Time Magazine, Princess of Wales on shortlist for person of the year2024

[cavea]

Or Kate Middleton as they refer to her 🙄

I don't believe she has had any impact. She hasn't been visible for most of the year.

That’s a different question as why she’s nominated. I’m not sure she should either tbh. Gisele Pelicot yes agree there.

It's obvious from this thread that most people have no idea what the history/purpose of the Times Magazine award is. More about holding a mirror up to society than anything the recipient has done. Have a look back at previous nominees for some idea about what's going on.

Here's Times notes on Catherine's nomination - the pertinent phrase is 'stirred a conversation about privacy and health for public figures'

'The Princess of Wales made international headlines this year and stirred a conversation about privacy and health for public figures. In January, Kate Middleton was hospitalized for two weeks for a “planned abdominal surgery” and Kensington Palace said she would be out of the public eye until Easter. But after conspiracy theories circulated online in March about Middleton’s whereabouts, the royal put the rumors to rest by revealing that she had been diagnosed with cancer. In September, Middleton announced that she had completed her chemotherapy treatment.

I bet the media are going to ramp up stories about abolishing the royal family exactly at this time and then mumsnet will be bombarded with AI generated pro and anti royal threads

I can't see how Kate Middleton fits the bill in terms of holding a mirror up to society.

You don’t actually have to do anything of note to be Time’s Person of the Year. As I posted above, they get nominated for having made the biggest impact (for better or worse) to the world. In the first half of the year she was all that anyone was talking about due to “where’s Kate?” conspiracies, the doctored photo and the cancer announcement. Everyone was publicly talking about it, from Blake Lively and King Willem of the Netherlands, to people like my dad who have no interest in celebrity or royalty yet were fascinated about what was going on.

Therefore she made a significant impact culturally in 2024 and so has been nominated. Whether she wins or not is another matter completely.

After all the crack pot conspiracy theories, the social media meltdown, awful press speculation, the celebrity bitchiness from the likes of Stephen Colbert and Blake Lively who obviously felt perfectly comfortable theorising over her illness? Oh, I think it perfectly illustrates a large chunk of society, and not in a good way.

Agree. She's an inspiration.
I mean what had Kate actually done? It's nonsense.

Yes but that's not just Kate Middleton is it?
The internet trolling on celebrities is endless.

It’s not really about ‘winning’ though is it? Its often a reflection of societal currents for example, Musk is there reflecting the congruence of extreme wealth and the power of disruption,

It is, but this was a perfect storm, social media, print media, mainstream news, other celebrities. It was absolutely off the scale ridiculous. And the back pedalling from the instigators following her video confirming her diagnosis was astonishing.

You don’t have to be an inspiration to win though. Benjamin Netanyahu has also been nominated and he has an international warrant against him for crimes against humanity. Hardly inspirational 🤣 I think the concept of Time’s Person of the Year is lost on a lot of people here 🤣🤦🏼‍♀️

Ironically its comment like these that are half the reason why she was nominated in the first place. It appears that lessons still haven’t been learned, which is pretty sad really.

'I think the concept of Time’s Person of the Year is lost on a lot of people here'

Think you could be right 😂

Absolutely agree @PrettyFlyforaMaiTai

If nothing else, the RF threads show how few people grasp the role of a Constitutional Monarchy within a unitary parliamentary democracy.

And now we can add what the Time Person of the Year nominations actually reflect.

Agreed. It’s more akin to the Collins English Dictionary Word of the year - they select one that has come to prominence and captures the zeitgeist of the year in question, not the “best word”. “Brat” for 2024, apparently, and “AI” last year.

It isn't about being 'an inspiration' - it's about the person's impact on world events. Adolf Hitler is a former 'winner' for example.

I don't think Kate is a good choice - she retreated from the world stage for much of this year - absolutely not blaming her for that, but it did limit her impact.

No I don't think it is lost on me. I am also quite well aware of the role of the monarchy in our parliamentary democracy. I am pretty sure the person nominated has to themselves have had an influence during the year, and I don't believe that is the case with KM.

No need for banal emojis. The criteria is perfectly clear. It's awarded to the person, group, or concept that had the biggest impact—for good or for ill—on the world over the previous 12 months.

I stand by my comment. Kate has done nothing that has had an impact on the world.

I think Elon will win but I hope it's Yulia.

I think the point is more that Kate’s non-appearance during the year turned out to be a big deal globally - ironically, she had more of an impact not being visible than being visible, and that is noteworthy, because it’s quite a shift from what you’d usually expect to see.

Although it's a shame Gisele has not made the short list.

Ironically she wasn’t seen and that was what set of the shit storm of “where’s Kate?” conspiracies. I think that shows what an impact she did have on the world to be fair.

She’s had cancer.

She’s had no impact on the world. Embarrassingly, given the position she enjoys.

She did nothing in your eyes, yet the whole world was talking about her at one point and she’s been nominated for Time’s Person of the Year. It appears that you don’t get “it”. But that’s fine, Time magazine clearly did 🤣🤣🤣

HRTWT but I think Catherine would agree that it was an odd choice.