Princesses,Popstars and The Rest Of Us Princess Mary Related

[aussiecro]

I went to the libary and found a book called Princesses & Pornstars as I was flicking through it and got to a section which is the topic heading and started to read but I really got intrested when Crown Princess Mary's name poped up in this chapter and Princess Diana was also mentioned along side her so I thought I would share this with all of you.

The Princesses:

Around four thousand Australian women auditioned for a place on the first series of the execrable reality tv show Australian Princess. Despite the intense bagging the show recived, channel 10 comissioned a second series, for which even more women turned out to audtion. Australian Princess followed cringe worthy footsteps of cinderella tv classics such as extreme makeover, the swan in which women were subjected to cosmetic surgery and bullying from various experts until their perceived imperfections had been eliminated. The Bachelor and Joe Millionaire in which a harem of pretty young women competed for the honour of being choosen by a single man.

The specifics of Australian Princess are that a team of international experts in etiquette and royal pursuits led by the former royal butler Paul Burrell the man princess Di described as her rock and who repaid her trust and devotion by writing a gossipy book about her. will teach average girls all the skills required in order to fit into proper society.

Maybe mary isn't a the role model she thiink she is after you people read this

[aussiecro]

Putting aside the question of whether anyone thinks that inbreeding,obscene wealth an obsession with hats and table manners constitute proper society why on earth would anyone want to be part of that society? Along with the royal title come a lifetime of sacrifice and reduction in personal autonomy. Princess Mary of Denmark for example had to lose weight,take deportment and elocution lessions and have media training. She also converted to the Lutheran faith, relinquished her nationality and agreeded to surrender custody of any future children in the case of divorce.

All this makes Mary a perfect fit for the cult of the princess. Transformation, rather then the women herself is at the heart of the story. The agents of transformation, wheather fairy godmothers or elocution choaches, are the ones driving the action. Before she has even married her prince, the princess has abdicated responsiblity for herself.

So what is the writer trying to say here about mary or any of the other young royal women?

She wears what she is told and imitates her mentors in speech and behaviour. And although the story ends with the princess triumphantly rolling man putty in her french manicured hands her power is as ephemeral as a pumpkin coach. It has been granted by others and can be taken away by same. The life, death and afterlife of princess diana demonstrates how this works. With the assistence of expensive stylists, royal advisors and the media the pretty 19 year with a shy smile became a glamourous and adored princess. A decade later the royal family and media withdrew their support and the tiara was promply plucked from her no longer royal head.

[aussiecro]

Once they'd found the princess was falliable and the disapointment of the masses had faded, the elements that turned the media against her became what the public valued most. Her bulimia, low self esteem, ill fated affairs with unsuitable men and her struggle for independence resonated with many women. The fact she had gone through so many ordinary traumas and come out the other side stronger and more confident made her a realiastic role model for ordinary women which is something a princess could never be.

So is poor mary an unrealistic role model for young women?

Then just as diana seemed to have broken free of her role as princess she died and was reclaimed by the royals. Prince Charles collected her body from Paris and escorted it to London, and her funeral cortege was followed by windsor men while her sisters and mother waited in the church. The media largely supported the post mortem rehabilitation of princess di and those who had in life taunted and hounded her spoke of her with respect and admiration. With Prime Minster Tony Blair's use of the phase the people's princess the reverse was complete: Diana was the perefect princess once more . Her second coronation had little to do with her as a person as the first.

[aussiecro]

None of the aussie princess entrants is ever going to join the ranks of royalty and so the trials of literal princesshood are not an issue. In fact aside from the title and a couple of cameos by minor euro royals australian princess is a decidely un regal affair. The wannabe princesses of season one knew nothing of royality beyound poor diana sexy william and our mary. They had not heard of Sharh Ferguson and stuggled to identify a photograph of the Queen Mother. They complained constantly about etiqutte training although with lessons such as how to eat a banana politely use a knife and fork so as not to look like a pornstar, who can blame them and they expressed fraustration with the heels, pantyhose and the make up they wore forced to wear. The prospect of a trip to england was exciting the promise  of dancing with an acutal prince left them cold. All wanted to desparetly to win the title of australian princess but none wanted to do anything that a real princess might.

[aussiecro]

The solution to this seeming paradox is that for the contestants the role of princess is a life choice not a job description. Witness season two contestant Leanne Churchhill who undermines the whole premise of the show by declaring that every girl is a princess! or fellow princess in training Stephanie Jenkinson who says that everyone qualifies to be a princess. This is apparently true host jackie O best known as one half of a prank calling top 40 radio show is according to the show's promo material a media princess.

