expressed gratitude</a> towards her, aside from the institution that she represented and that they despised. A contributory factor might have been her unusually long reign, which afforded her the time and space to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40304876">learn from her mistakes</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, as seen in the Aberfan episode of The Crown, the queen’s 1966 visit to the Welsh mining village after a landslide of coal killed more than 140 people was unaccountably delayed. However, in 2017 her timely visit to survivors of the Grenfell tower fire <a href="https://ejlw.eu/article/view/37912">contrasted with her belated response</a> both to Aberfan and to Diana’s mourners, showing that she had changed. </p>
<h2>A nation grieves</h2>
<p>Lastly, the queen acted as a focal point during the pandemic, when her special broadcast reassured the lonely that “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2klmuggOElE">we will meet again</a>”. Her own <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u3U89zw8JQ">isolation at her husband’s funeral</a> in 2021, where she was filmed sitting alone, symbolised the widespread adherence to COVID restrictions – in this sad and quiet moment she was suffering with and like her people. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K-HId1_H6U4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.bps.org.uk/blog/psychology-collective-grief">The phenomenon of collective grief</a> suggests that she may have stood, for some, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/18/it-puts-you-in-touch-with-your-own-losses-the-power-of-collective-grief-from-the-queen-to-george-floyd-to-covid">for our own pandemic losses</a>. Indeed, when The Crown shows the people taking to the streets for Diana, it is the mass turnout for the queen’s funeral procession that many viewers will recall. </p>
<p>While mourning Diana as “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/31/world/princess-diana-death-the-windsors-series/index.html">the people’s Princess</a>”, the series will likely end with Queen Elizabeth as the ultimate queen of hearts. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bethany Layne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Queen Elizabeth II managed to claw back popular support after the PR disasters around her handing of Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles and her response when she died.Bethany Layne, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2006462023-05-01T20:01:06Z2023-05-01T20:01:06ZPicking up a King Charles III coronation commemorative plate? You’re buying into a centuries-old tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521508/original/file-20230418-26-swntno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C17%2C3982%2C2976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dutch delftware with a double portrait of William III and Mary II, ca. 1690.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mugs and plates celebrating the coronations, marriages and deaths of British royalty are not unusual sights in the Australian home. With the forthcoming coronation of King Charles III on May 6, such memorabilia cluttering our cupboards are only likely to increase. </p>
<p>Guides to “<a href="https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/king-charles-coronation-memorabilia-2023">the best King Charles III memorabilia</a>” are already advising what souvenirs to buy, including commemorative coins, biscuit tins, tea towels, plates and, of course, mugs. </p>
<p>Yet the royal souvenir is not a recent invention. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-been-collecting-souvenirs-for-thousands-of-years-they-are-valuable-cultural-artefacts-but-what-does-their-future-hold-189449">We've been collecting souvenirs for thousands of years. They are valuable cultural artefacts – but what does their future hold?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>History of the royal mug</h2>
<p>The tradition of celebrating royal events with a mug or drinking vessel dates to at least the 17th century when the current king’s ancestor and namesake, Charles II, was restored to the English throne in 1660-1. </p>
<p>Several mugs and cups produced at the time have survived and depict the “<a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/charles-ii-guide-restoration-why-merry-monarch-how-many-children-rule/">merry monarch</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521507/original/file-20230418-26-iczhu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cup, tin-glazed earthenware (delftware), with a bust portrait of Charles II, probably Southwark, 1660-1665.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Victoria and Albert Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The restoration of Charles II (after his father Charles I had been executed by order of parliament in 1649) was greeted with rejoicing throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. </p>
<p>The famous social climber and diarist Samuel Pepys embodied the general feeling of this time when he wrote that on the day of Charles II’s coronation he watched the royal procession with wine and cake and all were “<a href="https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1661/04/22/">very merry</a>” and pleased at what they saw. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beheaded-and-exiled-the-two-previous-king-charleses-bookended-the-abolition-of-the-monarchy-190410">Beheaded and exiled: the two previous King Charleses bookended the abolition of the monarchy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Drinking and eating in celebration may account for why mugs and plates were, and remain, such popular forms of royal memorabilia; they were used to <a href="https://stuarts.exeter.ac.uk/education/objects/delftware-cup-c-1661/">drink loyal toasts</a> of good health to the monarch on special days of celebration. </p>
<p>While a strong ale was the preferred liquid for 17th-century toasts, as the British Empire expanded tea drinking became a common pastime. Teacups became popular royal souvenirs during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521513/original/file-20230418-21-mdh86q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commemorative teacup for Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee, 1896.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">McCord Stewart Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fostering support</h2>
<p>The earthenware mugs made for Charles II’s coronation were relatively inexpensive, but not produced on a mass scale. </p>
<p>With the industrial revolution of the 19th century and the rise of souvenir culture, royal memorabilia in all forms became more <a href="https://theconversation.com/royal-family-why-even-a-charles-and-diana-divorce-mug-is-important-for-the-monarchy-176588">popular and widespread</a>. </p>
<p>Since 1900, royal births, deaths, marriages and coronations have been big money for manufacturers of royal memorabilia. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522239/original/file-20230420-20-eguqhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mug celebrating the coronation of Edward VII in 1902.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Te Papa (CG000043/B)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pitfalls of mass production were realised in 1936 when Edward VIII abdicated from the throne just months before his planned coronation in May 1937. Manufacturers were stuck with <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/178313173?searchTerm=%22coronation%20mug%22">thousands of mugs</a>, plates and other items celebrating the coronation of a king that would not happen. </p>
<p>Many of these mugs still made their way out to the market, while other manufacturers such as Royal Doulton <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_2012-8022-5-a-c">adapted existing designs</a> and used them for the coronation of his brother, George VI.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522238/original/file-20230420-14-55n4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mug commemorating the planned coronation of Edward VIII.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Powerhouse collection. Gift of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1981. Photographed by Bob Barker.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>English monarchs were not the only royals to encourage the use of their image on objects collected, worn or used by their subjects. </p>
<p>Renaissance Italian princes popularised the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/renaissance-portrait-medals/exhibition-themes">portrait medal</a> and the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V, fostered support in his vast territories using mass-produced medallions <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/197126">bearing his image</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521515/original/file-20230418-24-ua1317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An enamel medallion depicting Emperor Charles V (1500–1558), ca. 1518–20.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Objects with images of royalty served similar functions in the 20th century. Australian school children were often <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/141777602?searchTerm=%22coronation%20mug%22">given medals</a> to commemorate coronations, while children in England were gifted pottery mugs to drink to the sovereign’s health. </p>
<p>When Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/coronation-of-hm-queen-elizabeth-ii">English children</a> received mugs, tins of chocolate and a spoon or coin. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hkPyG-xbyg8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Measuring popularity</h2>
<p>Royal memorabilia don’t just foster support but act as a barometer of the popularity of the royal family around the globe. </p>
<p>Coronation mugs became popular in the reign of Charles II in 1661 because these objects captured the joyous feeling of a nation that had endured 20 years of warfare and political chaos. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521518/original/file-20230418-24-d6yi11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Delftware featuring Charles II and Catherine of Braganza, likely commemorating their wedding. ca. 1662-1685.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Victoria and Albert Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Support for the royal family has often been shown through royal weddings and marriages: plates depicting Charles II and his Portuguese bride, Catherine of Braganza, were made to celebrate their union in 1662.</p>
<p>Recently a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-detectorist-discovers-rare-gold-pendant-celebrating-henry-viiis-first-marriage-180981557/">gold pendant</a> inscribed with the initials of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, likely worn by a supporter, was also discovered. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521521/original/file-20230418-26-gm1q8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gold pendant associated with Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, ca. 1509-1530.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Birmingham Museums Trust</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Prince William and Kate Middleton’s highly anticipated wedding in 2011, thousands of types of mundane and wacky <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-royal-wedding-souvenirs-pictures-photogallery.html">souvenirs</a> were produced, such as plates, mugs, magnets, graphic novels, toilet seat covers and PEZ dispensers.</p>
<p>Over 1,600 lines of official merchandise were produced for the marriage of Princes Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. <a href="https://issuu.com/accpublishinggroup/docs/june_july_2022_mag/s/15960301">Less than 25 lines</a> were produced for Charles’ unpopular second marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521468/original/file-20230418-24-g103gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charles and Diana cup to commemorate their wedding on July 29 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Charles may not be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/03/01/celebrities-dont-care-to-perform-for-king-charles-iii/?sh=56487b7a20f8">as popular</a> as his mother, coronation fever has most definitely taken hold in the United Kingdom. Royal fans are set to spend £1.4 billion (A$2.6 billion) on <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/21911733/shoppers-spend-billion-king-coronation-may/">coronation parties and souvenirs</a>. </p>
<p>The availability of coronation souvenirs and party supplies in Australia is somewhat more limited – perhaps an indicator of Australia’s diminishing appetite for the royal family amid increased calls for another <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-24/king-charles-australias-head-of-state-alternative-republic/101470156">vote on a republic</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-king-charles-iiis-coronation-quiche-tells-us-about-the-history-of-british-dining-203362">What King Charles III's coronation quiche tells us about the history of British dining</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bendall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From lockets for Henry VIII’s wedding to tea cups for Charles III’s coronation, there is a long history of royal souvenirs.Sarah Bendall, Research Fellow, Gender and Women's History Research Centre, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1979832023-01-24T17:40:35Z2023-01-24T17:40:35ZHarry and William duke it out: Will sticks and stones topple thrones?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505969/original/file-20230123-5967-dlww4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2296%2C1415&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prince William and Prince Harry arrive for the statue unveiling of their mother on what would have been Princess Diana's 60th birthday at Kensington Palace in July 2021, a year after Harry departed the U.K. for the United States.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Yui Mok/via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/harry-and-william-duke-it-out--will-sticks-and-stones-topple-thrones" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Brotherly love turned to conflict and estrangement is not an uncommon story in families. That’s why so many people are fascinated with the British Royal Family and the <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/a-royal-rift-how-did-william-and-harrys-relationship-break-down-12780316">current meltdown between Princes Harry and William. </a></p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A dark haired man frowns standing next to two boys, one a teenager looking down and a smaller boy with red hair staring ahead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505393/original/file-20230119-16-lpnq6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505393/original/file-20230119-16-lpnq6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505393/original/file-20230119-16-lpnq6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505393/original/file-20230119-16-lpnq6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505393/original/file-20230119-16-lpnq6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1269&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505393/original/file-20230119-16-lpnq6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505393/original/file-20230119-16-lpnq6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1269&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prince Charles, now King Charles, and his sons Harry and William stand near Princess Diana’s hearse in London in September 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(John Gaps III/AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We want to know what happened. They seemed bonded in the dark days after their mother <a href="https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/20210521113646/prince-harry-haunting-memory-princess-diana-funeral/">Princess Diana’s untimely death and funeral</a> in 1997.</p>
<p>Would grief not strengthen the ties that bind? Surely they would be inextricably bound for the rest of their lives after the traumatic loss of their beloved mother. </p>
<p>Yet when you consider the patriarchy, racism, misogyny and colonialism so deeply embedded in the British monarchy, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/opinion/harry-meghan-tabloids.html">their estrangement starts to make sense.</a> </p>
<h2>The ties that bind — or divide</h2>
<p>But first, what do we know about sibling relationships? They are not well studied but we do know that these relationships <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2015.07.003">can be sources of both risk and resilience.</a></p>
<p>Studies show that <a href="https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ajp.2007.164.6.949">dysfunctional sibling relationships can result in concerning mental health outcomes — anxiety, depression and substance abuse</a>. Or conversely, they can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.01011.x">great sources of support in healthy psycho-social development</a>, providing strength in the face of adversity.</p>
<p>Siblings can also experience both types of relationships at different times. Even when sibling relationships are fraught with conflict, the very same siblings <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/03/feature-sibling-relationships">can display fierce loyalty to each other when criticized or attacked</a>.</p>
<p>Next we need to bring in larger family dynamics and something called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119085621.wbefs130">family systems theory</a> — the idea that the whole is more powerful than the sum of its parts. Part of this rests on the notion that a deeper examination of what we see on the surface of families reveals what lies beneath. </p>
<p>External forces also operate in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v03n01_02">larger ecology of families that play out in everyday life</a>. Knowing the values and belief systems of families, including their cultural influences, helps us understand what bubbles up to the surface of sibling relationships. This seems particularly pertinent to the Harry and William situation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Various Royal Family members stand on a balcony festooned with red and gold bunting looking out at the crowds. An elderly woman dressed in blue is in the centre." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505970/original/file-20230123-11-454brd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505970/original/file-20230123-11-454brd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505970/original/file-20230123-11-454brd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505970/original/file-20230123-11-454brd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505970/original/file-20230123-11-454brd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505970/original/file-20230123-11-454brd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505970/original/file-20230123-11-454brd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Royal Family gather on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in July 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Scapegoating a family member</h2>
<p>To better understand their relationship, it’s also helpful to know about triangles. </p>
<p>That means when two family members join forces against one, <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/technology/technology-terms-and-concepts/triangulation">resulting in scapegoating</a>. In <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2023/01/13/prince-harrys-spare-breaks-guinness-record-for-fastest-selling-nonfiction-book-and-he-hints-theres-much-more-he-left-out/?sh=44a426a34e6b">his record-breaking memoir, <em>Spare</em>,</a> Harry alleges that King Charles and Prince William have been doing this to him for many years.</p>
<p>Families employ scapegoating when they want to blame a family member for problems or use them to deflect <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119171492.wecad225">from larger, more entrenched issues</a>. Harry is seemingly the Royal Family’s scapegoat for other, more significant problems. </p>
<p>Let’s start with his uncle, <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a28339290/royal-family-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-relationship/">Prince Andrew, who had an association with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein</a> and allegedly sexually abused an underaged girl. The Royal Family paid £12 million, almost $20 million, <a href="https://time.com/6149123/prince-andrew-settlement-virginia-giuffre-royal-finances/">to settle a lawsuit with one of his accusers.</a></p>
<p>Andrew, an accused sex offender, was purportedly Queen Elizabeth’s <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a34704337/queen-elizabeths-favorite-child-prince-andrew-rumor/">favourite child</a>, and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/prince-harry-meghan-less-popular-prince-andrew-b2260884.html">he’s polling higher than Harry and Meghan in surveys of older British people.</a></p>
<p>Fairness and favouritism are also known <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119171492.wecad225">to undermine sibling relationships</a>. Obviously, the monarchy is literally based on the institutionalized favouritism of lineage. The crown is passed on by birth order and until recently, gender.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman with short blond hair smiles on a boat next to two young boys, one with red hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505391/original/file-20230119-20-bwxunx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505391/original/file-20230119-20-bwxunx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505391/original/file-20230119-20-bwxunx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505391/original/file-20230119-20-bwxunx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505391/original/file-20230119-20-bwxunx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505391/original/file-20230119-20-bwxunx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505391/original/file-20230119-20-bwxunx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Diana, Princess of Wales, enjoys a ride on the Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls, Ont., with Prince Harry and Prince William in October 1991.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hans Deryk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The impact of birth order</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-birth-order-affect-personality/">Birth order is another determining factor</a> in how siblings will or will not get along. William will be king and Harry is now further down the line of succession, and is no longer <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64185317">“the spare,” as he was callously declared by his father upon his birth</a>.</p>
<p>Spares and women are considered “lesser than” in this patriarchal, colonial system — backups just in case something should happen to the heir. Thankfully, this age-old tradition has changed recently — Prince William’s daughter, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/princess-charlotte-makes-royal-history-in-line-to-the-throne/">Charlotte, will remain behind her older brother George but ahead of her brother, Louis, in the line of succession</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A woman in red with thick blonde hair smiles while holding an infant swaddled in a white blanket; a dark-haired man next to her looks to the side and is unsmiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505957/original/file-20230123-7682-r0chf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505957/original/file-20230123-7682-r0chf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505957/original/file-20230123-7682-r0chf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505957/original/file-20230123-7682-r0chf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505957/original/file-20230123-7682-r0chf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505957/original/file-20230123-7682-r0chf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505957/original/file-20230123-7682-r0chf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this Sept. 16, 1984 photo, Princess Diana smiles as she holds a newborn Harry alongside her husband, then Prince Charles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Family systems theory further argues that without intervention, patterns repeat over generations. The Royal Family <a href="https://psychcentral.com/blog/imperfect/2018/07/why-do-we-repeat-the-same-dysfunctional-relationship-patterns#What-fires-together,-wires-together">seems to epitomize this inter-generational repetition of dysfunctional patterns</a>.</p>
<p>Harry’s situation, for example, is similar to his great <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-VIII">Uncle Edward’s break from the monarchy</a> when he abdicated the throne to marry American Wallis Simpson decades ago. </p>
<p>Adjectives used to describe Simpson, then and now, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51567105">drip with misogyny and disdain, including derogatory remarks</a> about her alleged eating disorder (like Diana’s struggles), drinking and divorce status. It seems Harry’s wife is a similar target as she’s been bombarded for years with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/13/harry-and-meghan-are-right-about-racist-britain-in-their-netflix-series">sometimes openly racist remarks</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/prince-william-accused-racist-tropes-meghan-markle-rude-abrasive-difficult-1771472">described as difficult and abrasive by William</a>, according to Harry.</p>
<h2>Harry takes the heat</h2>
<p>Exiting the Royal Family has come with grave consequences for <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/01/prince-harry-spare-memoir-never-though-lose-palace-security-prince-andrew-kept-his-sexual-assault-scandal">Harry and Meghan, including being cut off from security</a> despite the relentless and often <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64080863">incendiary attacks against them by the British media.</a></p>
<p>British subjects seem to consider their departure, along with Harry’s memoir, as the ultimate betrayal. The British media is currently fixated on Harry and Meghan — not Andrew, and the allegations of sex crimes against him, and not the monarchy itself, its enduring colonial attitudes and the fact that <a href="https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/read-this/commonwealth-queen-king-charles-3840160">several Commonwealth countries want to cut ties.</a></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1453299362398887943"}"></div></p>
<p>Scapegoats take the heat for a family’s sins and help keep those sins hidden, especially in high-profile families. <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/live-prince-harrys-interview-with-cbs-anderson-cooper-ahead-of-spare-book-release/JDAZJEL56NHNZMMNZW6ZGJGEWM/">“Never complain, never explain” is the Royal Family motto, although Harry alleges his relatives indulge in both regularly</a> by leaking and planting stories about other family members to avoid negative media coverage. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A man in a military uniform and hat stands blurred in the background while a red-haired man with a beard walks beside him in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505388/original/file-20230119-21-jvfsds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4075%2C2609&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505388/original/file-20230119-21-jvfsds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505388/original/file-20230119-21-jvfsds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505388/original/file-20230119-21-jvfsds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505388/original/file-20230119-21-jvfsds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505388/original/file-20230119-21-jvfsds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505388/original/file-20230119-21-jvfsds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prince William and Prince Harry join the procession following the state hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth towards St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in September 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Justin Setterfield/AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Harry has disrupted these tactics, however, by exposing them. His ordeal has also reminded the world of the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/royal-family-racism-controversy-erupts-as-william-and-kate-visit-boston">racism running through the colonial veins of the British monarchy</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/23/british-royal-family-monarchy-historical-links-to-slavery">its involvement in the enslavement of Africans and the transatlantic slave trade</a>.</p>
