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AIBU?

AIBU to think that the way the Prince and his new bride are being portrayed as some as 'ordinary' is nauseating and stupid?

118 replies

Wamster · 01/05/2011 10:18

This is not about them as people- they may be very nice as people. It's about the propaganda to portray them as some kind of 'ordinary' couple by the press and media. How can they be ordinary? All the hogwash in the press about the bride's mother having a say in the wedding as if it were some kind of nice, middle-class do, now I'm not saying she did not have a say, but does anybody really believe that had the palace NOT agreed with her, her views would hold any water? The nonsense about the new bride's sister and Prince Harry getting together

I cannot believe people are gullible enough to swallow the 'they are just like us' line. Surely whether for OR against the royals nobody can truly believe this?
AIBU?

OP posts:

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catchmeifyoucan · 01/05/2011 19:08

So pissing what if she's 'normal' or 'not normal' - how is it any of anyone's business? If you don't like the Royal Family that's fine but ffs do you have to keep on and on spewing about it? One man's normal is another man's completely not normal and until the Communists are in charge so it shall remain. Oh, except there's still a hierarchy in Communism isn't there. Pffffffffft.

sharbie · 01/05/2011 19:08

there were a couple of things that struck me as a bit meh tbh - we see and hear what we are allowed to

the middletons had a party on the evening of the wedding for all their family and friends in the hotel where they stayed.v strange to have a wedding party with no bridge and groom.

also i saw on bbc a reporter and photographer discussing honeymoon plans and they said that the couple wanted to be left alone on honeymoon and had made it v clear they would sue anyone who tried to take photos of them (apparently they have a history of threatening court action for this.)

SybilBeddows · 01/05/2011 19:09

yes she has worked, as a buyer at Jigsaw and then in her parents' firm.

catchmeifyoucan · 01/05/2011 19:10

Yeah - look - just because you heard it in the media doesn't make it true - do you see that? And anyway - would you want pictures of your honeymoon all over the press? I doubt it.

clitorisorclitoraint · 01/05/2011 19:11

Erm, it's our business because a) we pay for it and b) it is thrust into our faces at every turn by the media.

This thread is a discussion about media portrayal of the couple (Kate really, I suppose) as 'normal'. Some of us find it distatesful and we are perfectly entitled to say so.

diddl · 01/05/2011 19:12

Whether you consider Kate ordinary or not, how can PW ever be considered so?

Time off work for Royal duties surely sets him aside from most of us?

wotnochocs · 01/05/2011 19:14

'yes she has worked, as a buyer at Jigsaw and then in her parents' firm.'

She worked at jigsaw for a year! Not had any serious role in her parents firm

catchmeifyoucan · 01/05/2011 19:15

Erm, it's our business because a) we pay for it and b) it is thrust into our faces at every turn by the media.

Yeah - something less than 70p per person. Wow. Like you could really find something useful to do with that couldn't you. Ummm - like what I don't know - a mung bean festival maybe?

Thrust into your face? Stone the bloody crows - I don't like rugby therefore I don't watch it on telly or read about it in the papers. It's terribly easy you know - try it some time.

usualsuspect · 01/05/2011 19:18

Of course they are not ordinary ...how many ordinary people were inside the Abbey?

All the ordinary bods were standing outside

SardineQueen · 01/05/2011 19:20

Hahhahahahha at easily being able to avoid exposure to the royal wedding

MrsDrOwenHunt · 01/05/2011 19:38

er who cares? so bloody what if they are posh, commoners or whatever, they got married it was on tv and people loved it!! beats watching the only was is essex!!

exoticfruits · 01/05/2011 19:41

They are not ordinary-but if they had to be they could cope. (I don't think Prince of Wales could cope)

JoanofArgos · 01/05/2011 19:43

70p a person blah blah blah. How much per person was a surestart centre, a sports partnership, repairs to leaky school roofs? Too much to be countenanced, apparently.

They're not ordinary, they have no idea about ordinary and never will.

