Yesterday, when I was in The Hague I followed a discussion on Twitter on my phone, that somewhat surprised me. Longtime fans of Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge, seem to have turned to Meghan Markle, and it clearly is hardly allowed to like both of them. It shouldn’t really have surprised me.
In the early 20th century, when I was closely following the blossoming relationship between Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson it was already pretty clear. You either had to like her or to hate her. It almost seemed to be impossible to be the objective person in the middle, that could both like her and critisize her. It got even worse after they got married.
The Internet culture since has changed, there is social media and there are blogs now, where in the times of Frederik and Mary we only had forums to discuss things. More than ever princesses, queens and other royals and nobles are being compared with each other. Especially when they somewhat look alike or (almost) wear the same clothes. British online newspapers seem to be very good at this game. Since Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge, has arrived as the wife of the British Prince William, she has practically been compared to almost all other known European royals, which can be very irritating.
It is clearly impossible according to media that sisters-in-law get along, especially when one of them is the (future) crown princess. In recent years there have for example – according to the media – been clashes between Crown Princess Mary and Princess Marie of Denmark (even their names are similar), Princess Madeleine and Princess Sofia of Sweden and I am certain there are more examples. Like Diana, Princess of Wales and her sister-in-law Sarah, Duchess of York. Some of the reasons? Being jealous at the position of the other, the sister-in-law being not good enough for the family …
Now they turn to Catherine and her brand new sister-in-law Meghan Markle and it seems to have an immediate effect. I can understand that after seven years some fans have become a bit bored of Catherine and now finally have found a new object to admire, Meghan. What irritates the fans of Meghan, is that some of the fans of Catherine try to bash Meghan. She is an actress, already once divorced and older than her fiancé Prince Harry of Wales, and therefore not good enough to be a royal. The fans of Catherine on the other hand are irritated that people suddenly turn their backs to her and start following Meghan instead of Catherine.
But why do you have to like only one of them? There is nothing wrong with following more royals you like. If you have always liked Catherine, there is nothing wrong to keep on liking her, even when you like Meghan better now. There are more royals in the world than Catherine only, and you can like them all if you want. Accept that everybody always will have her or his own favourite(s). And there really is nothing wrong about that. However there is also is no need bashing others, just because they are not the one you like best.
I agree. We should be able to like both of them, or failing that, if you like one more than the other, there is no need to criticize the one you don’t like. I do like them both, and it will be fun to follow their lives as the years unfold. I think the two ladies will get along very well, and could well become friends. Right now Meghan is new, and more interesting to people because they don’t know much about her, and her royal life hasn’t really begun yet.
Thank you. Very well Said.
As someone who likes both of them, I totally agree with your last paragraph.
With that said, I do think you’re missing one element of the interaction between groups of fans: I haven’t seen Kate fans being annoyed by Kate being abandoned so much as being annoyed that long-time Kate-haters have been using Meghan as (yet another) stick to beat Kate with.
Of course, that brings up a bigger problem, that people on both sides are judging these two women based on the behaviour of their followers.
It is something I read somewhere on Twitter yesterday, but of course couldn’t find most of the discussion back today (I follow too many people). So I wrote it by memory.
I apologize. I should have written more clearly. I totally believe that there would be fans who are annoyed that other fans are abandoning Kate, though I haven’t seen it myself. I’ve just seen a *lot* of the Kate-hater bashing using Meghan.
Your analysis overall is spot on and I totally agree.
Whether I am thus far not a big fan of both (have seen too little of Meghan as a royal yet anyway to judge), I really don’t understand all this adore and hate thing, never have. You can critisize the person you like, and if you don’t like someone, you can still like something about this person.