<p>The racist attacks on Meghan were Harry’s main stated reason for fleeing — <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/prince-harry-itv-60-minutes-1.6707554">and to protect his wife and their children from the dangers posed to them in the United Kingdom</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-the-monarchy-has-benefited-from-colonialism-and-slavery-179911">Five ways the monarchy has benefited from colonialism and slavery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Olive branch?</h2>
<p>So what will happen with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/21/uk/king-charles-coronation-details-intl-gbr/index.html">King Charles’s coronation in May</a>? My guess is that an olive branch will be offered to Harry and Meghan, with invitations extended to them, and there may even be some internal pressure to bring them back into the fold. </p>
<p>But if the old family patterns inextricably tied to patriarchy, racism, misogyny and colonialism persist, Harry will almost certainly resist that pressure — and the monarchy will also be forced to either totally reinvent itself or risk being abolished in the years to come. </p>
<p>In other words, this is one sibling feud that could have historical repercussions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ramona Alaggia receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. </span></em></p>The relationship between Princes William and Harry is fractured, and can be explained by what’s known as the ‘family systems’ theory. Repairing it will require the Royal Family to change.Ramona Alaggia, Professor, Social Work, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975792023-01-12T17:18:03Z2023-01-12T17:18:03ZLike Prince Harry a quarter of British people have consulted a psychic – here’s the science on why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504013/original/file-20230111-25-ebea6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=98%2C53%2C5892%2C3314&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/magical-luminous-swirling-glowing-ball-palm-1658385709">Shutterstock/goffkein.pro</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Extracts from Prince Harry’s recently published memoir, Spare, reveal that he used <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11603541/Prince-Harry-contacted-psychic-reach-late-mother-Diana.html">a person with supposed psychic abilities</a> to contact his deceased mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when Harry was 12 years old. </p>
<p>The woman with undisclosed powers was recommended by a trusted friend. While Harry “recognised there was a high-percentage chance of humbuggery” associated with paranormal claims, when he met the women he reported “<a href="https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/culture/a42414998/prince-harry-woman-powers-message-princess-diana/">feeling an energy</a>”. Subsequently she relayed messages from Diana to him. </p>
<p>She told him that <a href="https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/culture/a42414998/prince-harry-woman-powers-message-princess-diana/">Diana was currently with him</a> and aware that he was confused and seeking clarity. Additionally, she knew he had several questions and that answers would emerge over time. Harry was also told that his mother had witnessed and was amused by his son, Archie, breaking a Christmas tree ornament in the shape of his grandmother, the Queen. </p>
<p>People with supposed paranormal powers such as those described by Prince Harry are typically referred to as psychics, mediums, or clairvoyants. Although the terms are often used synonymously, they have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/archive-9390228c3292452da78fd0f67aba261b">different meanings</a>. </p>
<p>Psychics are said to obtain information about people or events by connecting with “souls”. Mediums believe they can transmit and receive information from the deceased. Clairvoyants say they can see and sense things using their minds. Hence, all mediums are psychics but not all psychics are mediums. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, psychic claims have a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-why-so-many-people-believe-in-psychic-powers-102088">dreadful reputation</a> and are typically denounced by wider society. This is due to infamous instances of fakery and the lack of support from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/magazine/psychics-skeptics-facebook.html">objective science</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this, many people still continue to use them and a large proportion of the public – <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/16915/three-four-americans-believe-paranormal.aspx">over a quarter</a> according to a Gallup survey in the US – believe that humans have psychic abilities. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20145664">research</a> estimates that around 10% of the UK adult population regularly visits a medium. <a href="http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/2011-10-05/YG-Archives-Psychics-051011.pdf">A 2011 poll from YouGov</a> found around a quarter of British people have consulted a psychic, and well over half of these people believed they were truthful.</p>
<h2>Famous fakes?</h2>
<p>Notable historical cases of proven fraud include <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53424/houdinis-greatest-trick-debunking-medium-mina-crandon">Mina Crandon</a>, (1888 to 1941) a psychic medium who claimed to channel her dead brother, Walter Stinson. Investigations revealed she had no paranormal powers and engaged in deception. She even tried to trick famed magician Harry Houdini but didn’t get away with it as Houdini foiled her plans. </p>
<p>Henry Slade was another notable fraudulent medium. He was repeatedly caught faking spirit messages in seances. He would place a small slate with a piece of chalk under the table and claimed spirits would use it to write messages. He produced his phenomena through a variety of magic tricks and by <a href="https://archive.org/details/behindsceneswit04abbogoog/page/n203/mode/2up?view=theater&q=slade">writing with his toes</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in black and white." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504007/original/file-20230111-26-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. Walking behind the coffin are Prince Charles, Princes William and Harry and Earl Charles Spencer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-6th-september-1997-editorial-357011507">Shutterstock/John Gomez</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But not all mediums and psychics deliberately set out to deceive people. An illustration of this is <a href="https://derekogilvie.com/">Derek Ogilvie</a>, who appears to genuinely believe he can <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/jun/19/familyandrelationships.tvandradio">telepathically communicate</a> with young infants. </p>
<p>In the 2007 Channel 5 TV documentary, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13326918/">Extraordinary People: The Million Dollar Mind Reader</a>, Ogilvie <a href="https://cosmolearning.org/documentaries/extraordinary-people-the-million-dollar-mind-reader-1674/">failed to demonstrate</a> his abilities to the satisfaction of scientific experts. But the programme concluded that he was misguided rather than insincere. Ogilvie argued that he could only report what the baby was telepathically projecting and could not offer information on the parents, as one of the experiments requested.</p>
<p>The failure to <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/news/features/debunking-psychic-abilities">demonstrate paranormal abilities</a> in stringent, controlled conditions is well documented. For instance, <a href="https://web.randi.org/">James Randi</a>, an investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims, offered a prize of US$1 million (£820,000) to anyone, who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under predetermined scientific testing criteria. Although the challenge ran between 1964 and 2015, no one was able to claim the money. </p>
<h2>Why people visit mediums</h2>
<p>Given such cases and the lack of scientific support, why then do people such as Prince Harry turn to people with <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/why-do-people-become-addicted-to-psychics">supposed paranormal powers</a>?</p>
<p>Bereavement, also known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-point-of-grief-137665">grief response</a>, is a life crisis that can negatively affect individual physical and psychological well-being. In this context, attempting after-death communication provides a continued bond between the living and the departed. Regardless of whether it is imagined, this can afford comfort and prove beneficial. </p>
<p><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1995-35813-001">Research suggests</a> that people with stronger levels of belief in life after death will place greater faith and emphasis on the communications they receive from psychics.</p>
<p>Specifically, psychic contact enables the griever to work through and resolve issues or conflicts with the deceased. This allows relationships to transcend death and sustain the living.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504008/original/file-20230111-14-pkf525.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many psychics use tarot cards for readings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/healthy-fashion-man-love-6944688/">Pexels/Mikhail Nilov</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of communicating with a deceased loved one for many people also affords hope. It’s more palatable than the definite, perception of the end of life. It also allows the individual to re-frame their experiences and move on. </p>
<p>However, there are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394851/">reports</a> of some people <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/why-do-people-become-addicted-to-psychics">getting addicted</a> to psychic readings.</p>
<p>Attempts to contact departed loved ones fulfils the need to attempt to comprehend the unknown and make sense of our own existence. Explicitly, it can help to address anxieties arising from awareness of one’s own mortality. Visiting a medium also allows individuals to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mishagajewski/2021/01/17/heres-why-some-people-say-they-hear-dead-people/?sh=14e90321439a">explore and experience wider aspects</a> of human existence. </p>
<p>Whatever the reasons, psychics, mediums and clairvoyants have been around for thousands of years and continue to be popular despite the lack of scientific evidence. Given the psychological need they appear to fulfil, it’s possible people will still be visiting them in another thousand years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How Prince Harry using a psychic to contact his dead mother, Princess Diana, isn’t that unusual.Ken Drinkwater, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Cognitive and Parapsychology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityNeil Dagnall, Reader in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1976112023-01-12T01:49:21Z2023-01-12T01:49:21ZWhat Prince Harry’s memoir Spare tells us about ‘complicated grief’ and the long-term impact of losing a mother so young<blockquote>
<p>The thought of her, as always, gave me a jolt of hope, and a burst of energy. And a stab of sorrow.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prince Harry’s <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/727238/">reflection</a> on his mother Princess Diana, who died unexpectedly when he was just 12 years old, appears in his memoir Spare, released officially this week.</p>
<p>In fact, the bestseller <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/727238/">is marketed</a> as a story about the “eternal power of love over grief”.</p>
<p>The book’s revelations, retold in high-profile TV interviews and featuring in his <a href="https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81439256">Netflix series</a>, are the subject of much media coverage. These revelations chart the prince’s experience of mourning the traumatic death of his mother in public, media intrusion, and its long-term impacts.</p>
<p>On face value, Prince Harry may share typical symptoms of people suffering “complicated grief”. But not everyone agrees with how he “shows” his grief so publicly.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spare-how-the-soap-opera-around-prince-harrys-memoir-will-affect-the-royal-brand-197452">Spare: how the soap opera around Prince Harry's memoir will affect the royal brand</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The myth of ‘time healing all wounds’</h2>
<p>It’s been more than 25 years since the traumatic death of Prince Harry’s mother after a car crash in Paris. And with his family’s immense privilege, it’s easy to assume the need to explore the layers of grief that shape his experiences has passed its use-by date.</p>
<p>But the idea of “time healing all wounds” is a myth. Pain is ongoing. And by silencing someone’s pain, <a href="http://hospicewhispers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/NiemeyerGriefTheory.pdf">this can worsen it</a>. The public, health professionals, the media and family can all silence someone’s grief by minimising discussions about the impact of losing a loved one. </p>
<p>Twenty years working with grieving people and researching grief reminds me of the countless people in my counselling rooms reflecting on the stinging words someone says to them: “it’s time to move on”.</p>
<p>Counsellors urge people to make meaning of the life lost with those still living. This can involve sharing memories with family members about the person lost, remembering happy times, imagining their inclusion in life currently, and always creating space for conversations about their absence.</p>
<p>If people struggle to make meaning of the new life they are forced to live due to their loss, this can lead to long-term reactions known as complex or complicated grief.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/20-years-after-the-bali-bombings-survivors-are-still-processing-a-unique-kind-of-grief-191512">20 years after the Bali bombings, survivors are still processing a unique kind of grief</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is complicated grief?</h2>
<p><a href="https://prolongedgrief.columbia.edu/blog/complicated-grief-is-dsm-5-prolonged-grief-disorder/">Complicated grief</a> is a severe, persistent and pervasive longing for the deceased. If the death is sudden and unexpected, the prolonged impact will be greater. </p>
<p>People who experience this intensity of grief struggle to engage in everyday life. This profound distress can affect their physical and mental health, and the relationships around them, for years.</p>
<p>Prince Harry has been candid about his struggles with mental health since his mother’s death and his fractured relationship with his wider family. He’s openly admitted to drug use to help him cope with his loss. We see these types of effects on people suffering with complicated grief, as well as the associated trauma when the loss is sudden.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1611247174490234880"}"></div></p>
<h2>He was so young</h2>
<p>Grief isn’t just about what who was lost, but when the loss occurred.
Prince Harry was just 12 years old when his mother passed away.</p>
<p>Psychologist and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556096/">tells us</a> this period of development between childhood and adolescence oscillates between a child seeking a sense of identity versus confusion about where they “fit” in the world. </p>
<p>It’s a time when young people explore values, beliefs and ideas about who they might become as adults. But this stage of development is impacted with the loss of a parent to guide them through this period.</p>
<p>When a significant loss happens at his life stage, this can <a href="https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.12560">destabilise the child</a> for significant periods – well into adulthood – especially when the death is related to an external cause, such as an accident.</p>
<p>Prince Harry has shared this destabilising effect and the strain between himself and his surviving parent. Not all siblings experience grief the same way. There may be conflict with the wider family.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27813715/">Long-term studies</a> in the United States show children who have lost a parent do eventually grow to be resilient and forthright individuals. Yet traumatic memories of both the event and the impact of that loss remain just under the surface. </p>
<p>Prince Harry’s accounts of his experiences are reminders of what can happen for children who have experienced trauma. </p>
<p>His perspectives about the ways his wife was <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-harry-and-meghan-the-sussexes-are-not-unique-in-being-royal-victims-196738">treated in the media</a> and by his family, may have activated reminders of this past trauma.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-harry-and-meghan-the-sussexes-are-not-unique-in-being-royal-victims-196738">Netflix’s Harry & Meghan: the Sussexes are not unique in being royal victims</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So what helps?</h2>
<p>Grief will have long-term impacts on people’s wellbeing throughout their lives, especially if they were only a child when the loss occurred.</p>
<p>When we look back on what helps children to manage their childhood grief, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2190/OM.65.1.b">personal agency</a> is key. They want to choose how they grieve, and their voice needs to be a priority.</p>
<p>This may mean choosing not to attend performative activities, such as funerals. This may mean openly sharing their experiences in a way that suits them – at school, work or with families. This may mean getting angry.</p>
<p>An evidence-based national grief program for children in Australia, <a href="https://www.goodgrief.org.au/sites/default/files/Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Research%20Support%20for%20Children%202019%20Email.pdf">Seasons for Growth</a>, emphasises the importance of agency. This includes choosing how to accept the reality of their loss, and finding ways of voicing the emotional impact of that loss. This won’t always be through calm, reflective sharing. It may be through frustrated, angry voices, that suddenly emerge later in life.</p>
<p>Even with all the access to therapy, or even family members to speak to, grief will eventually show up in our thoughts, behaviours and actions. There is no discreet way to do it. Grief is both hope and sorrow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197611/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Wayland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children and the adults they become need to choose how they grieve. That may include sharing their experiences and getting angry.Sarah Wayland, Associate Professor, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1906092022-09-16T15:19:08Z2022-09-16T15:19:08ZWilliam and Harry reunite to mourn the Queen — here’s why the death of a family member can bring siblings together<p>Much has been made of supposed tensions between princes William and Harry over the last few years. But in the wake of the Queen’s death we have seen the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62866247">brothers come together</a> with their family, uniting to pay tribute to their grandmother and take part in official mourning activities.</p>
<p>Regardless of speculation about their relationship, it is typical for sibling bonds to be bolstered or rekindled at critical moments such as the death of a family member. Often our longest lasting relationships, sibling relationships are far from static. </p>
<p>Being one in a series of siblings is significant to who we are, though this role evolves throughout our lives. Hierarchies associated with birth order and age gaps can shift or <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-287-026-1_7">even flip entirely</a> as siblings weather illnesses, bereavements, parenthood, marriages, divorces, redundancies and so on.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526142177/">my new research</a>, I’ve analysed over 100 adults’ written reflections about their sibling relationships, commissioned and archived as part of the UK’s <a href="http://www.massobs.org.uk/about/mass-observation-project">Mass Observation Project</a>. My findings reveal how critical life moments, such as the death of a family member, often led to these relationships intensifying and improving. This was true even between siblings who had not been in regular contact or whose relationship had become strained.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/hope-from-despair-how-young-people-are-taking-action-to-make-things-better-184859?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Hope from despair: how young people are taking action to make things better</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-how-careful-do-i-still-need-to-be-around-older-and-vulnerable-family-members-187556?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">COVID: how careful do I still need to be around older and vulnerable family members?</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-gentle-parenting-an-expert-explains-184282?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">What is gentle parenting? An expert explains</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Many participants described coming together to care for ill parents and to sort out administrative logistics following their death. They were grateful that they did not have to bear these burdens alone. While William and Harry’s responsibilities certainly look quite different, the sight of them performing the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62864876">public face of mourning together</a> is a familiar one to many siblings.</p>
<p>It is not just the sharing of practical tasks that bring the significance of sibling relationships into sharp relief following a family death. Many participants wrote about reminiscing on shared childhood memories at this time, and a feeling of privileged knowledge about their family shared only with their sibling. </p>
<p>Siblings can be something of an “anchor” in these situations. They help one another feel grounded, and facilitate a sense of belonging in time as they age and their families change. </p>
<p>One 58-year-old man described how his relationship with his older brother and sister improved following the death of their parents. As children, his sister (ten years his senior) had irritated him by trying to “mother” him. He argued regularly with his brother as they struggled to share a cramped bedroom. Contact with his siblings decreased once they moved out of the family home but resumed as they supported their mother and made arrangements following the death of their father.</p>
<p>The writer had also recently lost his mother. With both his parents gone, his bond with his siblings, formed through shared childhood experiences of poverty, took on a renewed significance in his life. </p>
<p>Of course, William and Harry’s childhood experiences and adversities will have been quite different, and we have seen them come together to publicly mourn the death of their mother as children. The importance of shared childhood memories, whether happy or difficult, are often heightened following the death of a close family member. </p>
<h2>Coping without siblings</h2>
<p>Of course, siblings do not always come together at moments like this. Respondents who remained estranged from their sibling or who did not have siblings often felt the absence of this relationship more strongly following a family bereavement or illness. Many “only children” in their 20s, 30s and 40s described feelings of trepidation about future caring responsibilities, which they worried about shouldering alone. </p>
<p>One 48-year-old man wrote poignantly about his sister’s terminal cancer diagnosis, and the strangeness of realising that they would not grow old together. He would have to face the responsibilities and challenges of caring for ageing parents alone.</p>
<p>One writer in her 40s described the ways her relationship with her sister, who is five years younger, improved in adulthood. The irritations and injustices of their childhood faded and their age gap felt less significant, allowing them to become friends. </p>
<p>However, this writer expressed worries about the future of her relationship with her sister. She envisioned a “nightmare” time trying to negotiate caring responsibilities for their mother in her old age.</p>
<p>William and Harry are living their family bereavement on the world stage. In many ways, their caring responsibilities bear little resemblance to the financial and time pressures that many families experience at times of loss. However, sibling bonds are special. </p>
<p>Even where relationships are turbulent, having siblings can feel something like travelling through life with a convoy. They anchor us to our past, and the background sense of “being there for us” can be revived at key moments in life, like the death of a parent or grandparent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sharing administrative tasks and reminiscing on family moments can bring siblings together during tough times.Katherine Davies, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1902892022-09-09T11:28:41Z2022-09-09T11:28:41ZIn 1953, ‘Queen-crazy’ American women looked to Elizabeth II as a source of inspiration – that sentiment never faded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483602/original/file-20220908-4832-gy0ml5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C44%2C3499%2C2371&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Queen Elizabeth II during a 1983 tour of California.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/queen-elizabeth-ii-departs-hoover-house-following-lunch-at-news-photo/1317022486?adppopup=true">George Rose/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the spring of 1953, women from across the United States traveled to Britain – for many, it was their first time abroad.</p>
<p>The impetus for the trip was <a href="https://www.royal.uk/50-facts-about-queens-coronation-0">Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation</a>, held in Westminster Abbey on a rainy June 2 of that year. Among those making the journey were Peggy Webber, who traveled all the way from Iowa, and Geneva Valentine from Washington, D.C. For both women, whom I learned of while researching the monarchy and gender, the coronation provided an unprecedented opportunity to be part of a momentous occasion in which a woman was at the center of the story.</p>
<p>For almost 70 years, there has been a <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-uk-celebrates-queen-elizabeth-iis-platinum-jubilee-why-will-so-many-americans-also-be-cheering-her-on-184283">long-standing affection for Elizabeth</a> from across the Atlantic, especially among women. It may be of a less showy variety than the attention lavished on other, potentially more glamorous female members of the royal family, such as Princess Diana or the Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex. But it endured. A <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/international/articles-reports/2022/02/24/queen-remains-americans-favorite-living-british-ro">Febuary 2022 poll</a> found that more than 60% of American women held a favorable opinion of Elizabeth. The survey found her to be the most popular of all living royals, with women generally holding the royals in greater esteem than men do.</p>
<p>In her own way, the queen quietly captured the imaginations of American women from the very beginning of her reign. As a <a href="https://www.bu.edu/history/profile/arianne-chernock/">historian of the British monarchy</a>, I know part of the interest stemmed from Americans’ abiding <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-uk-celebrates-queen-elizabeth-iis-platinum-jubilee-why-will-so-many-americans-also-be-cheering-her-on-184283">affection for the royal family</a> – something that transcended Elizabeth’s reign. </p>
<p>But for many American women, Elizabeth also represented something else. At a time when women were, in many cases, expected to conform to traditional roles of a housewife and homemaker, Elizabeth was ascending the throne of a powerful country. In the words of one psychologist interviewed for <a href="https://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/xmlpage/4/article/449#edn29">a 1953 Los Angeles Times article</a>, for the first time “the women of America have found a heroine who makes them feel superior to men.”</p>
<h2>Long-standing affection</h2>
<p>Just as American women in the 20th century followed Elizabeth’s evolution, from dutiful daughter to young bride and mother to conscientious sovereign, so did earlier generations take interest in Queen Victoria’s coronation, marriage and jubilee celebrations in the 19th century.</p>