So what are these young women trying to say about the how to define the word princess and how we view people who are labeled this only becouse there famous?

The belief that every women is a princess if she says she is goes far beyond tv land. She's my little princess a father says even though he would never dream of sending is daughter to deportment lessons. He makes me feel like a princess a young women may say of her lover but she means that he spoils her with foot messages not that he insists she take a fertility test before he will marry her. I felt like a princess a teenager tells a reporter for the Age referring to her debutante ball. T shirts bearing slogans such as  Bow To The Princess and It's Not Easy Being  A Princess are a common sight on campuses and in shopping centeres and gold painted tin tiaras adorned with coloured glass jewels are popular evening accessories,

[aussiecro]

To the modern girl being a princess is about being pretty, pampered and protected. My boyfreind treats me like a princess says a 20 year old student of mine who like her freinds is always immaculately made up and expensively dresses I asked her to elaborate.

He buys me little presents when we go out. He paid my car registration for me. Only becouse you spend the rego money on shoes her freind interjects. Does this sound like mary my boyfreind pays for everything but I have a a cred card det bill I can't pay off becouse I am never at work and I act like a golddigger. He pretended to be annoyed says a suburban princess but I know he liked doing it. He likes taking care of he. Yeah sweetheat he sound like he acts more liike your pimp then your boyfreind. With this boast my student demonstrated what lies beneath the phenomenon of princess culture. A princess wants or belives she needs a man to protect her not necessarily from physical harm but from hard work, drudgrey and responsiblity. Sounds like mary does it?

[aussiecro]

As with  most cultural infections, princesshood starts young . So basically us girls are brainwashed. Check  out the toy section of any department store you will find aisles swathed and merchandised in princess pink. The bulk of the items for sale will most likely be from disney's princess range which in keeping with the every girl is a princess trope includes such non regal heroines as Mulan and Pocahontas. The Mulan princess doll smilingwears the the movement restricted kimona hated and joyfully discared by the non princess heroine of the movie. And for when a girl outgrows dolls and is ready to marry her prince and set up castle for herself disney has released a collection of bridal gowns inspired by cinderella, sleeping beauty,snow white etc.

Being a self described princess is cute in a 4 year old, irritating in an older kid and creepy in an adult women. This is not simply a matter of taste it's not that I have an aversion to pink satin and want to ensure no women ever wears it again. Princess culture is disturbing becouse of what it does to girls and women who are seduced by the promise of a happy ever after result as long as they follow the rules.

So what rules is princess mary following if she is following any at all? And what rules has she broken?


The rules are easy to figure out read any glossy women's mag or watch sex in the city or desparate housewives or anything from the cinderella tv genre. If you want to be a princess  says jean broke smith australian princess etiqutte expert the most important thing is that your on duty from the momment you get up in the morning. You need to be in control at all times...

[aussiecro]

Control means speaking quietly and only after first mentally rehaearsing your words. Yeah mary has tryed this and carp came out of her mouth. It means cutting out your own tougue rather than becoming argumentaive or passinate. So basially you want to have a princesss or us women to act like robots. It means accepting that it is more important to make others comfortable than to make them think or understand well jean maybe you can take mary under your wind becouse she hasn't made the grade with this. And after you have wrestled your personality into submission it means a lifetime of obsessing over surface and detail. Yeah mary is good at this becouse that all there is to her. An elegant bag, unique vase or lightly perfumed hand written thank you note will create te illusion that you are an indiviual with ideas of your own. How can any princess have ideas of there own when they can't be passinote and arugumentive and don't have a personalty man this women needs to shut the fuck up hyocrite and two faced.

[Princess Nobody]

interesting read!!!To become a princess u kill what u r inorder to become something u r not!!!

[aussiecro]

 Commenting on the upswing in popularity of deb balls in asutralia monash uni leslie connold told the age there is perhaps a sense amoung young women that by doing it properly and by that I mean traditionally it samehow immunises them against divorce. And in the end that what's is really awful about modern princesshood. Even if a girl does everything properly even if she succeeds in her quest unlikely given the dullness that must be endured and the dearth of unattached princes she can't be anything but disapointed. In princessland nothing that binds or rips apart real reationships exists. There is no politics or religion or family no housework or illness or grief. It is a world where love sex and marrige have no context no real meaning and a fairytale wedding hearlds the end.

So Finally my fiarytale has came to and end I hope you enjoy reading this and have samething to add to it but what is the writer trying to get at by pointing this out to us young ladies that being a princess isn't that great. and weather it be mary or diana etc that these women aren't not to be looked up to in terms of finding happiness in the future.

