How royal women are viewed in relation to men

[tigger2022]

This was triggered by something I saw relating to the Harry trial, but I think it’s a wider problem than that so I didn’t want to be accused of going off topic and started a new thread!!

I think there is often conflict between Kate, Sophie, & Camilla’s roles as consorts vs the way they are always covered in social media & the media in relation to whatever the men are doing. It seems especially irritating as the royal women are always the ones you see day in day out plugging away at engagements to play groups, mum groups, DV centres, etc… yet what they’re doing and wearing is always talked about as if it exists within the context of whatever men happen to be doing.

This is the example that prompted the thread but there are so many:
Kate went to an engagement with small kids yesterday, which she does practically every day, wearing a fairly boring Zara jacket. Her engagements are usually planned months in advance. One of the most popular H&M social media supporters said that this was the royal family sending out one of their most popular members to distract from Harry’s trial (and HAHA they failed) and that the jacket was to emphasise “nothing to see here”. But a similar criticism could be made literally any way she had dressed. If she had been dressed to the nines to meet some toddlers, she’d be using her glamour to try and distract…

This sort of thing happens ALL the time.

So that’s my question! Why is what the women do always talked about in relation to men? Is it because they’re consorts and that’s why Anne is usually excluded?

Good question! , I have no idea , apart from the age old sexism?

Partly because they are royal by marriage and partly because the public seems to be interested. They wouldn't get the same traffic writing about Prince William's outfit and hair.

It's not just the royals. Most articles about a woman will include her age, whereas those on men tend not to.

I think Anne gets less attention because she isn't considered as beautiful or glamorous, despite being one of the hardest working royals.

Princess Anne has excellent dress sense.

Well it's the usual sort of BS from Sussex supporters. Don't think you'll ever see this in mainstream media. The RF are just going about business as usual, while Harry struggles with his evidence in court and continues his crusade.

I hesitate to link to Hilary Mantel’s excellent ‘Royal Bodies’ (but Googlable for anyone who hasn’t read it), as it invariably causes frothing among people who don’t read carefully, but she’s right about royal bodies existing purely to be looked at, and women royals’ bodies focusing misogyny because of the necessity to produce the next generation, and be clotheshorses on whom various banal roles can be projected.

I think the women are used as human shields.

It is hard to respect the men in that family who all stand back and hide behind them.

The going over they got /get is an appaling reflection of our society - humilliate each and every one of them while little to nothing comes out about Charles or William.

Shameful.

But seems to be the price of entry.

This. I think it's because they get the most clicks. Equally Charles and William are boring. The press will be struggling without Meghan.

Something similar happens in politics too. I’m thinking of Angela Merkel and Hilary Rodham Clinton and their trouser suits - both trying to adopt a kind of uniform that is both predictably uninteresting but with enough colour variation to pretend to make an effort, so that their words and policies make the front page instead of their appearance.

Hilary once quipped that she could probably deflect attention from a crisis by changing her hair style because it would be front page news.

It’s very tedious. But it’s also an age old issue; Marie Antoinette was savaged for her clothes choices too and couldn’t do right for doing wrong no matter how she tried. When she simplified her dresses in response to criticism of extravagance she was accused of undermining the French textile industry.

Agree with this too. It's hard to ignore sexims when women leaders always have comments on their clothes and appearance! (I think men have comments on their appearance as well, but their clothes aren't usually a factor).

We live in a society where outward appearance is increasingly seen to be important, rather than valuing people for who they are and what they do.

Princess Anne has always worked hard, placing her actions above appearance and has the confidence to do this. In her younger days she was often criticised for refusing to conform to the image of a “fairytale princess”. It’s no coincidence that her skills and dedication saw her rise to the very top of the one sport where women and men compete on an equal basis.

@Whenharrymetsmelly - it is unusual for men to be targeted because of their clothing choices, but two that spring to mind are Harold Wilson and his tartan lined raincoats and Michael Foote and his so-called donkey jacket.

BJ is still criticised for his appearance to this day. It has been posited that his appearance is a deliberate move to project the image of a bumbling idiot and thus place would-be detractors at a disadvantage.

She hardly does engagements every day. She did 90 in 2022 and that’s fewer that many Royals, including the both Duke and Duchess of Gloucester who each did more than her.

That aside, it’s just plain old misogyny surely? It reminds me of a Dan Wootton article recently where the headline asks why Meghan isn’t stopping Harry making a fool of himself. Why is she responsible for a man’s behaviour?

Going back even further in history - Queen Elizabeth of England firmly controlled her image, especially in portraiture.

I do find the woman always gets the blame! Everything people disagree with that Harry does, it does seem it's always blamed on Megan. "Megan made him, manipulated him" then when people dislike William Kate gets dragged through the mud. But I'm pretty sure in reality grown men can think for themselves and everything that goes wrong isn't all their wives.

Even with Charles and camilla, people who've spoken to me about royals in real life seem to forgive Charles, or not be quite as explosive as they are with camilla. I just think it takes two and if you hate camilla, not sure why it's not the same with Charles.. seems a little unjust.

Not every woman is this skilled master manipulator who controls the men 😂

@bumblebee2235 , who's Megan?