<p>For even though Americans chose a different path with independence in 1776, the British royal family has always exerted a strong pull on the American psyche. In fact, that pull is perhaps even greater because it is uncomplicated by politics. It is <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-57559653">not U.S. tax dollars at work</a>, so Americans can take pleasure in the ceremonial and the romantic without being burdened by questions of what it costs and means to have a monarchy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="US president Ronald Reagan" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483604/original/file-20220908-27908-ei73cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483604/original/file-20220908-27908-ei73cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483604/original/file-20220908-27908-ei73cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483604/original/file-20220908-27908-ei73cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483604/original/file-20220908-27908-ei73cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483604/original/file-20220908-27908-ei73cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483604/original/file-20220908-27908-ei73cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ronald Reagan was one of 14 U.S. presidents who served during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-queen-with-president-reagan-at-a-state-banquet-at-news-photo/52103686?adppopup=true">Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a specifically gendered aspect to America’s love affair with the royals, too. When women traveled to London in 1953 – or, as second best, turned on their newly purchased television sets to <a href="https://www.americanheritage.com/great-coronation-war">tune into the coronation coverage</a> – they were not just interested in what the queen was wearing or the dashing figure cut by Prince Philip.</p>
<p>They were also fixated on the fact that so much fuss was being made over a woman at all, and a powerful one at that. As U.S. ambassador to Italy Clare Boothe Luce <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30013444360">explained at the time</a>, this was “an assignment made to order for a woman.” Luce used this logic to convince President Dwight Eisenhower to send the journalist Fleur Cowles to the coronation as one of his official representatives.</p>
<p>Indeed, as Luce alluded to, there was something deliciously disruptive about Elizabeth’s reign. Against a postwar backdrop, when many American women were being urged to return to the home and take pride in the efficiency of their kitchens, here was a 25-year-old princess being elevated to a position of head of state, her every step reported and discussed. This was anomalous, and in ways that seemed to augur well for others of her sex.</p>
<p>Reporter John Kord Lagemann, <a href="https://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/4/article/449">writing in the Los Angeles Times</a> in 1953, captured this sentiment in a piece on “America’s Queen-Crazy Women.” Elizabeth, Lagemann noted, posed a challenge to patriarchy. Case in point was her marriage. Here, he wrote, the “situation is reversed” and the woman “commands.”</p>
<p>Elizabeth did not need to “play according to a man’s rules by acting demure and helpless.” Rather, she could “be as imperious as she pleases.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Queen Elizabeth II in a yellow and white dress and hat holds a bouquet of flowers while surrounded by well-wishers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483605/original/file-20220908-22-6hiarz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483605/original/file-20220908-22-6hiarz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483605/original/file-20220908-22-6hiarz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483605/original/file-20220908-22-6hiarz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483605/original/file-20220908-22-6hiarz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483605/original/file-20220908-22-6hiarz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483605/original/file-20220908-22-6hiarz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Elizabeth II during a 1991 visit to Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/queen-elizabeth-ii-makes-a-state-visit-to-the-united-states-news-photo/1041866866?adppopup=true">John Shelley Collection/Avalon/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lagemann’s observations provide some clues to Elizabeth’s hold on American women. Even as the women’s liberation movement helped shift certain conversations, the queen continued to model an alternative path forward – one in which women could travel without their children, demonstrate their command of policy, be at the center of the photograph, take responsibility and even grow old in the public eye.</p>
<p>Elizabeth II will be mourned by many around the world, including the daughters and granddaughters of those “Queen-Crazy” Americans who traveled to London in 1953 for her coronation but have yet to see a female head of state installed in their own country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190289/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arianne Chernock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new queen was a subversive model for American women of the 1950s, and many traveled to London for her coronation. Their daughters and granddaughters will be among those mourning the monarch’s death.Arianne Chernock, Professor of History, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890882022-08-30T12:51:34Z2022-08-30T12:51:34ZPrincess Diana: why her death 25 years ago has sparked so many conspiracy theories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481314/original/file-20220826-24-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C7%2C971%2C585&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A quarter of a century after the Paris car crash, conspiracy theories about Diana's death persist.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/diana-princess-wales-leaves-brazilian-ambassadors-611833865">Mark Reinstein / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Diana, Princess of Wales, died 25 years ago after a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris. Her death led to a global outpouring of grief and media attention. Much of the public reaction <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/04/diana.royals.under.fire/">criticised the royal family</a> for what many saw as an unfeeling response to the sudden death of the Prince of Wales’ former wife.</p>
<p>The shock of Diana’s death also sparked countless conspiracy theories. Decades later, many have <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/princess-diana-conspiracy-theories-anniversary-docuseries-1732824">not given up</a> the idea that Diana may have been the victim of a plot.</p>
<p>Unexpected events, such as deaths or accidents, are fertile breeding ground for <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conspiracy-theories-and-the-people-who-believe-them-9780190844080?cc=gb&lang=en&">conspiracy theories</a>, which allow people to make sense of chaos by finding evidence, coincidences and someone to blame. </p>
<p>Celebrity deaths have inspired an entire genre of conspiracy theories, particularly the death of <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2013/09/17/38-brits-princess-dianas-death-was-not-accident">Princess Diana</a>. While conspiracy theories about Diana’s death may hinge on different, specific details about the circumstances surrounding the fatal crash, many reach the same conclusion – that she was murdered by the royal family or the British authorities.</p>
<p>I study conspiracy theories to find out why people believe in them. One of the questions I ask is about the language of celebrity death conspiracy theories, and why it is so persuasive. </p>
<p>Conspiracy theories are empowering for people, allowing them to become <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230349216">DIY detectives</a>. These “detectives” approach a case having already arrived at their conclusion. In celebrity deaths, this usually means murder by someone who seemingly benefits from the death. </p>
<p>An official inquiry, like <a href="https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_12_06_diana_report.pdf">Operation Paget</a>, which was set up by the Met police to investigate conspiracy theories about Diana’s death, asks what happened. The conspiracy detective, on the other hand, asks <em>cui bono</em> – who benefits.</p>
<h2>Palace intrigue</h2>
<p>The basis of many conspiracy theories is what’s known as “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982218308637">teleological thinking</a>”. This is when someone assigns a specific function or meaning to occurrences or inconsistencies. For conspiracy theories, this means that there is no space for imperfect systems, human error or random coincidences.</p>
<p>The circumstances of Diana’s death were confusing and chaotic at the time, precisely because of likely mistakes and human error. For years, conspiracy theorists have raised questions about these, asking: Why did the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/nov/14/monarchy.davidbatty">ambulance take so long</a> to get to the hospital? Why did emergency responders clear the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmqUIkbEosY">tunnel so quickly?</a> And, why were the surveillance <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC-fQRnBiT8">cameras not working</a>? </p>
<p>A mind primed to look for conspiracy will say these were deliberate actions to worsen Diana’s condition or hide evidence of a murder. Reality, as is often the case with conspiracy theories, is more mundane. The conclusion of the Paget report, based on all available evidence, was that Diana’s death was the result of a tragic accident – not a conspiracy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-princess-dianas-death-came-to-define-tragedy-for-the-media-82939">How Princess Diana's death came to define tragedy for the media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When there is a lack of irrefutable evidence, insider speculation can act as a replacement. For instance, Mohammed Al-Fayed, father of Dodi (Diana’s lover, who also died in the crash) publicly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTNrcV6VmJc">accused</a> the royal family of murder. This led to Operation Paget, which refuted the claims but, nevertheless, did not appease those conspiracy theorists who distrust any form of official evidence.</p>
<p>Conspiracy theorists use different types of evidence, including so-called premonitions and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ufos-conspiracy-theories-and-the-new-age-9781474253208/">psychic predictions</a>. Some claim Diana foresaw her own death, based on the publication of a letter, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573170/Princess-Diana-letter-Charles-plans-to-kill-me.html">she had supposedly written</a> to her former butler Paul Burrell, which read: “my husband is planning ‘an accident’ in my car”. And Diana’s spiritual adviser claimed to have <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/psychic-told-diana-she-was-going-to-die-511575">warned her brakes would be tampered with</a>. The Paget investigation found no evidence for these claims.</p>
<p>Before her death, in the infamous 1995 BBC <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdrJClMsh7U">interview</a> with Martin Bashir, Diana claimed that those within the royal household “see me as a threat”. However eerie or striking these “premonitions” and insider testimonies seem, none of these claims in and of themselves prove the theories that she was murdered.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Banners and flowers honouring Diana on the gates of Kensington Palace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481315/original/file-20220826-2763-4s6t9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481315/original/file-20220826-2763-4s6t9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481315/original/file-20220826-2763-4s6t9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481315/original/file-20220826-2763-4s6t9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481315/original/file-20220826-2763-4s6t9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481315/original/file-20220826-2763-4s6t9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481315/original/file-20220826-2763-4s6t9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tributes to the beloved ‘people’s princess’ have appeared at Kensington Palace for years after her death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/londonuk-0831-people-pay-tribute-princess-1168816435">Londisland / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The promise of conspiracy</h2>
<p>Theories about Princess Diana contain a key hallmark of conspiracy: an in-group and an out-group. While typically, celebrities like Diana and the royal family would be seen as part of the in-group in contrast to the public outsiders, these labels mean something different in the context of conspiracy theories. The in-group in this case are the general public and Diana. They represent good, with Diana characterised as a <a href="https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/the-mourning-for-diana/">victim</a>. On the other hand, the out-group – the royal family and authorities – are the villains: a powerful and evil <a href="https://benjamins.com/catalog/pbns.232">threat</a> to the in-group. The out-group is where the conspiracy theorist can identify potential culprits.</p>
<p>Diana conspiracy theories often hinge on people not following procedure, and comparing a supposed conspiracy against an ideal scenario (what should have happened). The conspiracy detective assumes that nothing goes wrong without malicious intent. Uncovering the supposed lie, cover-up or conspiracy is therefore a way for the victims and their allies (the in-group) to regain power over the out-group.</p>
<p>Celebrity death conspiracy theories are palatable for a mainstream audience, because they allow a traumatic or confusing event to become “clear”. They offer us a glimpse of a perfect world to hope for, where nothing ever goes wrong and humans make the best choices they can at any given point. And, had the evil out-group not conspired to murder her, Diana might still be here today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bennett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conspiracy theories help people make sense of chaos and tragedy by finding a ‘reason’ behind the coincidences.Sarah Bennett, PhD candidate, School of English, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1736482022-01-17T19:00:57Z2022-01-17T19:00:57ZFrom fairytale to gothic ghost story: how 40 years of biopics showed Princess Diana on screen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440360/original/file-20220112-27-yxhuxl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C0%2C8317%2C5574&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pablo Larraín/Roadshow</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the earliest Princess Diana biopics appeared soon after the royal wedding in 1981, there have been repeated attempts to bring to the screen the story of Diana’s journey from blue-blooded ingenue through to tragic princess trapped within – and then expelled from – the royal system.</p>
<p>A long string of actresses, with replicas of the outfits she wore and a blond wig (sometimes precariously) in place, have walked through episodic storylines, charting the “greatest hits” of what is known of Diana’s royal life.</p>
<p>Biopics about the princess tend to be shaped according to the dominant mythic narratives in circulation in any given phase of Diana’s life. The first biopics were stories of fairytales and romance. From the 1990s, the marriage of Charles and Diana took on the shape of soap opera and melodrama. </p>
<p>Now, with the Crown (2016–) and Spencer (2021), Diana has become a doomed gothic heroine. She is a woman suffocated by a royal system that cannot, will not, acknowledge her special place in the royal pantheon.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WllZh9aekDg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spencer-how-diana-became-the-popular-culture-princess-170765">Spencer: how Diana became the popular culture princess</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Fairytales and soap operas</h2>
<p>The first Dianas appeared on American television networks within months of the July 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana. </p>
<p>Both Charles and Diana: A Royal Love Story (starring Caroline Bliss) and The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (starring Catherine Oxenberg) invested wholesale in a fairytale lens. </p>
<p>They told of the young and virginal beauty who had captured the attention of the dashing prince, whisked off to a life of happily ever after.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/54QRwogBUQI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The Diana biopics fell quiet for the first years of the marriage (fairytales don’t tend to interest themselves in pregnancies and apparent marital harmony), and then reemerged after the publication of Andrew Morton’s exposé, Diana: Her True Story (1992).</p>
<p>Morton’s biography was written from taped interviews with the princess and inspired the next generation of Diana biopics, ones that I call the “post-Morton” biopics, which borrow from Diana’s own scripting of her life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R7OnHYcTqLk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>A series of actors were enlisted to play Diana in these made-for-television productions. </p>
<p>Oxenberg turns up again in Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After (1992). In Diana: Her True Story (1993), Serena Scott-Thomas (who, incidentally, turns up in the 2011 television biopic William and Kate as Catherine Middleton’s mother Carole) does her best with a terrible script and series of wigs.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tUFUuGpHHPg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Others gave it their best shot. We had Julie Cox in Princess in Love (1996), Amy Seacombe in Diana: A Tribute to the People’s Princess (1998), Genevieve O'Reilly in Diana: Last Days of a Princess (2007) and, briefly, Michelle Duncan in Charles and Camilla: Whatever Love Means (2005).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eNTR0nZZXn4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But even large budget films (such as 2013’s cinema-release Diana, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and starring Naomi Watts) had critics and audiences letting out <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/diana_2013">a collective yawn</a>. </p>
<p>In film after film we were offered yet another uninspired, soap opera-style representation of the princess’s life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ca2GGofxzX4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A gothic tale</h2>
<p>Critics’ voices were quelled somewhat with the appearance of Emma Corrin’s Diana in season four of The Crown. </p>
<p>With Netflix’s high budget and quality production values, many — <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crown-season-4-review-a-triumphant-portrait-of-the-1980s-with-a-perfectly-wide-eyed-diana-149633">including myself</a> — felt Peter Morgan’s deliberate combination of accuracy and imaginative interpretation of Diana’s royal life offered something approximating a closer rendition of the “real” princess than we’d been presented with before.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crown-season-4-review-a-triumphant-portrait-of-the-1980s-with-a-perfectly-wide-eyed-diana-149633">The Crown season 4 review: a triumphant portrait of the 1980s with a perfectly wide-eyed Diana</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tedqw0gMuCI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>And then we come to the most recent portrayal of Diana on screen, Pablo Larraín’s Spencer (2021), starring Kristen Stewart as Diana. What, royal biopic watchers wondered, could it possibly do to top The Crown’s Diana?</p>
<p>Spencer’s statement in the film’s opening offers a clue: it promises to be a “fable from a true tragedy”. </p>
<p>This is a film where genre imperatives and creative imaginings are placed at the forefront of its representation of the princess.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f-FBHQAGLnY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Taking its cue from the gothic themes and tropes Diana can be heard invoking on the Morton tapes, Spencer’s heroine is trapped in a frozen Sandringham setting, gasping for air to the point where her voice rarely lifts above a soft, almost suffocated, whisper. </p>
<p>She tears at the pearls encircling her throat. She rips open the curtains sewn shut by staff. She self-harms with wire cutters. She runs like an animal hunted down manor house corridors and across frosty Norfolk fields. </p>
<p>She is haunted by the ghost of Anne Boleyn, another royal wife rejected by her husband, prompting <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a38164090/princess-diana-spencer-horror-movie/">one reviewer to ask</a>: “is Spencer the ultimate horror movie?”</p>
<p>Larraín and Stewart’s Diana has her precursor in the spectral, gothic Diana who appears in the 2017 future-history television film King Charles III, based on Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play. The anguished howl of this Diana (played by Katie Brayben) echoes throughout the palace in the same way Spencer’s Diana is framed as the royal who will haunt the Windsors for decades to come.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nyckuIRtag0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The lamentable Diana: The Musical (2021) on Netflix (a filmed version of the Broadway production starring Jeanna de Waal) – with its cliched storyline, two-dimensional characterisation, awkward costuming and early 1980s Andrew Lloyd Webber-style aesthetic – offers some evidence that, even in 2021, the creators of Diana stories haven’t altogether abandoned their investment in the Diana of 1981. </p>
<p>But with Spencer, we have a Diana shaped by both the princess’s own version of her story, and the screen Dianas that came before her. Spencer suggests new directions and potential for the telling of royal lives.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UlebsnuEI1Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giselle Bastin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Far from the romance of 1981’s made-for-TV films, Spencer is trapped in a frozen Sandringham setting, gasping for air.Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1707652021-11-02T11:22:14Z2021-11-02T11:22:14ZSpencer: how Diana became the popular culture princess<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429599/original/file-20211101-17-r44wqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=95%2C10%2C3233%2C2182&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/prague-czech-republic-december-11-lennon-350297096">emka74/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite being dead since 1997, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-princess-dianas-death-came-to-define-tragedy-for-the-media-82939">Diana</a>, Princess of Wales, is once again the focus of much attention. This time it’s not due to the anniversary of her death or the <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a29802099/prince-william-prince-harry-royal-feud-rift-timeline/">apparent breakdown</a> in her son’s relationship. Instead, the much-anticipated film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12536294/">Spencer</a> starring <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829576/">Kristen Stewart</a> is being released.</p>
<p>Focusing on December 1991 at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/03/spencer-review-princess-diana-kristen-stewart">Spencer</a> is an imagining of Diana’s decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles and leave the royal family. Following its world premiere, Stewart’s performance as Diana has already been heralded as Oscar-worthy. The reception of the film even <a href="https://variety.com/2021/film/news/kristen-stewart-princess-diana-spencer-standing-ovation-venice-1235055772/">achieved a three-minute standing ovation</a>. </p>
<p>In her lifetime, Diana lived out many roles in the public eye. She became a princess after a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/04/princess-diana-royal-wedding">fairytale-like wedding</a>, <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a34748534/the-crown-princess-diana-motherhood/">a mother</a>, <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/princess-diana-real-life-battle-with-bulimia">a victim of bulimia</a>, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/princess-diana-death-tabloid-press-treatment-media-prince-charles-divorce-affairs-children-royal-monarchy-a7918581.html">a target of the tabloid press</a>, <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/street-style/g10330122/princess-diana-fashion-style/">a fashion icon</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/31/world/princess-diana-death-the-windsors-series/index.html">a captivator of public hearts</a> and ultimately a divorcee who died at the age of 36 under <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/31/death-of-diana-the-week-that-rocked-britain">tragic circumstances</a>. </p>
<p>Diana has also been venerated as an internationally recognised symbol for <a href="https://dianaslegacy.co.uk/dianas-legacy/">love, compassion and charity</a> and an advocate for the disadvantaged and stigmatised. Diana understood the power of holding a role in the public eye and used this to change attitudes and address societal issues.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jfKCU80ZbSo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As a high-profile public figure, Diana displayed a rare vulnerability and humanity that differed from the royal family she had married into. Subsequently, she achieved a beloved status that has extended beyond death. </p>
<p>Indeed, Diana is no longer limited to photographs and interviews in her lifetime. She is resurrected in <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80025678">Netflix’s The Crown</a> and now in her own feature film, Spencer. Diana is experiencing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-celebrity-earnings-show-gender-inequality-reaches-beyond-the-grave-127143">successful posthumous career</a> – with her image and life labouring after her death – without her consent. And in this way, Diana is being <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/gen-z-princess-diana">introduced as a consumable</a> <a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/diana-mania-gets-a-new-gen-z-makeover-netflix-is-cashing-in/546884/">popular culture hero</a> to the generation born after her demise.</p>
<h2>International gossiping</h2>
<p>Diana was the focus of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/21/tabloids-hurt-princess-diana-panorama-bbc-scapegoat">much gossip</a> in her lifetime. Even after her death, the tabloid gossip and fascination with the princess did not really wain. This fascination has again been reignited on a mass global scale at the prospect of the release of Spencer.</p>
<p>Research shows that gossip or frivolous talk can help to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181210-do-we-have-gossip-all-wrong">create and maintain social bonds</a> as it allows us to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep37931#ref37">form groups</a>. It can also allow people to develop new <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/positive-gossip/">ways of thinking</a> about themselves and others. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6596322/">objects of gossip</a>, such as Diana, do not experience a strengthening of bonds with others. Instead, they become alienated or a target and victimised by talk conducted about them. In this way, popular culture portrayals of Diana allow for a new wave of gossip to be unleashed as the public watch, consume and contemplate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Princess Diana in the back of a green car." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429601/original/file-20211101-19-1dp3bou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429601/original/file-20211101-19-1dp3bou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429601/original/file-20211101-19-1dp3bou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429601/original/file-20211101-19-1dp3bou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429601/original/file-20211101-19-1dp3bou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429601/original/file-20211101-19-1dp3bou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429601/original/file-20211101-19-1dp3bou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Princess Diana photographed in 1996.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/diana-princess-wales-leaves-brazilian-ambassadors-611833865">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through gossip on a mass international level, Diana becomes evermore objectified and abstract. She is an “other”, a symbol to be used and talked about. Her personal life is aired for all to see. And now her private thoughts and feelings have received the <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/10/16/diana-netflix-musical-princess-spencer-the-crown-pop-culture/6100470001/">Hollywood touch</a> - she is fictionalised and speculated about as a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20211027-spencer-and-the-ever-transfixing-mystery-of-princess-diana">reimagined consumable movie character</a>.</p>
