The Disappearing Royals

I wonder if what's really going on, and has been for a long time with the royals and royals-affiliated, is that the girlfriends and wives inevitably eclipse the royal and royals-affiliated men they date, marry, and divorce, because they're just more interesting to both the rabble and the media.

(By the way, we know Meghan Markle experienced and continues to experience anti-Black racism, particularly in the media coverage of her, and the public commentary around that coverage, because we witnessed and are witnessing it. Class has nothing to do with it. Talk of her financial situation is a distraction to anti-Black racism just as talk of a woman's financial situation is a distraction to sexism.)

Speaking of sexism, the problem with these women being more interesting than their men is that it conflicts with their role, which is to be seen and not heard and produce heirs. They're supposed to be models of fashion, decorum, and motherhood. Diana could have had a career on the runway ffs. And remember Shy Di? Every young woman and her aunt learned to do that look up from under to the camera. I still think of it when on Zoom peering up everybody's nostrils as they peer up mine.

How soon we forget.

And although neither Kate nor Meghan had to be accepted by the public as virgins, and both are actually older than their princes, not to mention on the long end of motherhood, the fact is that Diana did have to be accepted by the public as a virgin. And so it was that we watched with squeamish bemusement while Charles, who came of age in the '60s, and who was in love with his best friend, Camilla, cast about the land in search of - tada! - Diana, who would come of age in the '80s - AFTER marriage to Charles.

But as to the Queen, the linchpin to it all, is there a more boring person on the planet? Well, no, there isn't. Being boring is her role, and as we can all agree, she embodies her role like nobody ever. It's why The Crown is such a hit. Finally a look behind the role to what it might have been like for the young woman who stepped into it. Seasons 1 and 2 and we're done here - and thrown for a loop by Season 3 - because it's the young woman we're interested in knowing about.

Anyway, the royals, including the girlfriends and wives, always fell outside my timeline, interest-wise. Also, the media here, particularly CBC, pretends our connection to England is more than it actually is for most of us. England may as well be India for me. Or Wales. Sure, I grew up singing God Save the Queen, but it was dropped at some point back there and my memories are all of Canada Day now, whether it was actually Dominion Day or not.

 

I guess that's why the forever enmity towards Trudeau, who made it official. Canada is Canada. And Canadians are global citizens, not British ones.

None of this is to upset Anglophiles, of course, because it's all good and I mean it when I say I don't care about or have an interest in England and the royals and so I don't care if you do. Fill your Wellies.

However, I don't include Meghan Markle in that whole scene anymore because she made what I think is a good decision to quit the role and go public as to why. Anti-Black racism is The Problem, it really is. And our media is complicit in perpetuating it. We need to stop making excuses for it, distracting from it, attacking the messengers, and instead hear what they're saying about their lived experiences of it.