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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
MaBroon21 · 01/07/2021 16:39

the clothes aren't like anything she would have worn

She did wear clothes like this.

RickiTarr · 01/07/2021 16:40

@BirdsandBeesmakinghay

I think it’s awful. Everything about if jars. So disappointing. So long as they like it I suppose that’s what matters. If they don’t, I expect they can’t say so.
I’ve just watched some of the clip.

William is doing the thing he did at Sandringham that Christmas when his scarf was suddenly much more absorbing than MM next to him. Only this time, the prop is a statue and it is his brother he is studiedly ignoring.

It all feels like some horrible repetition of privileged disharmony down the generations played out in front of their dead mother. They’re like trapped soap opera puppets.

It really made me shiver. Didn’t get anything like that vibe from the stills.

earminted · 01/07/2021 16:41

I was really hoping for the landmine outfit, the face shield, lifted up to show her face, would have been so relevant for today.

RickiTarr · 01/07/2021 16:41

I was hoping it would be her sitting on a bench with an arm around Paul Burrell, or maybe a reworking of the famous Muhammad Ali triumphant over Sonny Liston photograph, but with Diana and Camilla.

Oh stop. 🤣

FolornLawn · 01/07/2021 16:44

But… she wasn’t actually that beautiful. People bought into the idea that she was somehow magnetically beautiful because she was very young, very posh, and ended up in the royal family. Objectively, she was nowhere near as beautiful as the models of the time. Which is fine, she wasn’t a model.
I think the statue’s fine. I recognised her, and presumably her sons are happy with it as they were part of the consultation process. Her ‘thing’ was demonstrating caring behaviour, which is what it’s showing.

DragonDoor · 01/07/2021 16:45

White saviour complex is when a white person goes to ‘ do good’. Charity work, gap years abroad etc.

Because of course, only they can fix the complex problems of poverty, economic and health inequality, war and famine etc (by turning up and building a school/ doing a photoshoot) It makes them feel good, and with celebrities is often more about promoting their own image, rather than actually addressing wider inequality around the world.

Now, to be fair to Diana, she did raise a lot of awareness for causes like land mines etc. that wouldn’t have got as much exposure if it were not for her very high profile.

The more I look at this statue though, the more there is something about the addition of the children here that just doesn’t sit comfortably with me, particularly given Britain’s colonial past.

LadyBonnibel · 01/07/2021 16:46

She had a lovely smile and very distinctive look and it's shame those aren't there - it doesn't have the "essence" of her.

But if it's what they wanted, that matters more,

It must be v hard to be a sculptor and have your statue unveiled like that. Someone's always going to hate it and whatever it's like it can't help but feel a bit anticlimactic.

lunar1 · 01/07/2021 16:46

I don't really understand the children, it probably seemed like a good idea that hasn't translated well.

Samcro · 01/07/2021 16:47

don't like it.
It doesn't look like her.

ChocolateCakeYum · 01/07/2021 16:49

They could’ve at least given her a smile!

TatianaBis · 01/07/2021 16:50

It's ok. Weird Father Christmas belt.

Blossomtoes · 01/07/2021 16:50

@SpindleWhorl

It's supposed to be her at 60.
Is it? But nobody knows what she’d look like at 60. She was beautiful, the face is really masculine.
TatianaBis · 01/07/2021 16:51

@FolornLawn

Totally disagree. She was very beautiful in an imperfect way.

I remember when she went to a NY bash with supermodels and I wondered how she would measure up. Actually she looked stunning and put many in the shade.

Beauty isn't just about regular features.

MobyDicksTinyCanoe · 01/07/2021 16:51

She looks like Rod Stewart...... Dp obviously thought the same because when I asked if he'd seen it he said why the hell have they made her into Rod Stewart?? 😳

Poor Diana

SingingSands · 01/07/2021 16:52

What exactly is the point of this statue?

OutwiththeOutCrowd · 01/07/2021 16:53

Too butch. Looks like a man in drag. The sculptor acknowledges on his website that he is more inspired by the masculine form and I think it shows!

I hope that William and Harry are happy with it at least - and see something in it that I don't.

Feduperika · 01/07/2021 16:55

I think it's generally fine but the girl is not quite right somehow and I wish the children were more differing in height. I like the steps all around and can imagine the pictures being taken of very varied groups of people. As long as health and safety allows it given the pointy fingerbeing at child's eye height.

LittleRa · 01/07/2021 16:55

@Proudboomer

The whole unveiling looks pretty uncomfortable and lack lustre. William is is doing a good job of ignoring Harry whilst giving his attention to the bloke in glasses whoever he maybe whilst Harry hovers to the side of him like a spare part.
Bloke in the glasses is the sculptor
BirdsandBeesmakinghay · 01/07/2021 16:57

The rest of the family just huddled in the background looking a bit miserable. Not really part of it.

HeadNorth · 01/07/2021 16:57

At least she has got clothes on, unlike that dreadful Mary Wollstonecraft effort

SunshineCake · 01/07/2021 16:58

Ive just seen a photo of her dressed in an outfit very similar to the one in the sculpture.

randomkey123 · 01/07/2021 16:58

I think Diana was exceptionally photogenic - the camera loved her, and whilst not a traditional beauty, she had that magic X factor on film. Catherine is the same - the photos of her at PP's funeral were absolutely stunning.

I'd imagine that's pretty hard to translate into bronze, tbh........ and I think the 3 random children have thrown it off balance somehow.

DysonSphere · 01/07/2021 16:59

[quote TatianaBis]@FolornLawn

Totally disagree. She was very beautiful in an imperfect way.

I remember when she went to a NY bash with supermodels and I wondered how she would measure up. Actually she looked stunning and put many in the shade.

Beauty isn't just about regular features.[/quote]
I completely agree. There's beauty, there's having handsome features, there's having an attractive visage I think she had elements of all. Her eyes were stunning imo

viques · 01/07/2021 17:05

@stairway

I would have put her in that land mine outfit she famously war.
I thought that too, and it would have been spookily prescient of the sculptor to have chosen an image of her with a face covering ( though hard to sculpt Grin , maybe that’s why he didn’t choose it)
TickyTok · 01/07/2021 17:06

I think Diana actually looks fine but the two children literally look like adults! Esp the jawline of the girl and their bodies are really bizarre since children have larger heads in proportion to the rest of their body. The head-to-body ratio of the children is identical to Diana's (around 1:7) and it looks she's sheperding two miniature adults.