<h2>Fixated on a symbol</h2>
<p>Princess Diana as a <a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/diana-mania-gets-a-new-gen-z-makeover-netflix-is-cashing-in/546884/">popular culture hero</a> and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/royals/dianas-inner-circle-spencer-horrified-way-portrayed-now/">source of gossip</a> has value in shedding light on societal appetites in the 21st century. She reveals how much has changed and also how little has changed in how social bonds are formed through gossip. Talking about the rich and famous still binds people together, but it has now expanded into the international realm of <a href="https://filmdaily.co/memes/diana-philip/">social media</a>.</p>
<p>Diana is forever frozen in time as a beautiful divorcee and mother of a future king. She manages to attract public interest and is a springboard for debates about societal challenges. Whether the challenge is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/princess-diana-death-tabloid-press-treatment-media-prince-charles-divorce-affairs-children-royal-monarchy-a7918581.html">press freedom</a>, the role of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/diana-statue-and-the-tension-between-the-public-and-private-british-monarchy-164034">royal family,</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-week-of-mourning-for-diana-revealed-about-the-20th-century-british-psyche-81907">public grieving</a>. Diana is a catalyst for public debate.</p>
<p>Diana reveals that society is still fixated on symbols that can be at once venerated and vulnerable. She highlights societal divisions while also bringing about unity and togetherness. And Diana’s reinvention in Spencer cultivates a space for the international community to gossip once again about the “<a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-the-enduring-appeal-of-diana-the-peoples-princess-7056606/">people’s princess</a>” whose fairy tale turned sour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170765/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Penfold-Mounce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Diana is no longer limited to photographs and interviews in her lifetime. She is experiencing a successful posthumous career without her consent.Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Senior Lecturer, Criminology, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1640342021-07-06T15:56:27Z2021-07-06T15:56:27ZDiana statue and the tension between the public and private British monarchy<p>One statue went up, another came down. As the sons of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, came together at Kensington Palace last week for the unveiling of the statue they had commissioned to commemorate their mother’s 60th birthday, a crowd in Canada gathered to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57693683">overturn a statue of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II</a>. </p>
<p>The Canadian protest was against post-colonial ties with Britain, after the <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/07/03/more-graves-are-found-at-canadian-schools-for-the-indigenous">recent discovery</a> of the bones of children who died in schools dedicated to the eradication of indigenous language and culture, the last of which closed as late as the 1990s. The Diana statue unveiling, by contrast, was a private affair, with only Spencer family members present.</p>
<p>But nothing about Diana has been private since her name was first linked to Prince Charles’ back in 1980. No sooner was the statue revealed than the fans started arriving, some old enough to remember their own encounters with the princess, others who knew her only as a memory. </p>
<p>They surely didn’t come to admire the aesthetics – the statue has been described as “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/kitsch-archaic-princess-diana-statue-people-pleasing-dud/">kitsch</a>” and “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jul/01/the-diana-statue-ian-rank-broadley-sculpture">an awkward, lifeless shrine</a>”. People were there to reflect on Diana herself, “a powerful woman”, “a beautiful person”, “a wonderful mother”, as the interviewees for Sky News <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/princess-diana-statue-royal-fans-offer-their-reviews-after-being-allowed-to-visit-for-first-time-12347519">described her</a>, one of them inevitably quoting Diana’s description of herself as, “the queen of people’s hearts”. </p>
<p>It is 40 years since her wedding and 24 since her death, yet still she attracts both crowds and headlines. Why?</p>
<h2>Woman of many roles</h2>
<p>Part of the reason lies in the ever-changing narrative that is woven around her. First the fairy tale romance, then the popular princess, the lonely victim, the wronged wife (or the media-savvy manipulator if you prefer – alternative narratives were always available). And finally the martyred saint – an image given a new lease of life by the recent revelations about the way she was tricked into her famous 1995 BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/panorama.html">Panorama interview</a> by the journalist Martin Bashir. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diana-statue-what-it-reveals-about-the-challenges-of-sculpting-famous-people-163849">Diana statue: What it reveals about the challenges of sculpting famous people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the real significance of her memory cult lies in her relationship with that other royal woman, whom she learned to call “mama” and whose statue was toppled even as Diana’s was unveiled: Elizabeth II. At Diana’s funeral, the Queen did something whose full significance might not have been apparent to the millions who witnessed it: she bowed her head to a subject.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5w0U_igM_hE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Monarchs do not bow to their subjects – even dead ones. To do so is to erase the very basis of monarchy, the “divinity that doth hedge a king”, as <a href="https://www.yorknotes.com/alevel/english-literature/hamlet-advanced/study/the-text/01150100_act-iv-scene-5">Shakespeare put it</a>. It might almost have seemed a form of abdication, except that the Queen was not really bowing to Diana herself, but to what she had become – a powerful focus of public faith, evoking the sort of emotional outburst usually associated with evangelical rallies.</p>
<h2>Symbols of power</h2>
<p>With monarchy, symbols are everything: they are about authority and power or they are nothing, which, of course, is why overturning royal statues can be so satisfying. In her statue, Diana is shown surrounded by children, in a pose strangely reminiscent of the <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/15310845/princess-diana-nursery-school-teacher/">pre-marriage photos of her as a nursery assistant</a>. There are no crowns or tiaras, no cloaks, not even a handbag. </p>
<p>It is a symbol of empathy, of feeling and of love. It’s hard to imagine this Madonna-like statue being overturned (though, on aesthetic grounds alone, some might think that a good idea). Nevertheless, even among the admirers, there were occasional notes of concern. As one visitor put it, instead of three anonymous children around her, it would have been nice to see her sons there. </p>
<p>Diana’s posthumous impact on the monarchy has been huge, but the legacy she leaves lies in the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9720813/Prince-Charles-reportedly-shellshocked-William-Harrys-rift.html">strained relations between her sons</a>. Those who see Diana primarily as a victim will inevitably be drawn to Harry, the troubled prince who finally found happiness in an unexpected marriage, but one which led to his separation from the royal family. </p>
<p>Those who see Diana primarily as one who, in her own way, sought to serve others will see those characteristics in William, duty-bound and a fiercely loyal member of the royal family. Their mother’s statue brought them together but not for long: Harry jetted back to the US the following day.</p>
<p>Diana wanted to be loved – and being loved can certainly come with the crown, but public affection can be fickle, as the Queen knows only too well – and it is certainly not what monarchy is there for. </p>
<p>Monarchs’ statues can be toppled and their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/09/president-of-oxford-college-defends-students-right-to-remove-photo-of-queen">photos taken down from university common room walls</a>. This comes with the territory and is – perhaps perversely – a sign that the symbolism of monarchy still matters. </p>
<p>Diana’s cult, as carried on by Harry and Meghan, will doubtless continue to rule in people’s hearts. But monarchy, as represented by William and his family, will still rule in their heads – even at the cost of the occasional toppled statue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Lang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The late Princess of Wales has become a vehicle for others to reflect their own feelings.Sean Lang, Senior Lecturer in History, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638492021-07-06T10:27:45Z2021-07-06T10:27:45ZDiana statue: What it reveals about the challenges of sculpting famous people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409613/original/file-20210705-27-1q3abs0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley photographs his sculpture of Princess Diana</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV8-BBBLJ04">YouTube/BBC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The excitement around the uncloaking of a statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, at Kensington Palace on what would have been her 60th birthday seemed to spread around the world last week. But it wasn’t just the prospect of the reunion of Prince William and Prince Harry that sent the press and the public wild with anticipation. </p>
<p>In fact, like many tributes made in the images of the public figures we revere, it was also the appearance of the sculpture itself. Here was a memorial to a woman with one of the most recognisable faces in the world - but did it actually look like her? According to many critics, not quite. These reactions reveal the danger of sculpting a modern media star in bronze.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57684597">The sculpture</a> of Diana with three children is by Ian Rank-Broadley. You might not know the name, but you will know his work. His <a href="https://www.royalmint.com/royalty/queen-elizabeth/">1998 profile of Queen Elizabeth II</a> circulates on UK and Commonwealth coins. He has made relief portraits of Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. <a href="https://www.ianrank-broadley.co.uk/work/michael-sandle-ra/">His medals are outstanding</a>, and he has made several public memorial sculptures. This sort of work demands a conservatism on the sculptor’s part, and there are few British sculptors with the practised ability – or inclination, perhaps – to work in this way.</p>
<p>Critics have been <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/660933/newly-unveiled-princess-diana-sculpture-prompts-criticism/">harsh</a> about Rank-Broadley’s sculpture. The Guardian’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jul/01/the-diana-statue-ian-rank-broadley-sculpture">Jonathan Jones</a>, for example, writes that it was “modelled apparently with thickly gloved hands and no photo to consult”. He gets it wrong. The surface of the sculpture is uncomfortably smooth – over rather than under controlled. And there are far too many photos of Diana for any one person to contend with.</p>
<p>The basic problem is put in simple terms by <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9753181/PATRICK-JEPHSON-says-Diana-statue-isnt-going-shake-rafters-sculptor-impossible-task.html">Diana’s former private secretary</a>: Diana “was the most photographed woman in history and everybody has their own idea of what she should look like”. </p>
<h2>The decline of figurative sculptures</h2>
<p>The challenge of photography to sculpture is bigger than just this example. We see so many photographs each day that their conventions <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/196/196428/how-to-see-the-world/9780141977409.html">shape the way we think about and see the world</a>. To get a sense of what I mean by this, imagine a photograph of an athlete crossing the finishing line. Such an image may well impress the viewer, but it doesn’t seem strange. Take the same image into drawing, or even more so into sculpture and it looks contrived, like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXrwWnu7agk">Han Solo frozen in carbonite</a>. </p>
<p>Figurative sculpture has been in crisis for a century. From 1850, across Europe and the US, there was a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40988487?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=statuomanie&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dstatuomanie&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A9a689c2088b1478cb6885bff4738bc57">mania for statues</a>. But by around 1910 the public had already had enough. The need for memorials following the two world wars provided an unfortunate, brief stimulus but in western democracies, the very idea of a public language for sculpture was tainted by the revival of figuration in both fascist and communist dictatorships. </p>
<p>Consequently, sculpture followed the movement of paintings from the academy to the studio, from public conversation to private innovation. Today, there are few art schools in the UK where a student can learn how to model in clay. It’s as though this skill is no longer needed. To cap it all, our public sculptures seem to increasingly be on the wrong <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/statues-of-victoria-and-elizabeth-ii-toppled-in-winnipeg-by-protestors-angry-at-deaths-of-indigenous-children?utm_source=The+Art+Newspaper+Newsletters&utm_campaign=4a496d55f4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_07_01_09_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c459f924d0-4a496d55f4-62204362">side of history</a>. There is now no commonly accepted style for public figurative sculpture on which the sculptor might rely.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/edward-colston-museum-display-what-happens-next-for-the-fallen-statue-162376">Edward Colston museum display: what happens next for the fallen statue</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Analysing the Diana sculpture</h2>
<p>This does not mean that the artist has free reign. The most important person is the sculptor’s subject, not the sculptor. The result for Rank-Broadley’s Diana is an impersonal and awkward smoothness. The sculptor has stepped back too far from the work. It’s an oddly airbrushed image. Compare this sculpture with Oscar Nemon’s rugged <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw236307/Oscar-Nemon-the-Queen-Mother-and-Baron-Harding-of-Petherton-with-Nemons-statue-of-Viscount-Montgomery-of-Alamain">Viscount Montgomery of Alamain</a>, or Jacob Epstein’s bust of the Italian actor <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw126248/Gina-Lollobrigida-with-her-bust-by-Sir-Jacob-Epstein?search=sp&OConly=true&sText=jacob+epstein&wPage=2&rNo=48">Gina Lollobrigida</a> and you will see what I mean: the hair, clothing and skin are modelled differently and with character.</p>
<p>The sculptor’s efforts are more apparent in the statue’s composition. Diana’s stance is protective and maternal, like a madonna. This protective pyramidal composition draws attention to its apex, which is formed by Diana’s head. The emphasis is skilfully balanced by her strong horizontal belt, which is at head height to the two children in front. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1410614124745134080"}"></div></p>
<p>This gives the children a stronger presence, and it seems important to the meaning of the work, speaking both to the princes’ relationship with their late mother and of Diana’s interest in children. These aspects are both symbolically and sculpturally successful. Interestingly, the belt and the rest of Diana’s attire seem to come straight from the photograph shown above.</p>
<p>But an unfortunate consequence of this strong, protective shape is that it is so stable that it appears static. Here again, the camera works against the artist. The nation’s memory of Diana is of a mercurial, light and tragically brief life, a figure in motion. Diana was many things, but she was not stolid. What works for the sculpture is at odds with our televisual expectations. </p>
<p>In the laconic utterance of one art historian who preferred to remain unnamed, sculpting is <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/quite-butch-or-wonderful-new-statue-of-princess-diana-seriously-splits-opinion">“a tough gig”</a>“.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benedict Carpenter van Barthold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reactions to the new figure embody the problems that come with recreating the images of modern iconsBenedict Carpenter van Barthold, Pricipal Lecturer, School of Art & Design, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613282021-05-21T11:09:47Z2021-05-21T11:09:47ZBBC Diana ‘cover up’ – why Lord Dyson’s report is a body blow for broadcaster<p>The BBC is among Britain’s most valuable cultural exports, representing soft power at its most effective. Newcomers including Netflix and Amazon have deeper pockets, but the BBC has set enduring standards in British radio and television production. Executives at Sky, ITV and Channel 4 acknowledge its role as a benchmark that has enhanced the reputation of British broadcasting. Long a trusted source of news for the discerning, it has a global reputation for accuracy and honesty.</p>
<p>So, we should not be astonished that the BBC is ridden with intense angst about <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57189371">Lord Dyson’s report</a> into the corporation’s now infamous interview with Princess Diana, in which she detailed the breakdown of her marriage to the Prince of Wales. The report found that the BBC’s reporter, Martin Bashir, “used deceitful behaviour” to obtain the interview, and that the BBC knowingly “covered up” what it subsequently learned about this behaviour.</p>
<p>The process whereby Bashir, then a reporter for the Panorama documentary series, got the interview every competitor wanted was a mystery when it aired in 1995. It is a scandal now that Lord Dyson, a senior retired judge, has found that the corporation “fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark”. </p>
<p>It is now established as fact that Bashir commissioned fake bank statements and showed them to Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, in order to secure his trust and gain access to his sister. That Bashir subsequently lied to his employer does not mean that blame attaches to him alone. This is a very dark day for the corporation, not just for one disgraced former reporter.</p>
<p>Princess Diana’s appearance on Panorama was a colossal coup for the programme and, ostensibly, for the BBC. More than 20 million viewers watched it on transmission. Many more saw it later. It was the moment when Diana spoke of there being “three of us” in her marriage to Prince Charles. She admitted having an affair herself and explained that Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles (now his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall) had made her feel worthless. </p>
<h2>Falling short</h2>
<p>The interview provoked enormous debate and controversy. I was a BBC editor in 1995. I believed that a flagship programme transmitting such a significant story must have checked and checked again the accuracy and integrity of its journalism. The real shock at the core of the Dyson report, is that it had not. Still worse, the BBC had not compelled it to do so.</p>
<p>Bashir got away with his schoolboy trick, in part, because his editor, the late Steve Hewlett, wanted his reporter’s story to happen. That said, Dyson’s report <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/martin-bashir-dyson-bbc-princess-earl-spencer-b936324.html">categorically cleared Hewlett</a> from the subsequent cover-up, writing that “his writ did not run beyond the programme” and that his wife, Rachel Crellin had offered “a detailed and strong response” to accusations that he was aware or involved in Bashir’s behaviour.</p>
<p>Tony Hall, meanwhile – the BBC’s director of news at the time, subsequently director general – gave Bashir the benefit of the doubt. Now Lord Hall, he has acknowledged that his 1996 internal inquiry that cleared both Bashir and Panorama “fell well short of what was required”. Lord Dyson puts it more bluntly. He says that investigation was “woefully ineffective”.</p>
<p>It is to the BBC’s credit that is has accepted the Dyson Report unreservedly. Tim Davie, the director general, adds that it should have made “a greater effort to get to the bottom of what happened at the time”. He confirms that it now has “significantly better processes and procedures” than existed in 1995. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1323983344795832322"}"></div></p>
<p>Those of us who retain our affection and respect for the BBC will hope he is proved right – not least because the BBC’s critics and foes are circling. Their arguments have been strengthened by this most deplorable mistake and by the regrettable fact that it has gone uncorrected for much longer than was necessary. Newspapers, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-journalist-martin-bashir-misled-dianas-brother-to-secure-bombshell-interview-2x6nj28jm">notably the Sunday Times</a>, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, drew attention to the allegations that have now been shown to be correct.</p>
<p>Such watchdog reporting by others also identified the sad truth that BBC managers <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/princess-diana-interview-documents-suggest-bbc-bosses-more-worried-about-whistleblowers-than-whether-martin-bashir-faked-bank-statement-12283835">were more concerned about having whistleblowers</a> than in investigating their evidence. Such failure may now mean that the BBC will be more extensively harmed than by any previous editorial error.</p>
<h2>Owning up</h2>
<p>Given its scale, ambition and age, the BBC’s major errors are not numerous. It worked too closely with the government during the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/research/editorial-independence/general-strike/">General Strike of 1926</a>. Panorama’s 1984 documentary “Maggie’s Militant Tendency” claimed Conservative MPs had links to far-right organisations and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/sep/09/mondaymediasection.bbc">cost the BBC £290,000 in damages and costs</a>. </p>
<p>BBC reporting of the US bombing raid on Libya in 1986 created <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/research/editorial-independence/libyan-bombing">fresh tension with Margaret Thatcher’s government</a>. More recently, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/02/uk-jimmy-savile-bbc/470943/">Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal</a> inflicted deep wounds. George Entwistle resigned as director general following <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20284124">Newsnight’s false implication</a> that Lord McAlpine had been involved in the abuse of children at Bryn Estyn children’s home in Wales.</p>
<p>Today, the BBC’s humiliation coincides with acute hostility from Boris Johnson’s Conservative government. The Financial Times reports that an influential group of authors, academics and film producers believes a government advisory panel <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a8541974-57f3-46ac-b0fd-0f359db2b7a9">may recommend</a> substantial cuts in the BBC’s income. </p>
<p>Intense competition from wealthy streaming services that have secured loyalty from young viewers increases the BBC’s vulnerability. It needs friends today more than it has needed them at any time in its history. Enemies are circling – and the Dyson report has added blood to the water. The BBC cannot afford to alienate its friends with any further evidence that its journalism, the jewel in its crown, is less than entirely reliable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Luckhurst has received research funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Conversation UK and also of the Free Speech Union and the Society of Editors. </span></em></p>Critics of the UK’s public broadcaster will be sharpening their knives over the latest scandal.Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1567452021-03-09T08:29:10Z2021-03-09T08:29:10ZIf Princess Diana needed a legacy statement, she’s got it in Harry and Meghan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388464/original/file-20210309-15-fqnmap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Harry and Meghan. They left the royal family.</p>
<p>What a shock. Who saw this coming? Harry’s mum Princess Diana definitely would have.</p>
<p>She was, after all, the woman who was ridiculed by a lot of the mainstream media for being too emotional. Her trembling lower juxtaposed against Charles’s stiff upper lip.</p>
<p>Well guess what, if Diana needed a legacy statement her son Harry has made it by marrying a very smart and powerful woman who will not sit in the corner and be told to behave.</p>
<p>Diana famously offered <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a34732735/princess-diana-aids-activism-the-crown/">her ungloved hand to an AIDS patient</a>. It was significant because part of the protocol of royalty is that ordinary people are not meant to touch the royals. Anyone remember the “Lizard of Oz” scandal when Paul Keating <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/gallery/2017/jul/12/no-hands-maam-australian-prime-ministers-meet-the-queen-in-pictures">put his hand on the Queen’s back</a>?</p>
<p>In stark contrast to Queen Elizabeth, Diana frequently kissed and hugged people. Unlike her husband she made a point of showing physical affection to her children in public.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388465/original/file-20210309-15-10mzy2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388465/original/file-20210309-15-10mzy2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388465/original/file-20210309-15-10mzy2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388465/original/file-20210309-15-10mzy2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388465/original/file-20210309-15-10mzy2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388465/original/file-20210309-15-10mzy2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388465/original/file-20210309-15-10mzy2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Princess Diana frequently hugged and touched people, and was referred to as the ‘Queen of hearts’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/AP/Alejandro Pagni</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Meghan and Harry story and the current debates about whether they should have done an interview with Oprah Winfrey sent me back to when I was writing my PhD thesis on why tabloid media matters. Later, I published it <a href="https://www.readings.com.au/products/3452375/gotcha-life-in-a-tabloid-world#">as a book</a> titled Gotcha: Life in a Tabloid World.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-royal-family-cant-keep-ignoring-its-colonialist-past-and-racist-present-156749">The royal family can't keep ignoring its colonialist past and racist present</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>I wrote about Oprah and why talk shows like hers matter. It’s because they let us hear the voices of people we don’t hear in the mainstream media. We hear more from black people, people from disadvantaged backgrounds and more from women. And sometimes those people get emotional. What a shock.</p>
<p>Emotion and empathy are very clearly lacking in our public debates these days. And thank goodness interviewers like Oprah bring that to the table.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388467/original/file-20210309-17-1yw55jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388467/original/file-20210309-17-1yw55jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388467/original/file-20210309-17-1yw55jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388467/original/file-20210309-17-1yw55jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388467/original/file-20210309-17-1yw55jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388467/original/file-20210309-17-1yw55jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388467/original/file-20210309-17-1yw55jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oprah Winfrey brought her trademark empathy and emotion to her interview with the royal couple.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/AP/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The symbolic aspect of Diana’s persona aligned her with religious figures like Mother Theresa. And that’s part of why she was seen in the mainstream media as a bit of a spiritual nut-job.</p>
