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

[cavea]

Or Kate Middleton as they refer to her 🙄

I don't count conspiracy theories as world-impacting in themselves. There are always conspiracy theories circulating about something - a load of people on the internet speculating that Kate is dead or has been replaced by a lookalike or abducted by aliens isn't world-impacting in my view.

She was the focus of a particularly nasty contemporary phenomenon, and negotiated it with grace. Her treatment by social media, and her response to it, says a lot about contemporary society, expectations and manners.

I agree.

Kate didn’t even make a pointing of thanking doctors and nurses in her soft focus promotional video let alone saying something useful like ‘if somethings doesn’t feel right, get it checked’.

By Charles merely announcing he was in hospital for an enlarged prostate, online searches for prostate advice saw a massive increase in one day and he’s credited with raising awareness.

She hasn't helped anybody with cancer

You have polled each and every one of them, I take it?

And, because it bears repeating, it is her private medical information and it is entirely up to her if she wishes to share it.

I feel like she will hope she doesn’t win. If you do you have to (well I suppose you don’t have to but are expected) to give an interview and do a photo shoot.

The point of person of the year- isn’t what they’ve achieved. It’s who is the Face of 2024.

For better if worse, which face represents what 2024 meant.

Kate represents someone battling illness who wasn’t allowed to be believed. An age of distrust for institutions, an age of misinformation and social media ….had culminated in a woman being subjected to the the most horrific conspiracy theories. It was also a story where the mainstream legacy media were left chasing a story that’s roots come from conspiracies online. Most people sourced their info on this story from Tik Toks. That’s the face of 2024

So no, it’s not because she had cancer.

I agree with a poster up thread and think Gisele Pelicot would be a worthy winner .
I cannot imagine Catherine would want to win this .

That's ridiculous, it's just clickbait from the magazine surely.

I really can’t understand peoples confusion about Time magazine.

It’s not an award for achievement!!

Yes, it showed very clearly how the news cycle isn't driven by the legacy media any more, but rather by popular nonsense from social media.

I also don't think she'll win this - and nor would she want to. And I do agree with the cynical idea that there's an element of clickbait in her selection, which is a bit ironic given the reason why she's there.

Maybe they should call it Face of 2024, because Person of the Year implies action rather than representation?

In some ways I hope Catherine does win because too many people have tried to sweep under the carpet what the media and social media did in the early part of the year. In others, though, it would just put her in the firing line, again. I don't think social media or the media in general have learnt anything from what happened to Catherine, they are all still out there spreading rumours and delighting in the thought that something awful might be happening to someone.

It's really interesting as a phenomenon that Kate gets more popular the less she says and the less she is seen. Tells us something about society's attitudes to women, I think

I don't understand what she's done?

See posts above. It’s not what she has done it’s how she reflects something that has happened during the year.

eta particularly @MrsLeonFarrell post at 8.30

Yes,

Joe Rogan, Trump and Kate are all part of the same story. A fundamental shift from legacy media and the consequences of such.

Peoples distrust of institutions- so in Kates case, mistrust of the RF, mistrust of mainstream media etc resulted in worldwide conspiracy theories that the mainstream media were behind the curve to catch up on. Posed an interesting question - Do they report on what was clearly nonsense?

Well they didn’t for a while and the theories grew and grew. You even had those nutters on the View sharing weird theories. So the MM was then forced to report because it had become such a big issue.

So it poses really interesting questions about societies trust in institutions, where legacy media and the alternative sit, who decides what is news? Also questions around privacy, women being believed and ownership of women’s bodies. The world felt they had a right to know about her illness and demanded information. When they didn’t get that, they made stuff up instead.

That’s the shit show that was 2024!

Absolutely this.

Totally agree. That woman is an inspiration for all women.

If she is not nominated this year, I imagine it's because the court case is ongoing and I hope it will be next time for her.

She stands head and shoulders over everyone for her bravery

This

Really? She didn't say what kind of cancer she had?

Or Yulia Navalny. To carry on the fight after what she has been through and what Russia did to her inspirational husband is awe inspiring.

See PrettyFly's post just above you. Nominees are those who have had

"the biggest impact - for good or for ill - on the world over the previous 12 months".

Stalin, Putin - for ill
Ghandi et al - for good

Either way, agree with Hermione re Gisele Pelicot.

This could not be more ridiculous. Surely even Royalist can see that?

But as has been pointed out several times already, Times magazine person of the year has nothing to do with achievement, bravery etc etc. It's more about the zeitgeist, hence the inclusion of people like Trump, Musk and Netanyahu on the list. People are bumping their gums over the nominations for entirely the wrong reasons.

Cancer, not pre cancer, actual cancer. I think there are others more suited to Person of the Year but diminishing her illness is completely unnecessary.

Great