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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU - Princess Diana new statue

788 replies

ForeverAintEnough3 · 01/07/2021 15:31

She was a style icon yet she’s in one of those frumpy waist belts that were only in fashion briefly. The face does nothing to represent how beautiful she was. It’s too harsh.

OP posts:
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29
Localocal · 06/07/2021 09:14

She doesn't even look like she likes children. All four figures look like they would rather be somewhere else (as do the two lucky unveilers.) A poor commemoration of a woman whose USP was loving children.

I personally never thought she was beautiful, but this statue makes her even less attractive than she was.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 06/07/2021 09:16

Can you imagine if you were immortalised as a young person at your first job?

“Here is St toffee - absolutely adored working with ws and bullies! Her she is, immortalised banging her head against a wall, which is something she loved to do...”

FannyCann · 06/07/2021 10:24

My DD did an Art History module in her first year at uni just for a change to broaden her knowledge as it wasn't related to her degree. I edited her essays and they were really interesting.

It must be a sign of my age that I find Simon Schama very sexy and have fantasies.....

Anyway I watched his programme about Turner's painting "The Slave Ship" last night and I highly recommend it. Upsetting subject material and historically very important. He's a marvellous presenter.

www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/?sd=05-07-2021%2022:00

AIBU - Princess Diana new statue
Marcipex · 06/07/2021 17:27

@Localocal I don’t think she had really lovely features; she was graceful and charming and very slender.
I can understand that her charm and sparkle are not likely to be reproduced in a statue, but it’s not even slender, which can’t be that hard to do.

seashells11 · 06/07/2021 19:10

I personally never thought she was beautiful, but this statue makes her even less attractive than she was.

No I never understood why she was labelled as beautiful.. but she seemed a lovely person.

VerticalHorizon · 06/07/2021 19:15

I think she was 'normal' but had enough money to be able to pay for good styling etc. At times, she looked very attractive and to my mind, she was certainly a woman who became more attractive with age.

When she got engaged, she really wasn't anything special..

MrsFin · 06/07/2021 22:26

You only have to look at her sisters to get an idea of how she would have looked today. They are a bit older, and obviously don't spend ££ on colonic irrigation, Botox, hairdressers and clothes, but you do get an idea of how Diana would have aged.

TheSunShinesBrighter · 06/07/2021 22:39

@MrsFin

You only have to look at her sisters to get an idea of how she would have looked today. They are a bit older, and obviously don't spend ££ on colonic irrigation, Botox, hairdressers and clothes, but you do get an idea of how Diana would have aged.
I disagree. Both her sisters were old looking before their time.
AIBU - Princess Diana new statue
AIBU - Princess Diana new statue
VerticalHorizon · 06/07/2021 22:57

They aren't a million miles apart - except for hair and clothing. With the right (or wrong) stylist, either could have been made to look glamorous or frumpy.

LawnFever · 06/07/2021 23:04

@seashells11

I personally never thought she was beautiful, but this statue makes her even less attractive than she was.

No I never understood why she was labelled as beautiful.. but she seemed a lovely person.

Agreed, I came to say exactly this, she had money so dressed well (once she had stylists anyway) and looked well groomed but I never thought she was beautiful.

She did some lovely things but I never understood the fascination with her at the time, and I still don’t all these years later.

It was very sad she died so young but I think the obsession over her has gone too far, and I don’t see the point of the statue.

MrsFin · 06/07/2021 23:07

Both her sisters were old looking before their time

Only because of their clothes and hairstyles.

Look beyond that and there's a strong family resemblance. I imagine William will look more like Earl Spencer as he gets older.

MrsFin · 06/07/2021 23:09

Look at them here

images.app.goo.gl/NubjvsCnUHyR2LDu7

justasking111 · 06/07/2021 23:36

Gosh they didn't wear well compared to my friends and relations

Rhannion · 07/07/2021 01:00

@OutwiththeOutCrowd

The proportions of the children is interesting. It so happen that the sculptor was working on a piece depicting Licoricia of Winchester, a medieval woman, around the same time (pic 1 - Licoricia by the same sculptor). He has certainly chosen similar proportions for the child in that work, reflecting the medieval aesthetic, which tended to show babies and children looking like small adults (pic 2 - medieval art).

It’s tempting to wonder whether there was some cross-fertilisation of ideas and if the sculptor hadn’t been in a medieval mindset, the children might have looked different.

Pure speculation on my part, of course. I’d love to ask the sculptor!