<p>But the perception that many others had was that she channelled empathy and humanity through the way she connected with people. And that’s why she was and is still called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyIUWbvx7uw">the Queen of hearts</a>”.</p>
<p>Back to Harry and his wife.</p>
<p>Meghan has clearly been targeted by the tabloid media, in an undeniably racist way, and she and her husband made a sensible decision to get out. But their dilemma raises a far bigger issue for all of us.</p>
<p>We are living through a time where the limits of free speech – the boundaries of what it is acceptable to say - are unclear. And we equally live in a time where anyone can post anything on social media and effectively become a publisher.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago, I was optimistic about the tabloid media and talks shows balancing out the elitism of the so-called “fourth estate”. Now I’m not so sure. </p>
<p>When I bother to check my Twitter feed or my email account I, like many of us, am increasingly alarmed by the trolling that goes on. I assume Meghan has someone to deal with that for her. The rest of us are only just working out how to manage it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meghan-and-harrys-oprah-interview-why-british-media-coverage-could-backfire-156424">Meghan and Harry’s Oprah interview: why British media coverage could backfire</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Lumby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Oprah Winfrey brought emotion and empathy to her bombshell interview with the couple – two qualities sorely missing in public debate these days.Catharine Lumby, Professor of Media, Department of Media, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1566012021-03-08T12:36:36Z2021-03-08T12:36:36ZMeghan and Harry’s Oprah interview: why ‘royal confessionals’ threaten the monarchy<p>The Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey is shaping up to be the most published critique of the British monarchy in years. In it, Meghan confessed her suicidal feelings while pregnant as well as claims that someone in the royal family questioned how dark Archie – her son with Prince Harry – would be. In much of the <a href="https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1368835040445104130">commentary</a>, the interview has been framed as an attack on the royal family. But royalist demands that Meghan and Harry should “just stay quiet” speak to longer histories of the politics of the “royal confessional”, and how people who speak out are maligned to protect the institution. </p>
<p>Royal confessionals have a long history. Marion Crawford, who wrote a book in 1950 about her time as nanny to the Queen and her sister Margaret, was <a href="https://time.com/5411825/british-royal-household-memoirs/">allegedly ostracised</a> for selling her story without permission. Wallis Simpson, the American socialite for whom Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936, wrote a memoir <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8314372-the-heart-has-its-reasons">The Heart Has its Reasons</a>. In it, she sarcastically recalled the Queen Mother’s “justly famous charm” as a thinly-veiled critique.</p>
<p>Princess Diana’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/panorama.html">BBC One Panorama interview in 1995</a> is perhaps the most iconic royal confessional. Diana told interviewer Martin Bashir about royal adultery, palace plots against her, and her deteriorating mental and physical health. Her infamous quote, “well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” referring to Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, is still remembered almost 26 years later. Sir Richard Eyre, a former director of the National Theatre, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/princess-diana-panorama-interview-martin-bashir-prince-charles-b1207193.html">claimed</a> that the Queen called Diana’s decision to tell-all “frightful”.</p>
<h2>Unwelcome confessions</h2>
<p>Common across all these examples is that it is women who use the royal confessional to reveal their experiences.</p>
<p>The “confessional” is often used in celebrity cultures to manufacture intimacies with audiences. Celebrities disclose something personal and reveal their “authentic” selves. However, as sociology and media scholars Helen Wood, Beverley Skeggs and Nancy Thumin <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/sad-affect-judgement-emotional-labour-reality-television-viewing-helen-wood-beverley-skeggs-nancy-thumim/e/10.4324/9780203889633-16">note</a>, elite, white, male celebrity confessions tend to be treated with gravitas. But <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030446208">women’s confessionals</a> – particularly women of colour or those associated with “low culture professions” (such as celebrities) – are all too often treated as inappropriate, oversharing and narcissistic. </p>
<p>All these confessionals are described in public and social commentary as attacks on the royal family. They were – and are – considered as erroneously and immorally exposing the inner workings of the monarchy. Commentators such as Piers Morgan have branded the interview a <a href="https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/piers-morgan-slams-meghan-harrys-23610237">disgrace</a>, asking how they could be so heartless as to call the Queen and Prince Philip liars while Philip is currently ill in hospital?</p>
<h2>Protecting power</h2>
<p>Stories that describe royal confessionals as immoral are similarly attempting to protect the monarchy, rather than recognising the importance of holding a powerful institution to account. In my <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526158758/">forthcoming book</a>, I argue that the British monarchy relies upon a careful balance of visibility and invisibility to reproduce its power. This is an ancient institution operating at the heart of a supposed democracy - not drawing attention to these contradictions is central to its survival. The royal family can be visible in spectacular (state ceremonies, for example) or familial (royal weddings, royal babies) forms. But the inner workings of the institution must remain secret. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OTJgi78AguE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Like Meghan, I use the phrase “The Firm”, but I use it to describe the monarchy as a corporation, invested in reproducing its wealth and power. But this is a corporation whose operations must remain top secret. Any exposure of its behind-the-scenes activities – such as recent revelations in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/08/royals-vetted-more-than-1000-laws-via-queens-consent">The Guardian</a> on the misuses of the “Queen’s consent” to influence laws that affect her personal interests – risk destabilising the monarchy. </p>
<p>One moment when too much visibility was cast on the monarchy was the 1969 fly-on-the-wall documentary <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55853625">Royal Family</a>, which followed the royals for a year. This has been (in)famously redacted by Buckingham Palace. I argue this is because it revealed too much about monarchy behind the scenes and threatened to rupture the precious visibility and invisibility balance. As constitutional scholar <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Bagehot_The_English_Constitution/A0-zcw0XYbYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Walter Bagehot</a> wrote in the 1800s: “We must not let in daylight upon magic”. </p>
<p>Like their other confessors before them, Meghan and Harry’s claims about living inside “The Firm” continue to be positioned as disrespectful, blasphemous and immoral attacks on the Queen and her family. But perhaps what we should be asking is why do so many people, and the British media, seem to have a problem with holding one of our most powerful state institutions to account?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Clancy has received funding from the ESRC and the AHRC. </span></em></p>Royal confessions disrupt the careful balance between transparency and secrecy on which the monarchy is based.Laura Clancy, Lecturer in Media, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1512932020-12-10T18:59:43Z2020-12-10T18:59:43ZFriday essay: the hidden agenda of royal experts circling The Crown series 4<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373723/original/file-20201208-22-puk7b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Des Willie Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent outcry from royal biographers about the <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/season-four-of-the-crown-controversy">accuracy and fairness</a> of series 4 of The Crown taps into narratives that have surrounded the field of royal life writing since it emerged in the early 20th century.</p>
<p>There has been much hand-wringing by (royal) trainspotters, biographers, journalists and even <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8996921/Culture-Secretary-Oliver-Dowden-demands-Netflix-make-clear-Crown-fiction.html">Britain’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden </a> and the actor who plays Princess Margaret, <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/12/helena-bonham-carter-the-crown-moral-responsibility-declare-dramatized-1234635619/">Helena Bonham Carter</a>, about the accuracy of the Netflix series written and produced by Peter Morgan. </p>
<p>Criticisms of series 4 have ranged from historical inaccuracy (the Queen being wrongly dressed for the Trooping the Colour; Princess Anne’s horsemanship) to a propensity to flesh out the narrative with half-truths and downright falsities. (For example, the suggestion that Charles and Camilla remained an item all the way through his marriage to Diana, and the idea that Prince Philip gave Diana a veiled threat about what could await her if she didn’t play by the script.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373817/original/file-20201209-21-13sb2cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Olivia Colman as the Queen at the Trooping the Colour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One royal biographer, Hugo Vickers, has been so incensed by The Crown’s playing hard and fast with the facts he’s sprung to action and <a href="https://www.readings.com.au/products/31816518/crown-dissected-seasons-1-2-and-3#">released his own book</a> devoted to fact-checking it.</p>
<p>In addition to criticising the biopic’s misrepresentation of royal lives, the show’s detractors express concerns long aired about popular history — that an admiring and gullible viewing public will assume the program is factual and treat it as real history. The public, it is implied, need protection from fake news turning into fake history.</p>
<p>Critics of The Crown profess to have the royals’ best interests at heart because the royal family is not prone — at least it wasn’t before Harry and Meghan — to going to the courts or on the public record to defend itself. The Windsors, they imply, are being subject to unethical treatment and are also in need of protection.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373819/original/file-20201209-14-1b87geb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Erin Doherty as Princess Anne in The Crown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Des Willie/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Peter Morgan and Robert Lacey (<a href="https://www.robertlacey.com/2019/01/19/how-advisor-to-the-crown-robert-lacey-gets-closer-to-the-truth/">a leading royal expert consulting on The Crown</a>) have been open about the program’s blending of fact and fiction. Netflix <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-08/netflix-the-crown-disclaimer-rejected-heres-why-charles-diana/12957764">has announced</a> there is no need for it to carry a disclaimer about efficacy or accuracy. People will know it’s drama, they’ve said, so move on.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crown-season-4-review-a-triumphant-portrait-of-the-1980s-with-a-perfectly-wide-eyed-diana-149633">The Crown season 4 review: a triumphant portrait of the 1980s with a perfectly wide-eyed Diana</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>I would contend there is a lot more going on than first meets the eye with these debates about The Crown’s legitimacy and accuracy. What we are witnessing are discourses that surround notions of who has the legitimate right to talk about royal lives.</p>
<p>In this, the field of royal biography is unique. It is tied implicitly, and often explicitly, to the systems governing the royal houses, and derives meaning and stature from its relative proximity to the locus of royal power — the monarch and inner circle of royal members and their senior servants.</p>
<p>In the case of current criticisms of The Crown, the chorus of disapproving voices is sending coded messages to the royals (and their royal handlers) about their social and professional suitability to qualify for the holiest of holy grails: to be the official biographer of Queen Elizabeth II upon her death. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373827/original/file-20201209-13-6vkwvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373827/original/file-20201209-13-6vkwvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373827/original/file-20201209-13-6vkwvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373827/original/file-20201209-13-6vkwvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373827/original/file-20201209-13-6vkwvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373827/original/file-20201209-13-6vkwvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373827/original/file-20201209-13-6vkwvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Elizabeth II: who will write her biography?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glyn Kirk/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They may have missed out on the riches and splendours of co-writing and advising on The Crown, but they’ll scramble cheerfully to secure their place in the royal firmament.</p>
<h2>Touching ‘sore places’</h2>
<p>In the early 20th century, a culture of royal life writing developed that saw an intricate interplay between palace courtiers and the biographers who were screened, vetted, and given (or not given) access to the details of royal lives. Royal biographers commissioned to write the official or approved biographies of the monarch entered into a tacit agreement to abide by the codes of deference and discretion. In this sense, they came to resemble the royal courtier, with all the trappings, grace, favour, honours and financial reward this role bestowed.</p>
<p>Indeed, royal biographer John Wheeler-Bennett <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781349025824">cautioned</a> those who would enter the fold it was something “not to be entered into inadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly and in the fear of God”.</p>
<p>The culture of royal biography <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/censoring-queen-victoria.html">arguably began</a> with royal courtier Lord Esher’s recruitment of Etonian school master A.C. Benson to help him edit Queen Victoria’s vast piles of correspondence.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sydneys-9-189-sister-politicians-who-petitioned-queen-victoria-124274">Sydney's 9,189 'sister politicians' who petitioned Queen Victoria</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Historian Yvonne M. Ward <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/censoring-queen-victoria.html">has charted </a> how 1st Baron Stamfordham, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria and later to King George V, issued warnings to Esher and Benson that some of the queen’s letters were not to be made public. </p>
<p>They were of “no importance historically and would only supply matter for gossip and possibly ill-natured criticism”.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373725/original/file-20201208-15-1jc0eqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Victoria in 1863.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Esher brought in high-ranking friends to help edit Benson’s choices and to make especial note of “anything [that might] slip in which can give pain or offence”. One such friend assured Esher he “had kept a keen look-out […] for references or quotations that might touch sore places”.</p>
<p>As the century progressed, senior palace officials designed the template supposed to be followed to this day, setting the tone for how the royals should be represented on the public record. The rewards of access to the Royal Archives at Windsor, to the sacred spaces of the royal court, and the bestowment of status in the form of honours and titles awaited those who toed the line.</p>
<p>For those deemed to have broken the codes, social, professional and economic consequences quickly followed.</p>
<h2>Sacred and not to be pried into</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/bertie-a-life-of-edward-vii-9781448161119">Royal biographer Jane Ridley</a>, for instance, has shown the challenges met by Sir Sidney Lee (real name Solomon Lazarus Lee) after he was commissioned in the 1910s to be official biographer of Edward VII (Bertie).</p>
<p>According to Ridley, Lee wanted to exercise autonomy in his treatment of his royal subject; he also wanted to control the publication of the biography itself. Most of all, Lee did not comply with the gentlemanly codes of the royal court: “[t]he feeling against Lee was charged with anti-Semitism” and he was denigrated as a “Jew who is out for money”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373803/original/file-20201209-15-ayuw8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King Edward VII in the 1900s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite his official biographer status, Lee was obstructed at every turn. Senior courtier Sir Arthur Davidson announced it would be impossible for Lee to “run riot amongst [the] chaos of the late King’s letters”. Sir John Fortescue, Keeper of the Archives, “did his best to be unhelpful […] ‘I have always treated [the royal papers] […] as sacred and not to be pried into’”.</p>
<p>Another eminent courtier, writes Ridley, obstructed Lee at every turn, responding to a request to see Bertie’s diaries by saying “there are no diaries and if there were the King said no one should see them!” The palace made Lee’s task impossible achieving the aim of “making him write a hagiography”.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373838/original/file-20201209-15-12yz7i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andrew Morton in 1999.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Geissler/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lee had misunderstood the tacit agreement that the biographer is supposed to act as an extension of the royal courtier, playing his part (and the use of the masculine “he” is relevant here) in protecting the privacy and reputation of the court.</p>
<p>This was nowhere more apparent than in denunciations of the royal life writer who preceded Peter Morgan for special criticism and ignominy: Andrew Morton, author of 1992’s Diana: Her True Story. Morton, a tabloid journalist, was not deemed to be of the right character or background to be the author of royal stories.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/finding-freedom-the-new-harry-and-meghan-book-is-the-latest-risky-move-in-a-royal-pr-war-144090">'Finding Freedom': the new Harry and Meghan book is the latest, risky move in a royal PR war</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The jilted ratpack</h2>
<p>Before Diana’s commissioning of, and collusion with, Morton became known, he bore the brunt of fury from journalists, biographers and establishment figures. </p>
<p>They could not believe a royal biography would air so much “dirty laundry” — and, to them, false dirty laundry — in public. Figures such as <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-13-mn-1372-story.html">Lord McGregor</a>, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/royals/interviews/hastings.html">Sir Max Hastings</a>, editor of The Daily Telegraph, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/royals/interviews/worsthorne2.html">Sir Peregrine Worsthorne </a>, columnist for The Sunday Telegraph, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/22/the-di-is-cast/881bf510-f346-4dff-962b-b725f03e9311/">Sir Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames </a>), British Conservative Party politician, were astonished by Morton’s unsanctioned act of lèse-majesté.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373806/original/file-20201209-23-16oaof8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Princess Diana, seen here with Prince Charles and baby Harry in 1984, had helped shape her own story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unaware Diana had shaped the content of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/908053.Diana">Diana: Her True Story</a> herself, the royal court granted tacit approval for its supporters to go out and champion their cause. Morton notes in his postscript to the 1993 edition of the book that there were many in royal circles who “were keen to shut [me] away in the Tower of London”.</p>
<p>After Diana’s collusion with Morton became known, she became the one accused of breaking the codes of royal discretion and secrecy. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jun/23/featuresreviews.guardianreview5">As Tina Brown wrote</a>, “the rat pack felt jilted. Their pin-up girl had bestowed her favours elsewhere, handed the ingrate freelance Andrew Morton access his colleagues had been denied”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diana-revived-the-monarchy-and-airing-old-tapes-wont-change-a-thing-81552">Diana revived the monarchy – and airing old tapes won't change a thing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By 2009, the royal court wrested back control of the royal narrative with the commissioning of William Shawcross’s official biography of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. Shawcross managed, in over 943 pages, to tell the reader practically nothing whatsoever about the private character of his subject. His biography manages not only to avoid sore places, but to sketch a royal world where such places barely exist.</p>
<h2>Honours and prestige</h2>
<p>For those royal storytellers who abide by the rules, reward comes in the form of financial benefit along with awards and honours.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373810/original/file-20201209-16-10052uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early-mid 20th century, it was normal for official biographers to receive the Knight of the Grand Cross. These were later downgraded somewhat slightly to lower honours (unsurprisingly, one was awarded to Shawcross).</p>
<p>Similarly, the withholding or downgrading of honours has been used by the palace to express disapproval in cases where biographical indiscretions have occurred.</p>
<p>Kenneth Rose, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/King_George_V.html?id=lf6FAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">a biographer of King George V </a>, long felt he had compromised his chances of receiving honours because he addressed the sensitive topic of George V’s role in turning down the Russian Tsar’s request to seek sanctuary in Britain during the first world war.</p>
<p>According to an anecdote <a href="https://fivebooks.com/best-books/royal-biographies-hugo-vickers/">told by Hugo Vickers</a>, Rose was informed by the Queen Mother’s private secretary that his chances of an honour had “just floated down to 20 to one!” and that he would be awarded a mere Commander of the Order of the British Empire) instead.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373815/original/file-20201209-18-ngw7xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peter Morgan and Gillian Anderson, who plays Margaret Thatcher in The Crown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Pizzello/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Royal biography evolved to become, in every sense, a “gentleman’s sport”, with all the intonations of class, gender inscription, social connection, networking, and appropriate “amateur” status this phrase implies.</p>
<p>One simply cannot be seen to be in it just for the money, as we saw in the criticisms levelled at Lee and Morton. Yet, economic capital is contiguous to royal access, and vice versa. </p>
<p>Peter Morgan, despite ticking some of the boxes that qualify him to be a suitable “gentleman” biographer (he went to a couple of seriously posh English public schools, although neither were Eton, and went only to the University of Leeds), has overstepped the rules by making too much money out of the royals. </p>
<h2>Pleasing the palace</h2>
<p>The chorus of disapproving voices declaiming Morgan’s approach are angling for the biographers’ holy grail and seeking to protect and promote their own lucrative market share.</p>
<p>Morgan’s The Crown is <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/12/the-crown-left-bank-pictures-revenue-record-1202806280/">big business</a>. So was Morton’s book (and so, interestingly, was Martin Bashir’s 1995 BBC Panorama scoop interview with Diana, now the subject of <a href="https://inews.co.uk/opinion/scrutiny-martin-bashir-diana-interview-years-too-late-bbc-784794">an inquiry</a> as to whether Bashir tricked Diana into granting it). The voices of detractors seem to grow louder in direct relation to the size of the financial rewards royal writers reap.</p>
<p>It is notable that when a swathe of not very well-known, low-budget and low financial yield television biopics about <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084609">Charles and Diana</a> (and Charles and Camilla, Andrew and Sarah, and Princess Margaret), such as The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana 1982 and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462609/,">Whatever Love Means</a>, were released throughout the 1980s-2009, barely a murmur was heard about their accuracy or ethical imperatives. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373837/original/file-20201209-15-1j1f2oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker-Bowles in The Crown. Previous biopics barely raised a murmur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Des Willie/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Simply, they hadn’t made enough money nor been seen by large enough audiences in need of protection from false histories.</p>
<p>Similarly, debates about the first three series of The Crown were relatively muted compared to the attention series 4 is attracting. The reason may well be that the royal biographical community has started to realise a relative interloper has landed the biggest golden goose of all time. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Morgan’s royal storytelling is offering some serious royalties in return, which allows him to cheerfully ignore the unofficial rule that biographical representations of the royals need to be acts of tactful omission and discretion rather than full-scale re-imaginings of life behind palace walls. He might even point out that earlier royal biographies were made up of just as much fiction and fantasy as The Crown.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giselle Bastin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The chorus of disapproving voices declaiming The Crown’s approach to royal storytelling are angling for the biographers’ holy grail and seeking to protect their own lucrative market share.Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1496332020-11-10T19:03:04Z2020-11-10T19:03:04ZThe Crown season 4 review: a triumphant portrait of the 1980s with a perfectly wide-eyed Diana<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368440/original/file-20201110-24-lxysrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Des Willie/Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Peter Morgan’s fourth season of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4786824/">The Crown</a> faces perhaps its greatest challenge so far. The 1980s was one of the most documented, catalogued, debated and scrutinised decades of the House of Windsor. Morgan will, no doubt be keenly aware of viewers using telephoto lenses to, once again, see if the program-makers “get it right”.</p>
<p>They do.</p>
<p>Season four is a triumph of accuracy blended with creative invention that continues the program’s process of recentering the Queen (Olivia Colman). </p>
<p>Queen Elizabeth II’s main rivals for centre stage are Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (played dazzlingly well by Gillian Anderson) and Lady Diana Spencer (played wide-eyed and en pointe by newcomer Emma Corrin).</p>