[jusaca]

Putting aside the question of whether anyone thinks that inbreeding,obscene wealth an obsession with hats and table manners constitute proper society why on earth would anyone want to be part of that society? Along with the royal title come a lifetime of sacrifice and reduction in personal autonomy. Princess Mary of Denmark for example had to lose weight,take deportment and elocution lessions and have media training. She also converted to the Lutheran faith, relinquished her nationality and agreeded to surrender custody of any future children in the case of divorce.

No criticism of you at all Aussiecro -  I love your posts.  But seriously, Mary was never put through self-sacrifice for the greater good. 

Mary was a lower middle-class girl (and there is nothing wrong with that) who 'got lucky'.  She met a boozed-up royal in a pub and had the skills to hang onto him.  She then had one hell of a job redesigning her social mores to fit the society she was aiming to find a life in.  She hasn't been 100% successful - her core manners are pretty rough even today.  Her accent is embarrassingly dubious.  And her arrogance highlights her bogan background. 

[aussiecro]

here is the next section and this time it's called

The Popstars:

The fascination with princesses is not new: before Diana and Mary the women's magazines were obsessed by Grace,Stephanie,Caroline and Margaret. The desire to be a princess, to take on that ultra feminine role of the pampered and protected, is ever older,which is what makes the current cult so frustrating. Shouldn't we be over this by now?
Sadly, the princess thing is part of a larger popular culture trend towards old fashioned gender role pigeoningholing disguised as sassy female empowerment. It seems that more that women infiltrate the professional and political realms and the better that girls perform in school and university the more retrograde that pop culture representations of women become. Back in the mid 1990s a time which now appears progressive I was a middle class suburban adolescent in trall like every other girl I knew to angsty would be alternative singer Alanis Morissette. We knew every word of every song on Jagged Little Pill and we sang or yelled along with all our teenaged passion. When Morissette wailed you took me out to wine,dine and sixty nine me but didn't hear a damn world I said, we knew her anger was rightous and that it was ours. I guess when I was growing up in the same era as the writer and being a teen I was more like to listen to backstreet boys, nsync, green day basically go into melt down mode every time leo dicaprio was mentioned and and broke down in despair when curt cobain was found dead from nirvana and didn't really listen to a lot of female singers until brittney and christina A and Destiny's Child came onto the scene.

[DowntownTO]

I see Paul Burrell is involved in this  . Can't he find a nice comfortable sewer somewhere and stay in it?

[aussiecro]

A couple of years after earlier Salt & Pepa None Of Your Bussiness was an anthem amoungst the nice girls I knew How many rules am I to break  before you understand that your double standards don't  mean shit to me? we shouted and we meant it even though we didn't always live it. We rebelling in a time honoured way through the safety of pop music. Although it is clear now that we were singing of our ownership of our bodies and lives, we didn't consider these songs feminist or empowering they simply spoke to us. Indeed if one wanted feminst music there was plenty of it out there around in the 90s but not in my world, not in a world of school disco's DJs saterday morning video hits and commerical FM radio.

Today feminist music is practically a genre in itself but none of it seems to have crept into the mainstream. Many teen girls listen only to top 40 tunes, like those of the black eyed peas whose My Lumps celebrates a women's ablity to extort money from using  men her lovely lady lumps does this sound like mary she must have used samething to have lured fred into her trap, or the pussycat dolls whose Don't Cha contains the line Don't wish your girlfreind was hot like me. These songs happen to be top of the charts as I write, but I could have picked almost any hit by a female singer from any mainstream music chart of the last few years and found similar sentiments. Such songs are needless to say often accompanied by video clips that can only be described as soft porn.

[aussiecro]

It may not be apprant how explict lyrics, coupled with groin grinding dance moves by women in there underwear, could be considered conservative, but look a little deeper and it becomes clear that the gender politics are circa 1950. Maybe this is the reason behind why mary dresses like a old granny in her clothing.

The pussycat dolls have a cinderella tv show of there own pussycat dolls presents: the search for the next doll this show did last very long, described by the producer as empowering and part of third wave of feminism. The group's founder echoes the every girl is a princess sentiment saying that getting up there and dressing like a doll is something that inside every girl in the world wants to do sounds like mary again to be a great princess just dress up in clothes and people will love you.

Today's mainstream pop acts reveal a serious confusion. The abilities and competence of women are acknowledged by there presence centre stage, but there authority is undermined by the sheer submissiveness of there lyrics. The oiled up, pelvis trusting, money extorting music video ho is the idealogical twin of the tea making polite small talking pink chanel suit wearing modern day princess


so what do the royal dishers think about this can you see mary in the popstar