Ormirian · 01/05/2011 19:46

I DON'T CARE!

I listened to the whole thing on the radio as I was suffering the world's worst hangover and had to have something to distract me from the misery. I wasn't intending to but I did and it had me in tears at times. DH was stomping round the house like bloody Oliver Cromwell demanding instant revolution and the storming of Buck House and a quick slap round the chops for Joe Public who was stupid enough to fall for the Monarchist Soap Opera. But I just thought it was really rather nice and I enjoyed it...well the bits I was allowed to watch when Mr Miserable-Right-On was busy.

They seemed like two nice people who were very happy and had made an effort to give a good show. I don't care if they are ordinary or not. It was fun.

SardineQueen · 01/05/2011 19:49

You can have enjoyed the royal wedding

AND

think it is odd that our national media are insisting that the couple in question are completely normal

They are not mutually exclusive positions

SardineQueen · 01/05/2011 19:50

For normal, read ordinary. Whoops!

edam · 01/05/2011 20:06

Mr Middleton had family money. There's a trust set up by his millionaire grandmother (IIRC) for the education of mini-Middletons.

They may well have built up a successful business but they weren't exactly starting from nothing.

edam · 01/05/2011 20:07

And thank you Sardine, that's where I'm coming from - nice wedding but not exactly ordinary people in any shape or form.

SardineQueen · 01/05/2011 20:11

The bit I don't get about the press insistence that these are completely ordinary people from completely ordinary families, is that if it were true the monarchy would be done and gone. Originally they were supposed to be godlike, or actual gods. That's been watered down a little but the only reason surely that they can continue to function and be paid for and lauded is if people believe they are special in some way, different. If everyone really thought they were no different from Fred Bloggs at no 46, they'd soon start wondering why we have to give them all this money and why they get to live in all the palaces and stuff...

So I double don't get it. The royal family are not ordinary. That is the whole point.

Beveridge · 01/05/2011 20:31

catchmeifyoucan If the state of true Communism is acheived, there is no hierarchy. I assume you are referring to the contradictions that there were in Eastern bloc countries prior to the 1990s, but these countries had only ever acheived a dictatorship of the proletariat, the step before real Communism.

If there's a spare 70p per person kicking about, I'd like it spent on smaller class sizes or neonatal units, thanks.

SybilBeddows · 01/05/2011 20:35

surely the ambiguity is the whole point: they are ordinary and not ordinary.
if they weren't ordinary they couldn't represent us but if they were only ordinary they wouldn't be royal.

so I presume the reason why they have to keep banging on about them being ordinary right now is precisely because we have just had a massive load of pageantry showing us that they're NOT ordinary.

does that make sense?

fedupofnamechanging · 01/05/2011 20:36

If aliens landed and tuned into our news service, they'd not know we are in the middle of several military campaigns. While all this royal wedding stuff has been rammed down our throats, Gaddafi's compound got bombed, killing his youngest son and 3 grandchildren. I thought we were supposed to just be enforcing a no fly zone, not killing children. I believe an orphanage and a home for children with Down Syndrome has also been bombed.

I know this is off topic, but I'm horrified that we've allowed ourselves to be distracted by this inconsequential shit, when civilians are dying in other countries and often at the hands of our governments.

fwiw, neither of them are 'ordinary'. They live lives of extreme privilege and so have nor real understanding of what it's like to worry about paying the rent or petrol to get to work etc.

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mayorquimby · 01/05/2011 20:37

because if any of us were harry we'd have definitely chanced our arm with the hot sister

SybilBeddows · 01/05/2011 20:38

oh and also, a role played by the women who marry into the royal family is to be the vehicle for the myths of transformation that are a key part of the mystique of 20th & 21st century royalty, which is why with the Queen Mum, Diana and now Kate they kept banging on about how ordinary they were in order to demonstrate the transformation to being royal.

there has to be a purpose behind all this 'they're so ordinary' shite, it can't be merely random.

SybilBeddows · 01/05/2011 20:39

Karma you're right

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