<p>The production standards, casting and acting are excellent; the script structure now well known to fans of the series; the costumes are without a stitch out of place; and they even — I never thought I’d type these words — get Diana’s hair and voice right. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OiXEpminPms?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Royal rituals</h2>
<p>The series pivots around episode two, The Balmoral Test. Thatcher and Diana must adapt to royal ways during the Windsors’ annual decamping to Balmoral in Scotland. The seemingly jokey initiation ceremonies disguise a deeply serious process of vetting suitability to enter the royal fold. </p>
<p>Will they bring the right footwear and clothes for country life? (Diana yes, Thatcher, no). Do they know that dinner is at 8pm, not 6pm?; that no-one is to sit in Queen Victoria’s chair? (Thatcher, no).</p>
<p>Do they love blood sports such as fly-fishing, grouse hunting and — perhaps bloodiest of all — after dinner parlour games? (A big “no” for Maggie; Diana proves better at faking it).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Queen salutes while riding a horse" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368448/original/file-20201110-14-1226yir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Royal life is a series of rules and rituals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Liam Daniel/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The initiation rituals reveal the royals’ ignorance of the seismic social shift taking place in Britain. Thatcher’s ascendancy to Downing Street signalled an emergence of a system that recognised the validity of meritocracy over aristocracy, even monarchy. </p>
<p>Colman’s queen begins by enjoying pulling rank and the rug out from underneath Thatcher’s muddy feet during their bleak Balmoral summer, but she becomes increasingly discombobulated by a PM who imagines herself more regal than her sovereign. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Margaret Thatcher talks to the press" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368450/original/file-20201110-22-1rac04w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret Thatcher’s election spoke to seismic shifts in UK politics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Des Willie/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the 1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Queen oversteps her constitutional role and presses for political action; the PM tears strips off her and puts her in her place with a level of frosty imperiousness that would have put Queen Victoria to shame. </p>
<p>The scenes between Anderson and Colman are spellbinding.</p>
<h2>The hunter and the hunted</h2>
<p>The season charts the civic unrest of the UK <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/1980s-cultural-history">during a period</a> of high unemployment and the clashes over nationalist spending for endeavours such as the Falklands War. </p>
<p>Episode five brings this narrative thread together with the break-in to Buckingham Palace by unemployed and socially dispossessed Londoner, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fagan_(intruder)">Michael Fagan</a> (Tom Brooke). Having scaled the palace walls, he sits on the Queen’s bed: a symbol of the bleeding and broken Britain under Thatcherite rule.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-death-of-margaret-thatcher-and-the-legacy-of-thatcherism-13324">The death of Margaret Thatcher, and the legacy of 'Thatcherism'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The other major storyline is the courtship and marriage of Charles (Josh O'Connor) and Diana. During her first visit to Balmoral, Diana is subjected to one of her first tests. She and Philip (Tobias Menzies) go deer stalking together with the aim of finishing off a 14-pointer Imperial stag that has been badly injured by an “overseas” hunter (echoes of the paparazzi?). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diana and Charles talk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368479/original/file-20201110-18-1eklng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diana’s relationship with Charles is, so often, a series of tests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Des Willie/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With Diana’s assistance, Philip cleanly dispatches the stag. The royal pair return to Balmoral ahead of a procession of the dead animal now strapped to the back of a horse — an unsettling premonition of what will be Diana’s coffin in her funeral procession 17 years later.</p>
<p>Having been an early ally, Philip moves to read Diana the rule book when the princess threatens to break out with her own royal show. Philip tells her:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everyone in this system is lost, lonely, irrelevant, [an] outsider, apart from the one person, the only person that matters. She is the oxygen we all breathe, the essence of all our duty. Your problem […] is that you seem to be confused about who that person is. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A closing scene sees Diana framed against a wall-mounted stag, its horns appearing to be Diana’s own. The message is clear: the assassins Diana has to keep an eye out for may lurk within palace walls.</p>
<h2>The bride stripped bare</h2>
<p>It is poignant and clever that we do not get to see a full blown recreation of the “<a href="https://www.history.com/news/prince-charles-lady-diana-wedding">fairytale wedding of the century</a>”. The Charles and Diana we meet in St Paul’s are there merely for their wedding rehearsal, Diana in plain clothes and fake wedding veil and train, the rehearsal wedding vows interrupted and left unsaid. </p>
<p>This is the bride stripped bare, the marriage finished before it’s even begun.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diana-revived-the-monarchy-and-airing-old-tapes-wont-change-a-thing-81552">Diana revived the monarchy – and airing old tapes won't change a thing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The rest of the royals drift through exhibiting degrees of pain and loneliness, all craving affection, recognition and meaning. </p>
<p>Princess Margaret continues to party and suffer hard. Princess Anne’s marriage (barely glimpsed in all four seasons) disappears altogether. Prince Andrew emerges as a smug and entitled buffoon (bring on season seven); and Camilla is, to say the least, equivocal about a future with Charles. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Margaret holds a cigarette and a whiskey." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368485/original/file-20201110-24-11dtsm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Princess Margaret continues to party – and suffer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Des Willie/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Only the Queen and her husband seem to have found a happy place, with Philip her major protector, her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Walsingham">Walsingham</a>.</p>
<p>This latest series of The Crown opens with a close-up of the Queen preparing for ceremonial duty and ends with a close-up of Diana’s face as she poses for a family photo at Sandringham. </p>
<p>The Crown’s bookending of the two leading royal women signals the next season will be the Windsors’ reckoning with the late 20th century, a period of enormous adjustment and reinvention for the family.</p>
<p><em>The Crown season 4 will air on Netflix from November 15.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giselle Bastin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In this new season of The Crown, Queen Elizabeth has two rivals for centre stage: Margaret Thatcher, played dazzlingly well by Gillian Anderson, and Diana Spencer.Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1440902020-08-12T02:09:24Z2020-08-12T02:09:24Z‘Finding Freedom’: the new Harry and Meghan book is the latest, risky move in a royal PR war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352155/original/file-20200811-15-1hu1os1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C27%2C4519%2C2922&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DPPA/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Front cover of 'Finding Freedom', Harry and Meghan smiling for cameras" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352144/original/file-20200811-22-lge36x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352144/original/file-20200811-22-lge36x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352144/original/file-20200811-22-lge36x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352144/original/file-20200811-22-lge36x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352144/original/file-20200811-22-lge36x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352144/original/file-20200811-22-lge36x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352144/original/file-20200811-22-lge36x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Finding Freedom was published on August 11.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HarperCollins Publishers</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A new book about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is generating sensational headlines about their <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/royals/finding-freedom-meghan-markle-delighted-harry-by-going-to-the-toilet-in-the-woods-while-camping/news-story/e86765a6a2af410371e8bfe842a9c98d">private life</a>, defiance of <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/9-things-we-learned-from-finding-freedom-the-new-book-about">Queen Elizabeth</a> and how Prince William “<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/snob-william-caused-rift-with-harry-by-urging-caution-over-meghan-sz2fg2scv">behaved like a snob</a>” to his future sister-in-law. </p>
<p>It is also the latest foray of British royals into the minefield that is royal
biography. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/finding-freedom-omid-scobiecarolyn-durand">Finding Freedom</a>: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, by royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, promises stories about how the royal couple has struggled with “the many rumours and misconceptions that [have] plagued” them since their 2017 engagement. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/25/harry-and-meghan-not-interviewed-for-royal-biography">numerous reports</a>, this also includes tales of their clashes with palace officials and <a href="https://www.tatler.com/article/harry-and-meghan-biography-finding-freedom-harry-meghan-and-the-making-of-a-modern-royal-family-details">members of their own families</a>, as well as their <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/meghan-knew-harry-the-one-22420335">courtship</a> and ill-treatment by the British press.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the couple has firmly said they “did not contribute to ‘Finding Freedom’”. But there is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/10/finding-freedom-by-omid-scobie-and-carolyn-durand-harry-and-meghan-and-the-making-of-a-modern-royal-family">widespread speculation</a> Harry and Meghan were nevertheless involved, given the level of detail in the book.</p>
<p>According to the publishers, HarperCollins, the biography has been produced with “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-29/harry-and-meghan-finding-freedom-book-extracts/12498340">unique access</a> and written with the participation of those closest to the couple”.</p>
<h2>‘Never explain, never complain’</h2>
<p>We’ve seen this before, and it is a tale that seldom ends happily or well. In 1976, John Wheeler-Bennett, official biographer of George VI, observed royal biography is</p>
<blockquote>
<p>not to be entered into advisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly and in the fear of God. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wheeler-Bennett was here referring to the role of the royal biographer, but could just as easily have been referring to the royals themselves.</p>
<p>The royals are not supposed to go on the record and speak of private matters. The dictum ruling the House of Windsor for the best part of the 19th and 20th centuries was they should “never explain, never complain”. </p>
<p>In 1947, when hearing of a former servant’s plans to write about her time in royal service, the Queen Mother summed up the royal family’s strong expectations when she said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>people in positions of confidence with us must be utterly oyster. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Subsequently, the royal family was dismayed when the Duke of Windsor fed his story to a ghostwriter in 1951’s <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_King_s_Story.html?id=mmg0AAAACAAJ">A King’s Story</a>, outlining his own version of the abdication crisis. Prince Philip also <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1184100/royal-news-prince-charles-prince-philip-incensed-worst-mistake-royal-family-spt">disapproved strongly</a> of Prince Charles’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/prince-charles-says-he-has-no-regrets-over-dimbleby-book-1443375.html">candid revelations</a> in Jonathan Dimbleby’s 1994 book Prince of Wales: A Biography and subsequent interview.</p>
<h2>Diana’s experience</h2>
<p>Prince Harry could also have learned some valuable lessons from his own mother, who flouted the “utterly oyster” rule. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cover of 1992 book, Diana: Her True Story, with portrait of Diana" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352157/original/file-20200811-15-1rr3yc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352157/original/file-20200811-15-1rr3yc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352157/original/file-20200811-15-1rr3yc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352157/original/file-20200811-15-1rr3yc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352157/original/file-20200811-15-1rr3yc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352157/original/file-20200811-15-1rr3yc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352157/original/file-20200811-15-1rr3yc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diana: Her True Story generated waves of controversy for the Princess in 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Diana, Princess of Wales, was behind the most famous royal biography of all time when she commissioned Andrew Morton to “ghost” her tale of marital woe and royal suffering with the 1992 tell-all <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7580537">Diana: Her True Story</a>.</p>
<p>Her True Story was a huge commercial success - <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/08/26/my-secret-life-as-princess-dianas-confidant/">having sold more than ten million copies</a> as of 2017. But after the book’s publication, Buckingham Palace and conservative media outlets <a href="https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/%22there-were-three-of-us-in-this-biography-so-it-was-a-bit-crowded-the-biographer-as-suitor-and-the-rhetoric-of-romance-in-diana-her-true-story%22-by-giselle-bastin/">went after Morton</a>, expressing disbelief a royal princess would talk to a tabloid journalist with no official royal biographer status. </p>
<p>After publicly eviscerating Morton, and the airing of Diana’s explosive 1995 <a href="https://honey.nine.com.au/royals/princess-diana-bbc-panorama-interview/9b78c80a-69ff-47d2-a531-bf00c9060fe2">Panorama interview</a>, the palace and establishment then went after Diana. Conservative MP and close friend of Prince Charles, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nicholas-soames-expelled-conservative-party-defy-boris-johnson-churchill-2019-9?r=AU&IR=T">Nicholas Soames</a>, claimed she must have been “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/pm-ticks-off-soames-for-jibe-at-diana-1583354.html">in the advanced stages of paranoia</a>” to have been disclosing the types of things she had.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diana-revived-the-monarchy-and-airing-old-tapes-wont-change-a-thing-81552">Diana revived the monarchy – and airing old tapes won't change a thing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Her True Story’ backfires</h2>
<p>Diana thought Her True Story would act as a passport to freedom. She hoped it would help her separate from the royals, while keeping her privileges intact. As journalist Tina Brown wrote in her 2007 book, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/books/08book.html">The Diana Chronicles</a>, the princess thought she would get to keep all</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the good bits of being a princess and doing her own global thing without Charles around to cramp her style. She did not factor in the power of royal disapproval and its consequences. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nor did she factor in “the risk of … the Palace ‘going nuclear’ and continuing until there [is] nothing left”.</p>
<p>Critically, Diana had thought the revelations in Her True Story would invite her estranged royal relations’ sympathy. As Brown also notes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>she had been so long in her private panic room she thought this deafening public scream would solve the matter once and for all. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Brown records how Diana quickly regretted the book, telling her friend David Puttnam shortly before the book’s release in 1992,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve done a really stupid thing. I have allowed a book to be written. I felt it was a good idea, a way of clearing the air, but now I think it was a very stupid thing that will cause all kinds of terrible trouble. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Diana was right. The biography and the Panorama interview hastened Diana’s exit from the royal enclosure. This gave her a short spell of relief and exultation. But this was followed by unhappiness that she had to live, in effect, in exile.</p>
<h2>A long-running soap</h2>
<p>With release of another sensational <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-12/finding-freedom-book-on-harry-and-meghan-split-from-royal-family/12541446">royal biography</a> - that very much gives one side of the story - the parallels between Diana and her son are uncanny. </p>
<p>Harry and Meghan obviously already have a rocky relationship with the palace, given <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/19/harry-and-meghan-to-split-from-royal-family-on-31-march">their split</a> with the royal family in March. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Harry and Meghan looking uncertain at public event." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352160/original/file-20200811-15-g4uwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352160/original/file-20200811-15-g4uwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352160/original/file-20200811-15-g4uwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352160/original/file-20200811-15-g4uwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352160/original/file-20200811-15-g4uwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352160/original/file-20200811-15-g4uwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352160/original/file-20200811-15-g4uwxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harry and Meghan are trying to win the PR war, but history suggests a ‘tell-all’ book is a dangerous move.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">DPPA/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their latest public pronouncement about their “true story” (albeit via interlocutors) is the latest salvo being fired in the long-running soap opera known as “The Windsors”. It has obviously been made to try to win a public relations war. Indeed, public relations is what the royals do. They don’t have “jobs” as such, but merely have to be “seen to be”.</p>
<p>Finding Freedom might have felt like a good idea to the Sussexes — an opportunity to set the record straight - but as Diana’s experience suggests, they may well come to regret the opening of their particular oyster of royal rage. </p>
<p>Their contribution of yet another chapter to the Windsor soap is one that will likely prove unstoppable, insatiable even. And one thing is almost certain: Harry and Meghan will very probably lose any editorial control they thought they had over their own story.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crown-series-3-review-olivia-colman-shines-as-an-older-frumpier-elizabeth-126340">The Crown series 3 review: Olivia Colman shines as an older, frumpier Elizabeth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giselle Bastin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Princess Diana’s bad experience with a ‘tell-all’ book in 1992 should have been a cautionary tale for her son.Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1302742020-01-22T15:11:47Z2020-01-22T15:11:47ZLet’s laud Harry and Meghan for their act of self-care — and leave them alone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311399/original/file-20200122-117933-ycwzvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C120%2C3484%2C2294&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend the annual WellChild Awards in London in October 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (Toby Melville/Pool via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In just the first month of 2020, #MeghanandHarry has been trending across social media more often than not. </p>
<p>In a series of public statements over the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7EaGS_Jpb9/">widely followed Instagram account</a>, as well as in a public speech by Prince Harry on the eve of his departure for a new life in Canada, the most recent famous Royal couple has distanced themselves in ways both big and small from the Royal Family.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/55OQ7aC7hW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC News.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This includes giving up their royal duties and titles. Quite frankly, I would wager the majority of us <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/meghan-markle-prince-harry-royals-racism_n_5e174a0cc5b6b32c72bf01b2?ri18n=true">don’t blame them for these largely unprecedented moves</a>.</p>
<p>That’s because Meghan Markle’s treatment by some media and public commentators <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6431251/meghan-markle-harry-timeline/">since 2016</a>, when her relationship with Harry became public, has shifted from excitement and curiosity to judgment, unrealistic expectations and unfounded accusations that include <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2020/1/17/21070351/meghan-markle-prince-harry-leaving-royal-family-uk-racism">both overt</a> and <a href="https://www.insider.com/racism-british-media-meghan-markle-prince-harry-royal-step-back-2020-1">implicit forms of racism</a>. </p>
<p>After the fairy-tale engagement in fall 2017 and their marriage in the spring of 2018, public sentiment has seemingly turned against the couple, assisted by the media. This includes a <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/meghan-markle-kate-middleton-double-standards-royal">slew of unfavourable comparisons</a> between Meghan and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, and gossip that the Duchess of Sussex is an unpleasant and demanding diva completely out of touch with the <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1130005/Meghan-Markle-Kate-Middleton-news-Prince-Harry-baby-Archie-latest-CBS">royal way of life</a>. </p>
<h2>Women who become royals treated harshly</h2>
<p>Meghan is certainly not the only woman to experience negative media coverage and shifting public opinions once entering the Royal Family. </p>
<p>Harry’s mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, also dealt with the devastating effects of an intrusive and unkind media, especially <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/diana-and-the-media-she-used-them-and-they-used-her-until-the-day-she-died/2017/08/24/c98418ca-812d-11e7-b359-15a3617c767b_story.htm">after her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311239/original/file-20200121-117921-bubf8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall, is seen with Prince Charles in November 2014 in Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Miguel Sierra</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles, also faced extensive <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-camilla-parker-bowles-said-she-was-a-prisoner-after-her-affair-with-prince-charles-was-revealed.html/">scrutiny and unpopularity</a> because of the role she played in the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage. She was subjected to unkind commentary about her age and appearance for years and compared unfavourably to the glamorous Diana. Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, was similarly derided about her appearance.</p>
<p>Further back in history, when King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936 to pursue his relationship with American Wallis Simpson, she was painted as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/09/meghan-harry-wallis-simpson-edward-history">promiscuous, scheming femme fatale</a> — not unlike the modern-day commentary directed Meghan’s way.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311240/original/file-20200121-117962-d1gdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this June 1937 photo, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, pose after their wedding in France.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This treatment of women who enter into relationships with men of the Royal Family suggests a distrust of non-royals and a protectiveness of the family boundaries. Who gets to be a royal is apparently a matter of grave public debate. </p>
<p>This ongoing public distrust of non-royal women includes a series of gender, race and class beliefs that are unsettling. The things that set Meghan apart from Kate in public perception are telling. </p>
<p>The Duchess of Cambridge is from an upper middle-class family with longstanding ties to the British aristocracy. She met her husband, Prince William, while attending the prestigious St. Andrews University and happily left her independent life behind to become a royal. </p>
<p>Since her marriage and the birth of her three children, Kate has been coded as ideal in terms of her ethnicity, class and ambitions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311238/original/file-20200121-117954-1c60ef5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311238/original/file-20200121-117954-1c60ef5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311238/original/file-20200121-117954-1c60ef5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311238/original/file-20200121-117954-1c60ef5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311238/original/file-20200121-117954-1c60ef5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311238/original/file-20200121-117954-1c60ef5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311238/original/file-20200121-117954-1c60ef5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, left, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, right, attend the women’s singles final match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in July 2019. Meghan has been compared unfavourably to Kate by the British tabloids for months.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ben Curtis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, Meghan is biracial, American and was raised in a largely <a href="https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/news/a26855/more-than-an-other/">middle-class environment</a>. She had an established career as a Hollywood actress and a lifestyle brand before meeting Harry. </p>
<p>She has been an outspoken advocate for <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/meghan-markle-gender-equality-prince-harry-men-one-young-world-a9170731.html">gender and racial equity</a> her whole life. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBdqwIcTv4w">And she’s been candid about the challenges</a> of leaving all that behind to join Harry as an ambassador of the British monarchy. The different standards to which Meghan and Kate have been judged tell a story indeed of classism, sexism, nationalism and racism.</p>
<h2>Sets of beliefs</h2>
<p>This largely critical treatment of women entering the Royal Family, and Meghan in particular, operates from three underlying sets of beliefs. </p>
