Just two weeks ago at King Charles III coronation, The Princess of Wales was described as ‘perfection’. Despite Prince Harry’s claims that his sister-in-law isn’t a fan of sharing lip gloss, it was clear from media coverage and internet commentary that on the same day Charles got his crown, Kate became the real queen of our hearts.
Fast forward to this week, however and the Princess of Wales, Kate, is now being labelled “manipulative” for that very same appearance we praised her for. Her crime? Apparently, she made the entire ceremony about herself. Definitely nothing to do with the online commentary analysing everything from her eyeliner to her time keeping.
Like many famous women before her, Kate’s real offense was receiving too much positive feedback. So of course, her follow up surprise Eurovision performance had to be met with claims she faked her piano skills and tweets that, “She should stick to doing angry looking photos in posh carriages.” Clearly uninformed that women can have multiple talents and facial expressions.
Then there was The Little Mermaid controversy, because apparently it wasn’t enough for just Halle Bailey to shoulder all the online hate from Disney adults.
Page Six reported that the film contained “comparisons between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry” and claimed that one scene contained a direct dig at Kate.
We're so conditioned to see unwanted stares, catcalling and even assault as normal.
The scene in question is where Eric tries to guess Ariel’s name after she gave up her voice to that darn sea witch, Ursula. According to Page Six, his first guess was ‘Diana’, followed by ‘Katherine’ which apparently was received with disgust. Of course, the online narrative quickly spread, with everyone reporting the latest Kate ‘controversy’.
This anti-Kate online narrative continued, with another reference to Kate in new Amazon Prime spy-action series, Citadel, which despite being one of the most expensive TV series to ever make, is not immune to misogynistic scripting.
Throw in the fact that the actor who says the line, “You might as well have asked me how to get between the legs of the Duchess of Cambridge,” is Priyanka Chopra - one of Meghan Markle’s friends - and you have the perfect environment to once again pit two women against one another.
This repeat pattern of behaviour (that we’re all guilty of engaging in) happens whenever a female in the public eye receives too much positive attention. It’s like we feel the need to put them back in a box and remind them of who’s really in charge.
It’s a phenomenon that just doesn’t happen to male celebrities in the same way.
Taking the 'high road' can be perilous.
Hailey Bieber is another female celebrity we have built up to unobtainable levels. Copying everything from her nails to her makeup routine, only to label her a “mean girl” and declare her “icon era” over due to her alleged feud with Selena Gomez.
I don’t remember the same contempt for either Harry Styles or Zayn Malik after their fall out. We wouldn’t declare Harry “over” and justify hate towards him on behalf of Zayn.
These headlines clearly show we still live in a misogynist world, and I believe the reason we devour this kind of content is because these gender stereotypes have killed our own self-confidence.
As women we always worry about being too much. Men are assertive and confident, we’re bossy and aggressive. It’s this kind of language that stops us perusing our dream careers or speaking up in situations that make us uncomfortable for fear of being labelled ‘hysterical’.
Even if you somehow rally against these stereotypes, you’re continually met with the ‘Can women have it all?’ debate before you get too big for your boots.
That result of never being taught your own worth is that you, in turn, feel the need to suppress other women of theirs.
The problem is, it’s a cycle and as I’m writing this, Kate Middleton has seemingly been suitable chastised and is back in favour thanks to her pink dress and appearance at Chelsea Flower Show.
The reality is, I don’t have the answers. I can only encourage us to challenge our own behaviour and hope the algorithms follow suit.
