shan
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Yes and having cameras shoved in her face as she went about her life.
Royalty thread #15: A New Era
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MsZem
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once_upon
The sun will come out...it may take 5 years
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Not that I'm likely to live long enough to see if the British media will treat a Princess Charlotte potential suitors/husband in the same manner it has done with Prince's potential girlfriends/spouses, but I suspect the males would be given a lot more latitude.
Society is not kind to women. Rspecially women who marry into a Royal Family. But the bottom line - society is not kind to women.
Society is not kind to women. Rspecially women who marry into a Royal Family. But the bottom line - society is not kind to women.
Simone411
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It's becoming very similar to what happened with Diana. Around 2:27 of this video, Princess Diana decided to take a year off. That was in 1992. She asked the paparazzi to please give her break, but of course, that didn't happen.
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overedge
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What I don't understand is that the edits seem to be on relatively minor things. Like, what was so wrong with Charlotte's hand that the image of another hand had to be put on top of it? ( I'm guessing that the "lizard people" conspiracy theorists would have some ideas about that....) Or, what was so odd about Charlotte's skirt creasing at the waist/hip because of how she was sitting? Neither of those would have ruined the photo if they hadn't been "fixed".
If Kate had been wearing her wedding ring in the original photo and then Photoshopped it out.....now something like that would be scandalous.
However, I do agree that this whole episode raises some pretty serious questions about how the Royals are presented in the media, and what the media do or don't do to facilitate the desired narratives. I did find it interesting that it's apparently standard practice for these types of photos to be distributed on the understanding that the media won't edit the images themselves. I didn't know that before, although I'm sure there are conspiracy theorists that are doing their own editing to "prove" things.
If Kate had been wearing her wedding ring in the original photo and then Photoshopped it out.....now something like that would be scandalous.
However, I do agree that this whole episode raises some pretty serious questions about how the Royals are presented in the media, and what the media do or don't do to facilitate the desired narratives. I did find it interesting that it's apparently standard practice for these types of photos to be distributed on the understanding that the media won't edit the images themselves. I didn't know that before, although I'm sure there are conspiracy theorists that are doing their own editing to "prove" things.
canbelto
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No I don't. Not saying it didn't happen, but for as long as I can remember Kate was presented as the perfect English rose. I even remember a whole bunch of articles comparing her outfits to Diana's and then comparing her smile and eyes to Diana.
kwanfan1818
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Denmark's former Queen Margrethe has designed costumes for a ballet, "Klods Hans" (Clumsy Hans) to be presented at Tivoli this summer during its 150th anniversary season:
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/denmarks-recently-abdicated-queen-margrethe-designs-costumes-set-108008438
Yay for retirement!
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/denmarks-recently-abdicated-queen-margrethe-designs-costumes-set-108008438
Yay for retirement!
overedge
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It's becoming very similar to what happened with Diana. Around 2:27 of this video, Princess Diana decided to take a year off. That was in 1992. She asked the paparazzi to please give her break, but of course, that didn't happen.
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I don't think this is a comparable situation. Diana had contacts in the media that she used strategically to advance her side of the story - i.e. to counteract the information about her that was being leaked by the Royal household - but IMO she didn't understand that you can't turn media attention on and off when it suits you.
She had a different relationship to the media than Kate & William do, and in Diana's time social media wasn't as big as it is now. So there was less opportunity for wild speculation that could fester online and be very difficult to push back against.
MsZem
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She was doing artsy stuff before she retired, too - including costume and set design and illustrating Danish editions of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings!
Simone411
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I certainly agree with you about her not understanding that the media attention couldn't just be turned on and off whenever it suited her. I also wasn't thinking about the time frame being different back then because the social media is huge when it comes to the internet these days. But still, I felt for Diana because she really didn't have peace when it came to the paparazzi chasing her everywhere.
kwanfan1818
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She did costume and set design for many years, in addition to her stand-alone artwork.
My favorite, though, was when I watched the "extras" in the DVD set for The Copenhagen Ring. In one, she interviewed stage director Kasper Holten!
A late friend who spent a lot of time in Denmark researching the ballet told me that when she could still smoke in the theater, there was a man in livery who stood by her seat in the royal box, and his job was to hold her ashtray.
When there is a royal in the royal box at the Kongelige Teater -- I think it remains empty if there is not -- the ballet dancers bow first to the corner with their eyes raised to the box and its occupant before bowing to the audience. The first time I was at the theater, then Queen Margrethe was there in a long, taffeta-looking (from afar) dress. The second time, the woman in the box was wearing a knee-length black dress, and I thought she was keeping everyone on her toes with a different style, but it turned out to be her sister. (I'm not sure whether Anne-Marie or Benedikte.)
My favorite, though, was when I watched the "extras" in the DVD set for The Copenhagen Ring. In one, she interviewed stage director Kasper Holten!
