ELIZABETH FREMANTLE
  • Home
  • Books
    • Disobedient
    • The Honey and the Sting
    • The Poison Bed
    • The Girl in the Glass Tower
    • Watch the Lady
    • Sisters of Treason
    • Queen's Gambit
  • Author
  • Contact
  • Blog

In the wake of 'mannequingate': Catherine Middleton and Katherine Parr

2/25/2013

0 Comments

 
Here are my own thoughts in the wake of Mantel’s recent comments on royalty and the media, and in particular those scathing words she uttered about the Duchess of Cambridge, which have created a deluge of opinion, providing an opportunity to look more carefully at the way female public figures are scrutinized in the media.

I am an unwavering fan of Mantel as a writer and thinker. I understand Mantel's argument and feel that she was forwarding a fascinating, relevant intellectual idea, and indeed was correct in pointing out that throughout history royal women have been used as blank canvasses on which society has projected its particular fantasies (usually political at heart), which are completely divorced from the women who inspire them. I do however feel that Mantel fell into her own trap and by making her point about the ‘mannequin’ like duchess she was perhaps forgetting that there is indeed a real woman with real feelings behind the 'hand-turned and gloss varnished' Kate Middleton we see in the media, and that the real flesh and blood Kate Middleton (the one lurking behind the façade she presents to the public) may well have been deeply hurt by the language Mantel used to drive home her point.

From so-called ‘she-wolf’ Isabella of France; to Anne Boleyn, who was for some a whore and others a martyr; to Marie Antoinette, who needs no introduction and also received a drubbing from Mantel; to the People’s Princess Diana, royal consorts have been used to serve the political agendas of their friends and enemies alike. They hold a public position in which they are expected to appear as something – a figurehead, correctly appareled according to the mores of their time as an outward display of the success of the dynasty they represent. And so  in a sense ‘mannequin’ is not an inaccurate term to describe the way clothing becomes an intrinsic part of the symbolism of the role, whether it is the bejeweled gowns of the Tudor queens or the high street outfits of Kate Middleton.

Perhaps there is much Kate Middleton could learn from her earlier namesakes, both negative ones, such as Catherine Howard the seventeen-year-old queen executed for adultery, and positive, such as Katherine Parr the wife who survived marriage to Henry VIII with aplomb, but such a message needs to be delivered with tact and moreover with consideration for the woman behind the image. Kate Middleton might take reassurance from Katherine Parr. She was also miscast as something of a mannequin – the dull Tudor wife, dutiful, respectable and the perfect nursemaid to her ailing husband. But time has shown us that Katherine Parr was nothing like her public image, indeed she was clever enough to understand that as queen consort to a notoriously difficult king, it was all important to give the outward impression of perfection but as an intelligent woman it is more than likely she too understood that this public persona had nothing to do with her as a private person. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Subscribe to Elizabeth's quarterly newsletter below:

    Tweets by @LizFremantle

    Archives

    June 2018
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Categories

    All
    Bolsover Castle
    Charles I
    David Tennant
    Elizabethan
    Elizabeth Fremantle
    Elizabeth I
    English Heritage
    Jojo Moyes
    Lady Jane Grey
    Lady Mary Grey
    Levina Teerlinc
    Miniatures
    Nicholas Hilliard
    Queen's Gambit
    Richard II
    Richard III
    RSC
    Sarah Dunant
    Shakespeare
    Sisters Of Treason
    The Essex Rebellion
    Tudor
    William Cavendish
    Wolf Hall

    RSS Feed