The coronation of King Charles III is happening tomorrow, which is similar to a bar mitzvah ceremony in terms of its regnal significance. Although Charles became king automatically when his mother passed away last year, people are still excited about the public event.
In London, things are already feeling a bit overwrought. The streets and stations in the center of town are full of signs warning people that “a major event” will cause traffic jams and road closures. Yesterday, a friend messaged me to ask why so many helicopters were circling around the neighborhood where the Times has its London bureau. It turned out to be security for a pre-coronation appearance by William and Kate, respectively the Prince and Princess of Wales, who dropped by a pub for a carefully orchestrated and highly secure “casual” photo op.
I found myself instinctively parsing their outfits, which made them look as if they had dressed for slightly different events: William was tieless and open-collared, while Kate, in a long red coat accessorized with white stiletto pumps and a white-leather frame handbag, looked like she was headed to a daytime wedding.
However, the monarchy in this country seems like a cruel institution to the people caught up in it, and Kate’s clothing has always seemed symbolic of the ways her marriage has restricted her life. Hilary Mantel’s 2013 essay in the London Review of Books offers an insightful description of how the royal family generally, and its female members particularly, are treated as objects for public consumption rather than human beings.
Mantel wrote, “I saw Kate becoming a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung. In those days she was a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore.” Mantel ended with a call for mercy, begging the press and public not to be “brutes” to Kate as they had been to other royal ladies in the past.
The British tabloid press decried this description as misogyny, but Mantel’s essay offered more sympathy for the person under the clothes than any of the glossy magazine stories or tabloid coverage, because it considered the possibility that there might be a difference between the person she appeared to be and the person she wanted to be, or actually was.
Lately, I’ve also been reading “Traitor King: The…
2023-05-05 12:05:56
Original from www.nytimes.com