A late friend who spent a lot of time in Denmark researching the ballet told me that when she could still smoke in the theater, there was a man in livery who stood by her seat in the royal box, and his job was to hold her ashtray.
When there is a royal in the royal box at the Kongelige Teater -- I think it remains empty if there is not -- the ballet dancers bow first to the corner with their eyes raised to the box and its occupant before bowing to the audience. The first time I was at the theater, then Queen Margrethe was there in a long, taffeta-looking (from afar) dress. The second time, the woman in the box was wearing a knee-length black dress, and I thought she was keeping everyone on her toes with a different style, but it turned out to be her sister. (I'm not sure whether Anne-Marie or Benedikte.)
Karen-W
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Then you're showing your age. 15-18 years ago, Kate could barely go about her own life and working in London without being harassed by the paps constantly. The only way she wound up with any privacy was by going to work for her parents' company, Party Pieces.
I think this all the time. If this was my daughter or sister, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my mouth shut. Super human self control. I have some limited experience with it, I have a family member who was a high level competitive athlete and often discussed on the internet (nothing like these levels, but definitely intense for awhile). It became so hard to sit on my hands (literally at times) and not defend them. But I was asked not to engage and it often only makes it worse. But to have to stand by and watch my child or sister go through this without speaking up for them? That would kill me.
MsZem
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I like this discussion a lot more than the one about the paparazzi in the UK and What Kate Did
puglover
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I hate how the media and social media delight in pitting women against each other. They pick the most obvious vulnerabilities a woman has and spotlight it in comparison to other women in her circle. Balding almost middle age men just do not attract the same kind of attention on their own, it seems to me.
Barbara Manatee
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She also took a beating in the early days of her marriage when she hadn't quite gotten her skirt wrangling in the wind skills down and the media implied she was some sort of exhibitionist and spent a lot of time lecturing her about what kind of underclothes a real lady should wear.
MacMadame
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It looks like she took multiple photos, picked the best image of her and each of the kids from them, put them together and then photoshopped around the edges to make it seem like it was one photo. Almost all the edit are on the borders where kids touch her or other objects.
Trust me, they were brutal.
Now that I missed. But I believe it based on what came before.
Jenny
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There was also the time that a photographer with a long range lens took a photo of Kate from half a mile away while she was sunbathing topless on a private holiday at a private estate in France, and it appeared in print.
overedge
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IMO if she hadn't cultivated the media interest in her as much as she did, the paparazzi wouldn't have paid as much attention to her. There were stories, I don't know how true they are, that someone close to her - with her approval - would do things like phone the paparazzi when she was going out to lunch or to the gym, so they would know where to find her. And then there would be photos in the media of what a great post-divorce life she was having - take that, Royal Family.
If anyone builds that sort of interest and commercial value in photos of themselves, it's very hard, if not impossible, to stop that kind of attention.
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ballettmaus
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How cool. Can't wait to see them.
morqet
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Sure, but in the UK you'd be expected to do the exact same after a week of sickness leave.
marbri
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I imagine in the early years Kate's experiences in posh circles wasn't that unlike that movie Saltburn. Not the outrageous bits
but the general snobbery and open mockery of her not being one of them.
Vagabond
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Let the entire world know your exact medical condition? I very much doubt it. Is there some online database where this information is available about civil servants?
quartz
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Kate should post a pic of her and the family doing everyday life. Messy hair, grass stains on their knees, arguing over a video game, toys and dirty dishes and books laying about. They are healthy active kids - their lives can’t be that pristine. This perfectly posed super sanititized stuff isn’t terribly interesting, photoshopped or not.
overedge
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I was thinking about this too. Even when they are photographed doing fun activities like baking (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/kate-middleton-jubilee-cupcakes-cambridge) the kitchen is absolutely spotless and so are they. This is not real life
quartz
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Anyone who has baked, and especially baked with children, knows that these pictures are incorrect.
The White House weighs in. How long will it be before someone finds a digitally altered photo of the POTUS. 
skategal
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A former royal correspondent for Buzzfeed put together a timeline of the Princess Catherine weird PR and when the online rumours really took off.
It’s a good read.
It’s a good read.
It’s getting weirder: BuzzFeed News’ former royals reporter on Kate Middleton, Palace PR, and distrust in the media (updated)
"I cannot emphasize enough how out of character it is that a royal press team went on the record in response to what is essentially gossip."
www.niemanlab.org
canbelto
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Ok in fairness to Kate, her released family photos ARE super casual compared to royal photos in the past. Back in the day, royal children were never shown in casual clothes. Hell, Queen E was actually one of the first monarchs to smile with teeth. Before that it was considered mildly scandalous for a royal to smile with teeth showing. Even Diana was a stickler for the perfectly posed family portrait.
Coco
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There was marked change in the press' attitude towards her around the time of the engagement.
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