<p>These include a belief in romantic fantasy, nationalism and the danger of women in positions of power. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311246/original/file-20200121-117927-1c19hl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C28%2C3749%2C2132&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311246/original/file-20200121-117927-1c19hl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311246/original/file-20200121-117927-1c19hl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311246/original/file-20200121-117927-1c19hl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311246/original/file-20200121-117927-1c19hl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311246/original/file-20200121-117927-1c19hl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311246/original/file-20200121-117927-1c19hl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The couple is seen on their wedding day in May 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Ellis/via AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Each of these belief systems held by the public and the media are not uniform. There is support as well as suspicion among the public about Meghan and Harry’s relationship. This reflects how the couple has become a signpost for sentiments not wholly related to them at all, but are reflective of broader social anxieties at the moment. </p>
<p>Outsider women like Meghan are held up to an unreasonably high standards due to the fantasy narrative of a woman meeting her prince and living happily ever after. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311249/original/file-20200121-117949-1g54umb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, march down the aisle of St. Paul’s Cathedral at the end of their wedding ceremony in July 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As we watch this play out in real life via figures like Princess Diana and the Duchess of Sussex, the public doesn’t just project their positive fantasies onto the storybook romances, but also their negative emotions, and the woman at the centre of it receives all the flack. They become the lightning rod for all of the complexity such a powerful fairy-tale narrative evokes in western popular culture.</p>
<p>Further, present-day Great Britain was built through a centuries-long project of colonial expansion. That history is part of how it defines itself as a nation. </p>
<p>Colonialism results in a world view that distrusts others, outsiders or those who are different. This helped rationalize violent practices of land occupation and slavery, because it dehumanized those victimized by the British Empire. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/colonialism-was-a-disaster-and-the-facts-prove-it-84496">Colonialism was a disaster and the facts prove it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This continues with the xenophobia and racism present in the modern-day U.K. It also extends to additional frameworks of otherness that operate when it comes to classism and sexism.</p>
<h2>Negative stereotypes</h2>
<p>British nationalism is most evident in how the U.K. public circulates negative stereotypes about Meghan’s biracial identity, which even the Royal Family, spurred by Harry, spoke out against in 2016 when it was first revealed the couple was dating.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"795931735443861504"}"></div></p>
<p>Finally, if public discussions of gender inequity in the past four years has taught us anything, it’s that women in positions of power, whether political or otherwise, <a href="https://theconversation.com/another-barrier-for-women-in-politics-violence-113637">make some uneasy and sometimes angry.</a></p>
<p>If the vitriol directed at Meghan by social media users reflects a subset of public opinion, it’s fuelled by a belief that she’s single-handedly destroying the fabric of the Royal Family and the traditions it upholds. </p>
<p>This criticism amounts to a condemnation of Harry and Meghan’s attempts to push against tradition, to propose new models, to hold a different world view. Ironically, their choices now seem understandable in the face of the ongoing vitriol — both as an act of self care and an act of refusal to tolerate further abuse. </p>
<p>If we’re ever to move past these outmoded values of gender, race and class, we need to now wish them well — and challenge those who would prefer it all remains the same.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shana MacDonald receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>If we’re ever to move past outmoded values of gender, race and class, we need to wish Prince Harry and Meghan Markle well — and challenge those who would prefer everything remains the same.Shana MacDonald, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/947192018-05-17T10:40:54Z2018-05-17T10:40:54ZIn the US, fairy-tale royal weddings clash with reality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219232/original/file-20180516-155584-qi81lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A tour guide holds up a flag with the faces of Britain's Prince Harry and his fiancee, Meghan Markle.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Britain-Royal-Wedding-Windsor/191514194fd048b58d1315309add2327/17/0">AP Photo/Alastair Grant</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unless you’ve been living in outer space, you probably know that on May 19, Prince Harry will marry Meghan Markle. Many Americans <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/royal-wedding-bbc-america">will be setting their alarms</a> to wake up early to watch the wedding, and some are even <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/5018156/royalty-mad-americans-expected-to-flood-to-uk-for-prince-harrys-wedding-to-meghan-markle/">flying to London</a> to partake in the big day. </p>
<p>Of course, there are always those <a href="https://www.esquire.com/uk/life/a20680141/can-we-all-stop-pretending-to-care-about-the-royal-wedding-please/">who insist that none of it matters</a>. </p>
<p>But royal weddings do matter. Since the wedding of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert on Feb. 10, 1840, they’ve shaped the expectations Americans have about their own nuptials.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520300491">In my book on romance and capitalism</a>, I look at how engagements, weddings and honeymoons went from small affairs to spectacular, pricey events. Even though <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/12/share-of-married-americans-is-falling-but-they-still-pay-most-of-the-nations-income-taxes/">most Americans are unmarried</a>, <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/163802/marriage-importance-dropped.aspx">most of us would like to be</a>. But marriage means a wedding, a ceremony that needs to be “perfect” in every way – an unrealistic standard that’s been shaped, in part, by what people see when they watch royal weddings and other celebrity weddings.</p>
<h2>Like a Disney movie</h2>
<p>At her wedding, Victoria wore a white gown, rejecting the traditional red dress. Within a few years, American women’s magazines <a href="http://time.com/3698249/white-weddings/">were promoting</a> the white wedding dress as a symbol of purity and innocence.</p>
<p>Victoria’s wedding was arguably the first celebrity wedding. <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/how-the-media-made-queen-victoria/">It received massive media coverage</a>, with stories circulated by telegraph to newspapers and magazines around the world. Upon learning about the trumpeters and the music, the glittering decor and luxurious attire, readers could imagine what a perfect wedding might look like. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219230/original/file-20180516-155623-o0dzzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219230/original/file-20180516-155623-o0dzzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219230/original/file-20180516-155623-o0dzzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219230/original/file-20180516-155623-o0dzzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219230/original/file-20180516-155623-o0dzzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219230/original/file-20180516-155623-o0dzzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219230/original/file-20180516-155623-o0dzzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queen Victoria famously eschewed the traditional red wedding dress, instead opting for white.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Victoria_Marriage01.jpg/1024px-Victoria_Marriage01.jpg">Royal Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Queen Victoria also wore a diamond engagement ring. Like the white wedding dress, the diamond engagement ring would eventually become a nearly mandatory item for a perfect love story. Of course, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520240087">decades of clever advertising</a> from De Beers also helped.</p>
<p>Fast forward to Charles and Diana’s wedding in July 1981. After decades of social upheaval and a sexual revolution, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/23/144-years-of-marriage-and-divorce-in-the-united-states-in-one-chart/?utm_term=.5e50b4e9998e">divorce rates in the U.S. had peaked</a>. </p>
<p>But Charles and Diana offered a public rebuttal to the social forces that were rejecting marriage. Their wedding played out like a Disney fairy tale, from Diana’s arrival in a white dress <a href="https://us.hellomagazine.com/imagenes//brides/2014090120744/princess-diana-wedding-dress-going-home/0-110-274/diana1--z.jpg">with a 25-foot train</a> to Charles’ Prince Charming-esque <a href="https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/galleries/x701/66318.jpg">military attire</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218848/original/file-20180514-100697-ljhnq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lady Diana Spencer waves to crowds from a horse-drawn carriage en route to St. Paul’s Cathedral on the day of her wedding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-United-King-/005ec2384ee4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/36/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Around the world, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/29/newsid_2494000/2494949.stm">750 million</a> people tuned in to watch the vows. In the U.S., spending on weddings <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/megkeene/heres-what-my-parents-1974-wedding-would-cost-in-2017?utm_term=.lrLWQlXWL#.kmWW962Wa">soon began to climb</a>. </p>
<p>While it’s hard to know whether the subsequent rise in spending on U.S. weddings was tied to the royal ceremony, perhaps couples longed to mimic, in some small way, Diana and Charles’ dream wedding. </p>
<h2>Any little girl can marry a prince</h2>
<p>In 2011, the next royal wedding took this fairy tale narrative one step further when Prince William chose “commoner” Kate Middleton as his bride. Kate came from <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a3476/how-kate-middleton-imploded-the-british-class-system-and-heralded-the-rise-of-a-brand-new-social-stratum/">a middle-class background</a>, and this was a central component of the media narrative. </p>
<p>I went to London for Kate and William’s wedding to conduct research for my <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520300491">book on romance</a>. </p>
<p>Nearly everyone I interviewed in the crowd that day talked about how the wedding gave them hope during troubled times. And a lot of the people I met were Americans. One young American woman told me she came all the way to London to see the wedding because it was a happy ending – and she needed happy endings. </p>
<p>“I don’t go to a movie unless I know it has a happy ending,” she said. “I don’t read a book unless it does.” </p>
<p>Another young American studying at Oxford told me, “It’s a true life fairy tale, isn’t it? A commoner marrying a prince.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219231/original/file-20180516-155555-149yvzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219231/original/file-20180516-155555-149yvzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219231/original/file-20180516-155555-149yvzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219231/original/file-20180516-155555-149yvzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219231/original/file-20180516-155555-149yvzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219231/original/file-20180516-155555-149yvzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219231/original/file-20180516-155555-149yvzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prince William drives his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, away from Buckingham Palace after their wedding at London’s Westminster Abbey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Britain-Royal-Wedding/39f6d64b55284215810042eec96bcc72/206/0">AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, the couple followed the formula of any good fairy tale romance: An ordinary woman is plucked from her life in squalor by a dashing prince. </p>
<p>Now, with American Meghan Markle set to marry Prince Harry, another fairy tale plot twist is in the works. Meghan, <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/meghan-markle-biracial-identity-politics-personal-essay">who has a black mother and white father</a>, shows that any little girl – <a href="https://www.thelily.com/why-black-women-are-celebrating-meghan-markles-engagement-2/">no matter her race</a> – can marry a prince.</p>
<p>It’s fitting that this royal wedding will take place exactly 50 years after <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/388/1/case.html">Loving v. Virginia</a>, which overturned bans on interracial marriage in the U.S. </p>
<h2>Happily ever after … or not</h2>
<p>The end? Not quite. Reality tells a different story.</p>
<p>Even as Americans might claim that love is blind, when we do marry, we continue to marry people who are pretty much <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/upshot/rise-in-marriages-of-equals-and-in-division-by-class.html">like us</a> – with the same education level, similar levels of earning power and mostly from the same racial background.</p>
<p>And even as Americans are <a href="https://www.theknot.com/content/average-wedding-cost-2016">spending more</a> than ever on weddings, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-fewer-people-getting-married-60301">fewer and fewer</a> are actually getting married. </p>
<p>Perhaps it is because many cannot afford their “perfect” wedding, so they’re simply putting off marriage. I’ve interviewed a number of couples who have already been living together, and maybe even have children together, but are just now getting married. The reason? They wanted to be able to afford their dream wedding.</p>
<p>But it seems that all of the time, energy and money spent on weddings isn’t actually making us very happy. In fact, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/spending-less-wedding-save-marriage">research has shown</a> that the more a couple spends on a wedding, the more likely it is that the resulting marriage will end in divorce.</p>
<p>In the 2017 World Happiness Report, economist Jeffrey Sachs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/20/norway-ousts-denmark-as-worlds-happiest-country-un-report">wrote</a> that Americans were looking for happiness “in all the wrong places.”</p>
<p>Attempting to mimic the luxurious pomp of royal weddings – as if it will somehow negate <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-royal-wedding-approaches-what-can-one-of-the-worlds-greatest-novels-teach-us-about-marriage-95359">the work needed to make a marriage truly successful</a> – might just be one of those wrong places. But it won’t stop many Americans from trying.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurie Essig does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Royal weddings have shaped how Americans imagine their own dream weddings. Unfortunately, they don’t come cheap – which might explain why fewer and fewer are tying the knot.Laurie Essig, Director and Professor of Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies, MiddleburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/870782017-11-23T19:12:47Z2017-11-23T19:12:47ZFriday essay: why grown-ups still need fairy tales<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194925/original/file-20171116-19845-16kf5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C226%2C991%2C932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Edmund Dulac's 1910 illustration of Sleeping Beauty</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For as long as we have been able to stand upright and speak, we have told stories. They explained the mysteries of the world: birth, death, the seasons, day and night. They were the origins of human creativity, expressed in words but also in pictures, as evidenced by the cave paintings of <a href="http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/">Chauvet</a> (France) and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journey-oldest-cave-paintings-world-180957685/">Maros</a> (Indonesia). On the walls of these caves, the paintings, which date back to around 30-40,000 BC, tell us <a href="https://faculty.gcsu.edu/custom-website/mary-magoulick/defmyth.htm">myths or sacred narratives</a> of the spirits of the land, the fauna of the regions, and humankind’s relationship to them.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194909/original/file-20171115-19782-1nt7r77.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hyena painting found in the Chauvet cave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As humanity progressed, other types of stories developed. These were not concerned with the mysteries of the meaning of life but with everyday, domestic matters. While they were more mundane in the issues they explored, such tales were no less spectacular in their creativity and inclusion of the supernatural.</p>
<p>These smaller, everyday stories, combining the world of humans with fantastical creatures and seemingly impossible plots are now classified as <a href="http://www.syracusecityschools.com/tfiles/folder713/unit03-folk_tales_and_fairy_tales.pdf">fairy tales or folk tales</a>. Such tales, originating in pre-literate societies and told by the folk (or the average person), capture the hopes and dreams of humanity. They convey messages of overcoming adversity, rising from rags to riches, and the benefits of courage.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194931/original/file-20171116-19806-rvyk8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hansel and Gretel by Arthur Rackham.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fairy tales are also extremely moral in their demarcation between good and evil, right and wrong. Their justice references the ancient tradition of an eye for an eye, and their punishments are ruthless and complete. Originally for adults (sometimes for children), fairy tales can be brutal, violent, sexual and laden with taboo. When the earliest recorded versions were made by collectors such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brothers-Grimm">Brothers Grimm</a>, the adult content was maintained. But as time progressed and Christian morality intervened, the tales became diluted, child-friendly and more benign.</p>
<p>Despite these changes, it is apparent that fairy tales are still needed today, even for grown-ups. In an uncanny, sometimes inexplicable way, we consciously and unconsciously continue to tell them, despite advances in logic, science and technology. It’s as if there is something ingrained in us – something we cannot suppress – that compels us to interpret the world around us through the lens of such tales. And if we are not the tellers, we are the greedy consumers.</p>
<h2>‘Fairy tale’ princesses and ‘wicked witches’</h2>
<p>The 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, for example, has been cast – like her life – as a fairy tale. Throughout the year, she has been commemorated in articles with headings such as “a <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/a-troubled-fairy-tale-princess-diana-remembered-20-years-later/article36064254/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">troubled fairy tale</a>”, “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/beyond-the-diana-fairytale-the-royals-endure/news-story/3adbbfdf7656e8f71bd2ce66f9f57cbe">beyond a fairy tale</a>”, and “<a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/world/myth-princess-diana-had-a-wicked-stepmother-just-another-fairy-tale">just another fairy tale</a>”. While these articles have endeavoured to deconstruct the familiar narrative, they have not been entirely successful.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194929/original/file-20171116-19806-fbonru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fairy tale wedding? Prince Frederik and Princess Mary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jerry Lampen/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of a fairy tale princess has also characterised the coverage of Princess Mary of Denmark and Duchess Catherine of Cambridge. Even after 13 years of marriage, our own “Aussie princess” is described as living a fairy tale, evident in 2017 media stories with titles such as “Princess Mary and Prince Frederik’s fairy tale royal romance”. Likewise, Kate, once a commoner, now a princess, has featured in articles titled “<a href="https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2017/08/08/prince-william-kate-middleton-love-story/23070764/">Prince William and Duchess Kate’s fairy-tale love story</a>” and “<a href="https://writeroyalty.com/kate-middleton-most-royal-fairy-tale-gown-to-date/">Kate’s Most Royal Fairy Tale Gown (To Date)</a>”. As the titles of some of these stories show, they also feature the mandatory prince charming (William), or the prince who is revealed to be not-so-charming after all (Charles). Others extend the fairy tale formula to include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/aug/11/princess-dianas-wicked-stepmother-review-aka-why-di-never-stood-a-chance">wicked stepmothers</a> (Di’s real life stepmother) and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9707/17/fringe/diana.image/">wicked witches</a> (Camilla).</p>
<p>Is such recourse to fairy tales merely a media stunt to sell stories packaged in an easily consumable, gossip-laden snack box? Or do these articles reflect that deep-seated compulsion of ours to tell and, in turn, to listen to stories? The answers are “yes” and “yes”. But let’s forget the media’s role and look at the more interesting latter point.</p>
<p>Many fairy tales began thousands of years ago, the age depending on the tale itself. <a href="http://surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/index.html">Beauty and the Beast</a> has its origins in the story of <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/ancient-fairy-tale-cupid-and-psyche-where-love-endures-against-all-odds-003393">Cupid and Psyche</a> from the Latin novel, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucius-Apuleius">The Golden Ass</a>, from the second century AD.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194932/original/file-20171116-19836-akdte7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacques-Louis David’s 1817 painting of Cupid and Psyche, the inspiration for Beauty and the Beast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this tale, the beautiful Psyche is visited at night by an invisible lover – hearing only a voice – whom she is led to believe is a monster. While recorded by the novelist, <a href="https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/apuleius/">Apuleius</a>, the story is almost certainly much older; perhaps having its origins in myth and ritual, and handed down by word of mouth.</p>
<p>The research of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/11/do-folktales-evolve-like-biological-species/281527/">Dr Jamie Tehrani</a> has unearthed an early date for <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/ridinghood/">Red Riding Hood</a>, which he has traced back to at least 2,000 years; not originating in Asia, as once believed, but most likely in Europe. Other tales studied by Tehrani have been dated to as early as <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35358487">6,000</a> years ago. </p>
<p>Fairy tales are excellent narratives with which to think through a range of human experiences: joy, disbelief, disappointment, fear, envy, disaster, greed, devastation, lust, and grief (just to name a few). They provide forms of expression to shed light not only on our own lives but on the lives beyond our own. And, contrary to the impression that fairy tales always end happily ever after, this is not the case - therein lies much of their power. </p>
<p>They helped our ancestors make sense of the unpredictability or randomness of life. They repeated familiar experiences of unfairness, misfortune, bad luck, and ill-treatment and sometimes showed us how courage, determination and ingenuity could be employed even by the most disempowered to change the course of events. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194922/original/file-20171116-19823-gvn4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Rackham’s Jack and the Beanstalk Giant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/jackbeanstalk/">Jack and the Beanstalk</a>, for example, tells how a chance encounter with a stranger (an old man who provides magic beans) can bring about terrible danger (meeting a giant) but also terrific good fortune (acquiring a hen that lays golden eggs). The tale also celebrates how a poor boy can make the most of an arbitrarily dangerous situation that could have gone either way - being eaten or becoming rich - through his bravery and his intellect.</p>
<p>Fairytales also celebrated unexpected good fortune and acts of kindness and heroism, thereby reinforcing – even restoring – our faith in humanity. As tales of the folk, they not only entertained, but reflected the turmoils and triumphs of the lower classes, and enabled them to fantasise about how the “other half” lived. </p>
<h2>Cinderella and social criticism</h2>
<p>But tales of kings, queens, princes and princesses - of which there are many - are not only a means of mental escape for the poor. They are also a means of social criticism. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194911/original/file-20171115-19782-jq86ns.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">19th century engraving of Gustave Doré’s Cendrillon - Cinderella. From Dore’s 1864 edition of Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals, originally published in 1697.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/index.html">Cinderella</a>, as recorded by <a href="https://www.worldoftales.com/fairy_tales/Perrault_fairy_tales.html">Charles Perrault</a>, the two stepsisters may have every material possession imaginable, but their cruelty renders them grotesque. And, of course, the lowly Cinderella triumphs. In the German version, <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/german.html">Aschenputtel</a>, recorded by the Brothers Grimm, the fate of the stepsisters is very different. Whereas Perrault’s version has the kindly Cinderella forgive them, the Grimms - clearly working from another tradition - describe how they have their eyes plucked out by pigeons! </p>
<p>Such stories of fantasising about a royal life and simultaneously despising it may have functioned as an emotional release similar to the ancient Greek experience of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/catharsis-criticism">catharsis</a> (the shedding of anxieties through watching outrageous tragedies and obscene comedies).</p>
<p>Taking the fascination with Diana’s life as a fairy tale, for example, we still employ the cathartic release of the genre to interrogate her and, for those of us so inclined, to find some meaning in the Di phenomenon. From the romantic courtship, to the wedding of the century and <a href="http://www.eonline.com/au/news/860008/the-epic-story-of-princess-diana-s-wedding-dress-3-months-25-feet-of-train-a-20-year-old-bride-and-a-fashion-legacy-for-the-ages">that dress</a>, to motherhood, glamour, betrayal, heartbreak, divorce, alienation and a new love cut short by an early death. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194913/original/file-20171115-19768-1mxw09e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diana on her wedding day in 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mal Langsdon/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some, of course, have <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/diana-and-the-empire-of-phoney-emotion/20266#.Wf767GiCw2w">criticised</a> the warm, fuzzy emotionalism that has sprung from the fairy tale of Di’s life. If it is not to your liking, there are more robust tales with powerful messages of resistance and resilience. In tales such as <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/hanselgretel/index.html">Hansel and Gretel</a> and <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/donkeyskin/index.html">Donkeyskin</a>, the young protagonists are persecuted and abused by predators.</p>
<p>There is much to complain about in these tales from a politically correct or feminist perspective. They are violent and subversive: Gretel pushes a witch into an oven and in Perrault’s version of Donkeyskin, a king wishes to marry his daughter following the death of his wife. But they are more than narratives of abuse. They are also about courage and ingenuity on the part of the young survivors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194924/original/file-20171116-19823-1n13kk0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miwa Yanagi, Gretel 2004, gelatin silver print.
