Royalty: Hot and cold
I’ve been seeing items about the Société St‑Jean‑Baptiste (a nationalist organization with a very Catholic name in oh‑so‑secular Quebec, but let it pass) launching a petition to end the monarchy in Quebec (saw a tweet saying: “Nationalistes le matin: «Les Autochtones c’est fédéral. Pas notre responsabilité.» Nationalistes l’après-midi: «Abolissons la monarchie *au Québec*») and then look at the Journal to see crowing over how Queen Camilla is une Dion d’Amérique because she has an ancestor from New France – with a strong flavour of “gotcha!” about it.
Yesterday waiting for the cash in Jean‑Coutu I saw on the rack of vedette magazines more items about Prince Harry and other members of the royal family than about Quebec or U.S. stars. But that’s not surprising – for years I’ve noticed on the covers of Paris Match, from staunchly republican France, a lot of coverage of royalty, not just the British ones, but monarchy and aristocracy from all over.
Basically, royalty are celebrities. They don’t have to do anything to sustain their fame, but then neither do the Kardashians.
Joey 19:28 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
The Kardashians do a TON to maintain their celebrity…
Blork 19:51 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
I have to admit I agree with Joey. Maintaining celebrity can be a lot of work. But it’s all shallow, meaningless, and self-serving work. Perhaps the line should be “They don’t have to do anything useful or meaningful” to sustain their fame…”
Kate 20:44 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
I don’t think we see how much the various royals do, in the UK, to be fair. In an ideal world we would not need charities, but we don’t live in that world, so we do need charities, and in the UK the royals do a lot to motivate people to do charitable work. Does it offset the deeply unequal society the existence of the monarchy tends to support? Doubtful. But it is work and does take effort.
JP 14:51 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
Your comment reminds me of the time Princess Anne stopped by the Santropol Roulant. I wasn’t volunteering the specific day she visited but I was a regular volunteer during that time and it was interesting to hear about. I’m not sure how (if at all) it helped though.
https://santropolroulant.org/en/2015/04/a-very-special-visit/
Kate 16:02 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
JP, I had no idea – I don’t remember seeing anything about that visit in the media. Thanks for the link.
I suppose even if Anne did not offer any material support, her visit could have provided encouragement and moral support. That’s probably the major thing they do.