Now that’s a beautiful statue, strong and graceful with movement, and the clothes are lovely.
Applesonthelawn · 07/07/2021 10:26

Diana was a very attractive woman by normal standards, but I do think that when she was extremely thin (eating disorder type of thin) she acquired the delicate almost ethereal beauty that her reputation as a great beauty is based on. This faded when she became a healthier weight, and therein lies part of the trouble with eating disorders, i.e. until it becomes life threatening or goes on for too long, there is a highly photogenic quality to it, especially if you are the build she is. I am approximately her age, very much her build, and suffered at the same time with eating disorders and always felt that her beauty was unsustainable, that in healthy times she would juts be a normally attractive, athletically built woman. I'm pleased that that is how she is portrayed in the statue - I was worried they'd go for the thin version.

VerticalHorizon · 07/07/2021 11:31

I disagree there is a highly photogenic quality to being super thin.
I am sure many THINK there is, but that doesn't make it true.
I think she looked better at a healthier weight, not super skinny.

OutwiththeOutCrowd · 07/07/2021 11:38

Could it be your own difficult experiences are colouring your view here Apples? I do not think Princess Diana was at her most beautiful during the period she was struggling with an eating disorder. At other times, she had an athletic yet feminine frame, which had aesthetic appeal.

In life, Diana’s attractiveness did not rest on being model-thin, nor on having features that corresponded to an impossible ideal. It is the slight deviations from perceived perfection in a face that give character, individuality, and, I would argue, authentic beauty to a real person.

To reiterate the point, being as thin as possible does not equal aesthetically pleasing! Compare the skeletal women in the Holocaust statue with the light and airy, voluptuous Three Graces. I wish something of what was captured in the latter example could have been present in Diana's statue.

(Slightly off topic but the subversive in me would love Banksy to steal into the sunken garden late at night and plonk a gigantic copy of his Princess Diana banknote right in front of the statue. That would show the establishment!)

VerticalHorizon · 07/07/2021 11:47

As a man, I can assure you that many men do not find super skinny women any more appealing. I am sure for some, it's an attractive attribute, but for many it's not.

Diana's beauty, as with any woman's beauty is much more than her looks (which weren't especially outstanding). Her perceived grace and character (not that any of us knew her) contributed significantly to her appeal. She had a certain vulnerability, a mix of confidence and shyness, femininity... as far has her public persona was concerned. That made her attractive to many men, and probably women too.

By the same token, there can be some visually beautiful women that are not personally attractive.
It is so tragic how many women have such a poor self-image or false perception of what is attractive.

ancientgran · 07/07/2021 11:53

The establishment? Would that be her sons who loved her, commissioned the statue and approved it? Yes I'm sure they are in some conspiracy.

Maybe, just maybe, they knew her better than you did?

OutwiththeOutCrowd · 07/07/2021 12:04

Ancientgran, it is far more important that William and Harry like it and that they feel it evokes her spirit. There have been suggestions in the press that there was a lack of agreement between them as to how Diana should be portrayed. If I could be assured that they are both happy with the final form, and that it really does offer them solace, I would feel better about the matter myself.

Prince Harry is on record as saying that he does not have many personal memories of his mother, which is heartbreaking.

malificent7 · 07/07/2021 12:05

She was an absolute stunner...what are you all talking about?! I know several men who agree.
Her soul shone out of her but that can't be replicated in stone.

Cam22 · 07/07/2021 12:16

I agree. She was exquisite.

ancientgran · 07/07/2021 12:38

@OutwiththeOutCrowd

Ancientgran, it is far more important that William and Harry like it and that they feel it evokes her spirit. There have been suggestions in the press that there was a lack of agreement between them as to how Diana should be portrayed. If I could be assured that they are both happy with the final form, and that it really does offer them solace, I would feel better about the matter myself.

Prince Harry is on record as saying that he does not have many personal memories of his mother, which is heartbreaking.

That does surprise me, I was a few weeks older than Harry when my father died and I have many many memories. The earliest being when I was about 3, we were at Sunday Mass in a packed church and he was holding me in his arms, I also have a vague memory of him when I was in hospital at about 2.

Considering how many photos and videos there are to prompt his memory it seems strange he doesn't have many memories.

OutwiththeOutCrowd · 07/07/2021 12:55

www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2016050531261/prince-harry-not-many-memories-princess-diana/

The trauma of Diana's death may have erased some of his earlier recollections or consigned them to an unreachable part of the subconscious. It's hard to say how it happened but he does claim in an interview not to have many memories.

And in general, I have noted that the vividness with which people remember their childhoods can vary considerably.

RamItBunty · 07/07/2021 18:24

@malificent7

She was an absolute stunner...what are you all talking about?! I know several men who agree. Her soul shone out of her but that can't be replicated in stone.
She was horsey and aristocratic. I don’t believe in souls Her affluence and privilege probably shone