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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   35340 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022

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So...the interminable Duchess Megan scandal is in the news again. It seems like with Charles becoming King and Harry soon to have a book out everyone is going back to their corners to relitigate this.

(For those of you who were complaining about frivolous Anglosphere topics : you're welcome :))

Last time I actually dug into this the conclusion I came to was that there was essentially a cultural clash between Hollywood and royal values. I similarly felt that the geographic divide in the reactions (Americans seeing her treatment as obviously racist, there being a more mixed British reaction) was a product of clashing ideas about work and just how awful life could be for a royal of any race (my take being that the Americans vastly underestimated the relevance of classism and foreign culture - since they tend to see this stuff through a mainly racial lens, other factors either merely being aggravating ones or just dogwhistles)

Recently, a new book based on the Courtier's perspective had excerpts published in the Times that go into more detail.. It had some interesting tidbits that were reported years ago.

The take of Palace courtiers is - unsurprisingly - that they tried to be accommodating but a combination of culture clashes made this impossible: Megan not respecting that the Palace staff had no interest in being called on late, Megan being directly hostile and rude, Megan simply not understanding how the Royal family worked (as that Palace Papers' excerpt puts it "she thought she had more seniority [than she did]").

However, relations between Meghan and the team at Kensington Palace were fraying fast ... a senior aide discreetly raised with the couple the difficulties caused by their treatment of staff. People needed to be treated well and with some understanding, even when they were not performing to Harry and Meghan’s standards, they suggested. Meghan was said to have replied, “It’s not my job to coddle people.”

...

At around the same time, Meghan spoke particularly harshly at a meeting to a young female member of the team in front of her colleagues. After Meghan had pulled to shreds a plan she had drawn up, the woman told Meghan how hard it would be to implement a new one. “Don’t worry,” Meghan told her. “If there was literally anyone else I could ask to do this, I would be asking them instead of you.”

Later, Prince William, who had heard of some of the treatment that she had been subjected to, came to find the woman. “I hope you’re OK,” he told her. “You’re doing a really good job.” She promptly burst into tears.

On another occasion, when Meghan felt she had been let down over an issue that was worrying her, she rang repeatedly when the staffer was out for dinner on a Friday night. “Every ten minutes, I had to go outside to be screamed at by her and Harry. It was, ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this. You’ve let me down. What were you thinking?’ It went on for a couple of hours.” The calls started again the next morning and continued “for days”, the staffer said. “You could not escape them. There were no lines or boundaries – it was last thing at night, first thing in the morning.”

...

On another occasion, there was confusion over the arrangements for a London engagement by the duchess. Meghan thought that no media would be there, but it was on a press rota. It was the sort of mishap that did not go down well. The member of staff involved knew they would have to talk to Meghan about it and was dreading the prospect. After they missed a call from her, they rang back, but she did not pick up. They said: “She hasn’t called back. I feel terrified.” A short time later, they added: “This is so ridiculous. I can’t stop shaking.”

The excerpts paint a picture of what is, essentially, a "girlboss". In multiple senses of the word . How you feel about Meghan shapes which girlboss you see. From what I've heard from pro-Meghan Americans keen on Royal gossip the Palace staff essentially come across as lazy and incapable of handling a driven woman who has strong expectations for the work ethic of her staff. To the people on the other side she comes across as a crass American determined to drive "her" workers into the ground in the name of her empowerment, incapable of adapting to a more traditional organization (one that has more...refined means of showing aggression*) - aka a "girlboss" in the pejorative sense.

Does this really come down to just a different work culture in the US vs UK? Cause, to be honest, my stereotype was that UK was basically European Canada on this: there are a few differences (and they never stop bragging about them where they feel they're ahead) but work culture and its expectations are much closer than with other states. The Palace staff sound positively French at some points of this! Is the Palace just some oasis sheltered from the rat race that envelopes other parts of Britain?

* I'm not convinced that the Palace considered her behavior immoral. At worst, it was probably considered...uncouth.

I continue to be baffled by people's interest in this family. Is it anything more than a British flavored Kardashian family? I understand the logic behind letting them keep their nice things after dissolving the monarchy but I can't fathom why I should care about them.

Ah that's right, the Kardashians, heirs to a thousand-year tradition and noble bloodline, models of discretion, and the ceremonial heart of a nation.

You're giving ugly credence to American stereotypes by equating a woman/family famous for a sex tape with actual royalty.

noble bloodline, models of discretion, and the ceremonial heart of a nation.

This is just so much PR noise to me. They were professionally born. They have done literally nothing to earn my respect.

You're giving ugly credence to American stereotypes by equating a woman/family famous for a sex tape with actual royalty.

Sneer if you want, the old gods are dead and worshiping them is as contemptable to me as the new gods. I'm not a fan of Musk worship either but at least he's doing something with his wealth. If the Royals all disappeared tomorrow what actual impact would that have on the world besides the secondary effects of their fans being upset? I don't hate them and don't wish them ill will but I cannot understand why rational people think they matter because some tiny fraction of their genetic ancestry was William the conqueror who took the throne by force combined with nearly random decisions about who counts as royal over the years.

If this is a uniquely American perspective than I don't think highly of the rest of the world.

Most cultures have semi-mythical ceremonial figurheads chosen through randomness to fulfill some role and say exactly what they're supposed to with little to no personality of their own.

In Nepal they have those pre-pubescent girls whose feet never touch the ground, in Sweden they have Greta, In America they have pageant girls and child celebrities, and in the UK they have the royals.

America has no such thing, at least not anymore.

The Royals are the embodiment of British identity. At home people can project on to them the essential British values they hold dear, and with other heads of state they can be the people's avatar.

The American President used to fulfill this role, but with fracturing American identity, the President is no longer is the embodiment of American identity. He can't be, what essential American values are left that he can stand for?

In America they have pageant girls and child celebrities

I take your point but I'm not sure the pageant girls and child celebrities as standins for royalty really fits. Pageant girls are very much not a national past time and child celebrities aren't really talked about much among adults. I'm not positive who I'd propose as alternatives, maybe sports stars, it might have been pastors/priests in the past.

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