Collection of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the artist and Yoshiko Isshiki Office, Tokyo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Donkeyskin, variants of which are extant in English (<a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/catskin.html">Catskin</a>) and German (<a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/allfur.html">All-Kinds-Of-Fur</a>), champions the bravery and inherent goodness of the young heroine who dresses in the skin of a donkey and leaves the palace in order to escape her father’s desires. Her subsequent life as a servant, filthy, humiliated, reviled and renamed “Donkeyskin” by her fellow servants, never crushes her soul. </p>
<p>Within the fantasy and the convenient appearance of supernatural assistants or a romantic ending, both of which feature in Donkeyskin, these stories are powerful reminders that evil exists in the world in the form of human beings - but it is not definitive or unconquerable.</p>
<h2>Contemporary reworkings</h2>
<p>With the publication of the Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales in 1812, artists and illustrators were the first interpreters of fairy tales. Visual responses have ranged from famous works by <a href="http://www.artpassions.net/dore/dore.html">Gustave Doré</a>, <a href="http://www.artpassions.net/rackham/rackham.html">Arthur Rackham</a> and <a href="http://www.artpassions.net/dulac/dulac.html">Edmund Dulac</a> to <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/cr-100369/maurice-sendak">Maurice Sendak</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2008/dec/19/booksforchildrenandteenagers">Jan Pieńkowski</a>.</p>
<p>More dissident responses have included the photographs of <a href="http://www.fallenprincesses.com/photos/">Dina Goldstein</a>, whose Fallen Princesses series (2007-2009) is an astute response to the Disney princess phenomenon of unattainable, debilitating images of femininity and romance in bowdlerised versions of the original tales. Here, Goldstein critiques the superficiality of the princess stereotype, reminding us that it is as facile for children as the Diana fairy tale dream is for adults. </p>
<p>Before Goldstein, photographer Sarah Moon also challenged the dilution of fairy tales in the modern west through her provocative (sometimes banned) interpretation of <a href="https://www.lensculture.com/books/5843-little-red-riding-hood">Little Red Riding Hood</a>. In this powerful rendition, Moon takes her child reader back to the original and raw meanings embedded in the tale through her exploration of the theme of the human predator in the symbolic guise of the wolf.</p>
<p>Moon’s decision to return to the terror and drama of the Grimms’ version is testimony to the need to challenge the dilution and contamination of the tales. Even the Grimms were guilty of adding and subtracting to the material, particularly when it came to the insertion of overt Christian morality. Equally if not more so, the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Disneyfication">Disneyfication</a> of fairy tales has stripped them of the power and the pain to which Moon returns.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6MQq_jf_h5U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Writers and poets have also responded to the tales and, like Moon, have regularly sought to return them to their once formidable status. Women authors in particular have created powerful, sometimes heartbreaking – but always real and truthful – new versions. </p>
<p>Among the thousands of old tales in new clothes is the literature of second wave feminists, including the suite entitled <a href="https://letterpile.com/writing/The-Transformation-of-Anne-Sexton-The-Grimm-Complex">Transformations</a> (1971) by renegade poet Anne Sexton, who takes the domesticity of the original tales and mocks, ridicules, cherishes and – literally – transforms them. Angela Carter’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-the-bloody-chamber-and-other-stories">The Bloody Chamber</a> (1979), a magnificent collection of retellings of famous fairy tales, is full of female empowerment, sensuality and violence in a tour de force that both reinstates the potency of the stories and re-imagines them.</p>
<p>Novelist, poet and essayist, <a href="http://margaretatwood.ca/">Margaret Atwood</a> also transforms the originals. Her response to <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html">The Girl Without Hands</a>, which tells the story of a young woman who agrees to sacrifice her hands in order to save her father from the devil, in a <a href="http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/poetrylist/girl-without-hands-by-margaret-atwood.html">poem</a> of the same name is a profound meditation on the continuation of both abuse and survival.</p>
<p>The fairy tales first preserved by collectors such as the Brothers Grimm - retold, bastardised, edited, annotated, banned and reclaimed - belong ultimately to the folk who first told them. And the folk continue to tell and retell them. Closer to home than the Black Forest, a new show at the The Ian Potter Museum of Art contains work by international and Australian artists, including Tracy Moffatt and Sally Smart. The show returns - once again - to fairy tales to express social concerns and anxieties surrounding issues such as the abuse of power, injustice and exploitation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194934/original/file-20171116-19799-bs21z8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dina Goldstein, Snowy 2008 from the Fallen Princess series.
digital photograph</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the artist</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fairy tales are, indeed, good to think with, and their retellings shed light on cultural, societal and artistic movements. Both children and adults should read more fairy tales – both the original and the transformed versions, for they are one of our cultural touchstones. </p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/exhib-date/2017-11-23/exhib/all-the-better-to-see-you-with-fairy-tales-transformed">All the better to see you with: Fairy tales transformed</a>, is on from Thursday 23 Nov 2017 to Sunday 4 Mar 2018 at The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fairy tales can be brutal, violent, sexual and laden with taboo. But they are are excellent narratives with which to think through a range of human experiences: from disappointment, and fear to envy and grief.Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/823632017-08-30T20:17:40Z2017-08-30T20:17:40ZWhy Princess Diana conspiracies refuse to die<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183866/original/file-20170829-5034-1msz3zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The princess of Wales is pictured in Bonn, Germany in 1987.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-I-DEU-APHS256685-British-Royalty-P-/1909aed62f784a7f9ba4d78432ed57c3/1/1"> AP Photo/Herman Knippertz</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>August 31 is the 20th anniversary of the stunning, tragic death of Princess Diana in Paris, France, when Diana’s chauffeured Mercedes hit a pillar inside an underpass just after midnight, killing her, her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, and her driver, Henri Paul. </p>
<p>As the news quickly circulated, theories about the causes of the crash also spread, with some veering into conspiracy. <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/who-killed-princess-diana-3299459">Did the ruthless paparazzi</a>, in hot pursuit of the car, cause the driver to panic? Had the royal family murdered her to avert an embarrassing marriage? </p>
<p>Twenty years later, these conspiracy theories still <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/uk-news/princess-diana-death-conspiracy-theories-13507472">persist</a>. </p>
<p>I’ve taught classes and researched the nature of conspiracy theories for over a decade, and I’m especially interested in the role of logic in these conspiracies – how it’s used to warp and concoct stories that explain extraordinary events. </p>
<p>In the end, our reasons for entertaining conspiracy theories about luminaries, whether it’s the princess of Wales or John F. Kennedy, often have more to do with our lives than theirs.</p>
<h2>What people were saying</h2>
<p>Shortly after Princess Diana’s death, numerous notions started to circulate suggesting conspiracies against her.</p>
<p>Some suggested that MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, caused the crash <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1578498/Diana-inquest-MI6-plotted-tunnel-murder.html">by blinding Diana’s driver</a> with a strobe light. The thinking went that the royal family wanted to prevent Princess Diana from marrying her boyfriend, Fayed, the son of a prominent Egyptian billionaire. (Others say that Diana <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/25/princess-diana-remembered-conspiracy-theories-surrounding-her-death.html">was pregnant</a> with Dodi Fayed’s baby.)</p>
<p>Some have also been suspicious about the emergency response to the accident. The initial call notifying emergency services came at 12:26 a.m.; she arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (3.5 miles away) at 2:06 a.m., over 90 minutes later.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/was-there-time-to-save-diana/">Could she have been saved</a>? Why was the response so slow?</p>
<p>Most of these theories were proven to be either wrong or misleading. In 2008, after a lengthy <a href="https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_12_06_diana_report.pdf">investigation</a>, the U.K.’s Metropolitan Police <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/25/princess-diana-remembered-conspiracy-theories-surrounding-her-death.html">reported the death</a> a “tragic accident,” noting that Diana’s driver had been drunk. </p>
<p>But even this didn’t end the intrigue. </p>
<h2>The nature of conspiracy</h2>
<p>I’ve found that belief in conspiracy theories is more about a refusal to accept the randomness of life and tragedy than it is about the existence of evidence (or lack thereof). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183868/original/file-20170829-5046-adwhdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers prepare to take away the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales, died on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1997 in Paris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-France-File-/ea004aac49e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/103/0">Jerome Delay/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, many are drawn to what science writer Michael Shermer has termed “<a href="http://left.wikia.com/wiki/Agenticity">agenticity</a>” – the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning and agency. It’s the idea that someone, somewhere – from God down to human conspirators – plays a role in what happens to us. </p>
<p>As political scientist Michael Barkun details in his book “<a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520276826">A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America</a>,” conspiracy theories usually hinge on three core beliefs:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Nothing happens by accident. For this reason, the horrible machinations of “evil” conspirators become more believable than a fluke or an accident.</p></li>
<li><p>Nothing is as it seems. Successful conspirators hide their identities and actions; we must, therefore, always be wary, even when there’s little reason for suspicion. </p></li>
<li><p>Dots can always be connected. Though conspirators attempt to hide their actions, patterns exist everywhere.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Yet many conspiracy theories routinely contradict <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/occam.html">Occam’s razor</a>, a philosophical principle based on the idea that the more assumptions needed to explain something – whether it’s a scientific law or a conspiracy theory – the less reliable the explanation. </p>
<p>In short, the simpler your explanation, the better. Speculating the royal family enlisted MI6 to cause a car accident by using a strobe light in a Paris tunnel during a chaotic attempt to avoid paparazzi chasing Princess Diana – all while suppressing any video footage – would require an unbelievable level of coordination and choreography.</p>
<p>So, why then do the Diana conspiracies refuse to disappear? </p>
<h2>Conspiracy trumps logic</h2>
<p>Conspiracy theories make for interesting stories; they often involve breathtaking action, complicated plots and shadowy villains. They give us access to lives we normally never get to see. </p>
<p>But the drama contained in such explanations can cloud our thinking, impeding our ability to make logical conclusions that refute such conspiracy theories. We might think only others are susceptible to these “foolish” stories, but in reality, we’re persuaded just the same. </p>
<p><a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2d6f/1b817018dc9c01be6b863072808c29d67180.pdf">A 2008 study</a> found that students were able to adequately assess how their classmates might be influenced by conspiracy theories about Princess Diana’s death; but they overestimated their own ability to resist being persuaded by them. </p>
<p>Today’s 24-hour news cycle also cultivates an opening for conspiratorial thinking. Among journalists, the race to break a story can lead to gaps or errors in reporting. We also tend to forget that as readers, many stories, especially breaking ones, are a work in progress. It can take months – even years – to ever know the full story. </p>
<p>People exploit gaps or inconsistencies in the coverage to construct their own conspiratorial puzzle. For example, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1464884914552266">two researchers from the University of Iowa</a> found that reporters – especially those on social media – made errors about the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting in a rush to be among the first to break various developments. Alternative narratives developed as a result, which fomented the growth and spread of conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, stories that would have never filled our newspapers or evening news segments in the past now find homes on websites and in social networks. In the quest for “eyeballs,” outlandish stories – no matter how steeped in conspiracy or conjecture – can easily <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/article/how-conspiracy-theories-spread-on-fb">gain traction</a>. </p>
<h2>Life isn’t logical</h2>
<p>But perhaps the biggest reason we tend to give credence to conspiracy theories <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2011/04/youre_all_nuts.html">is our own mortality</a>. </p>
<p>Studies have shown that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3791630?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">many of us feel that we have little control over our own lives</a>. This leads to something called “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anomie">anomie</a>,” a type of weariness that makes us view the world as an adversary, with people and systems out to get us. So when we interpret tragedy through a lens of conspiracy – whether it’s the death of Princess Diana or the assassination of JFK – it’s weirdly reassuring. Smaller details and nuggets of logic can get washed away in our compulsion to “connect the dots,” creating a black-and-white world of hypercompetent villains and good guys. Our worldview is reaffirmed. Everything can be explained.</p>
<p>To simply think of Princess Diana’s death as a “tragic accident” gives us less control over own fate. No matter how logically messy the details of a conspiracy theory might be, they do, strangely, soothe our own sense of worth and place in our world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek Arnold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To succumb to conspiracy is to be human.Derek Arnold, Instructor in Communication, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/829392017-08-30T09:17:52Z2017-08-30T09:17:52ZHow Princess Diana’s death came to define tragedy for the media<p>It’s 7am on the August 31, 1997 and I’m woken by my clearly distressed mum. “Princess Diana is dead,” she says. I’m 18 years old and go on to spend the whole day consuming the intimate details of Diana’s death on television. </p>
<p>Over the next few days, I bear witness to the outpouring of public grief through the lens of the media. I watch the piles of flowers grow at key London sites and hear debate over the Queen not flying the flag at Buckingham Palace at half mast. I see the funeral service from multiple camera angles. I listen to the silence of the crowds lining the streets of the funeral procession. </p>
<p>The death of the “People’s Princess” has become notorious over the past 20 years as an event extravagantly covered by the media. An event where royalty and the public collided over a death that was significant on both sides. It was a moment captured on camera as never before in the UK.</p>
<p>Diana was described as a “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6936612.stm">lightning rod</a>” attracting more than an exceptional outpouring of public grief. She also achieved something unique in that her demise kickstarted a change in media coverage. </p>
<h2>Mediated death</h2>
<p>Diana’s death marked a new way of reporting a high-profile death by the media. Her death marked the beginning of what is referred to here as “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DkzWlHa3CboC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=diana+%22mediated+death%22&source=bl&ots=tv11GbpoJO&sig=2s6T_r-EvNL1btW8ZEtB6Pg6tyM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwis-vvQnPzVAhVHCsAKHZ1xBrEQ6AEIKDAA">mediated death</a>”. This is where high-profile deaths are more than merely announced. Instead, they receive significant newspaper and television coverage that is sculpted and packaged by the media for public consumption.</p>
<p>Until Diana’s death, mass media coverage of high-profile deaths consisted effectively of televised obituaries. This includes the televised announcements of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHQ4EoDZKdg">John F Kennedy’s</a> death on November 22, 1963 and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzJL8lsKoCg">Sir Winston Churchill’s death</a> on January 24, 1965. These reports specified that they were dead and when they died.</p>
<p>A distinct contrast between the media coverage of the deaths of JFK and Churchill, and that of Diana was the existence of a global 24-hour media. Diana’s death attracted speculation as well as prolific replication and dissemination of visual images on an unprecedented scale. She was hunted by the media in life – and even more so in death.</p>
<p>Diana ticked the boxes of an ideal news story. She was young, beautiful and a mother of princes. She was an advocate for the marginalised, but had become a divorcee and had long suffered press persecution. Her death was dramatic and unanticipated and its immediate aftermath was captured on camera.</p>
<p>In terms of what might define a media “tragedy”, the death of Diana was an ideal story with an ideal protagonist – and it stimulated a massive international public response for the media to document. It overwhelmed the death of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/a-day-that-shook-the-world-death-of-mother-teresa-2259357.html">Mother Teresa</a>, whose age and lifetime of sacrifice to India’s poor could not compete with the sheer glamour of the Princess of Wales. </p>
<h2>Celebrity shrines</h2>
<p>A distinctive element of how Diana’s death was mediated was the coverage of public grieving at key sites associated with her. Buckingham and Kensington Palaces were inundated by the public as they made pilgrimages to these sites. Just like pilgrims visiting holy sites, the public came with offerings in the form of flowers, soft toys and messages of sorrow and condolence. </p>
<p>Diana’s death started a trend of shrines, rather than just memorials, for the celebrity dead. Spaces associated with deceased celebrities are now commonly claimed by numerous fan pilgrims. The death of comedy actor Rik Mayall led to the “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30018809">Bottom bench</a>” being replaced with a plaque in Hammersmith, London due to public demand. Meanwhile, the Aladdin Sane mural in Brixton, London became a destination, or pilgrimage site, for David Bowie fans who left messages, flowers and even shoes and whisky. </p>
<p>Diana’s death was a catalyst for a new form of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/oct/31/dark-tourism-murder-sites-disaster-zones">dark tourism</a>. Celebrity shrines have become significant spaces, covered by news and social media alike.</p>
<p>Though her royalty was in a sense stripped by her divorce, Diana has become idolised as the “People’s Princess” and the “Queen of Hearts”. Despite sharing a volatile relationship with the media, it was their coverage of her death that aided her in achieving saint-like status. She will never grow old and her beauty will never now dim. Diana is forever frozen in time through her mediated death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82939/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Penfold-Mounce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the British press, the car crash that killed the Diana rewrote the rules on reporting celebrity deaths.Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.