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the popular imagination's comically extreme evolution on the subject of prince w
I've been seeing the backlash over the British royals' visit to Jamaica (I've been seeing Twitter and Tumblr threads, but here's a Guardian article) and this reminds me of some other stuff I saw on Twitter recently: there was some kind of controversy (?) in Britain about something Prince William and some friend said/did recently and then there was some kind of explainer thread referring to 'rumors' and 'secret royal sources' etc to summarize that this other wealthy couple were Kate and William's best friends and neighbors at their rural primary residence but it apparently turned out that William was having an affair with the woman and Kate was demanding complete separation from the couple (understandably) and it was all extremely sordid and soap opera. This current story, which I think could be summarized in progressive Twitter opinion as "Why Did They Think This Was a Good Look?!", isn't even the first recent example of revelations of complete Yikes about Prince William, though, even aside from the whole racism!! thing connected to the schism with Harry and Meghan.
But anyway, my point is that from where I'm sitting, it seems like my generation of the North American Anglophone world has undergone a comically extreme evolution on the subject of Prince William.
The first time I remember being aware of the existence of William and Harry was when I was in middle school, 14-15ish?, and he was a reasonably popular celebrity Hot Guy to the middle class and nerdy American white girls of my acquaintance. There were posters of William (less frequently Harry) and pictures occasionally alongside boyband-type pinups and there were occasional conversations amounting to everyone agreeing on him being hotter than Harry. When I was in high school and later, the modern versions of romance-with-a-prince fiction started to be based on him; there were definitely some YA romances that were just rpf with self-insert ocs with the names changed. And as I moved through my 20s, the Romance With Royal Prince AU became increasingly popular as a type of fanfiction. Of course, because it's slash, these dealt with the idea of a royal coming out as gay as a major plotpoint, but most of the time the stories and plots were still clearly an evolution of the self-insert-with-prince-William idea, with a trope-laden, recognizably Romance Genre Heroine viewpoint character who was usually reasonably transparent.
But NOW this cultural narrative template has transformed into the middle class girl-next-door stuck in a permanent straightjacket of Jackie O-pastels and perfectly coiffed unthreatening feminine hair and makeup with a not-so-dreamy-anymore spineless git who is secretly mean to her and deliberately had an affair with her best friend, and BOTH of them are racist enough to cut off his brother over it?!
The positive PR that the royals (and unfortunately the concept of monarchy) received from the photogenicness of young Harry and William has sure gone places. Since I find celebrity gossip annoying on the whole and am philosophically opposed to monarchies in principle, my observation of these trends was usually tinged with impatience, but I have to admit that in recent years the turn towards anti-monarchism has livened it up. I do enjoy seeing that with mild glee, although not enough to seek out more of it than inevitably crosses my path anyway.
Obviously breakup fic is never going to reach huge status in slash fanfiction because romance drives the fannishness of the relationships, but it is really funny to think about the wavy fanfic mirrors of Prince William also turning out to be a combination of cruel and pathetic, cheating on the fairytale gay princess characters while suddenly looking haplessly terrible in every possible PR framing.
But anyway, my point is that from where I'm sitting, it seems like my generation of the North American Anglophone world has undergone a comically extreme evolution on the subject of Prince William.
The first time I remember being aware of the existence of William and Harry was when I was in middle school, 14-15ish?, and he was a reasonably popular celebrity Hot Guy to the middle class and nerdy American white girls of my acquaintance. There were posters of William (less frequently Harry) and pictures occasionally alongside boyband-type pinups and there were occasional conversations amounting to everyone agreeing on him being hotter than Harry. When I was in high school and later, the modern versions of romance-with-a-prince fiction started to be based on him; there were definitely some YA romances that were just rpf with self-insert ocs with the names changed. And as I moved through my 20s, the Romance With Royal Prince AU became increasingly popular as a type of fanfiction. Of course, because it's slash, these dealt with the idea of a royal coming out as gay as a major plotpoint, but most of the time the stories and plots were still clearly an evolution of the self-insert-with-prince-William idea, with a trope-laden, recognizably Romance Genre Heroine viewpoint character who was usually reasonably transparent.
But NOW this cultural narrative template has transformed into the middle class girl-next-door stuck in a permanent straightjacket of Jackie O-pastels and perfectly coiffed unthreatening feminine hair and makeup with a not-so-dreamy-anymore spineless git who is secretly mean to her and deliberately had an affair with her best friend, and BOTH of them are racist enough to cut off his brother over it?!
The positive PR that the royals (and unfortunately the concept of monarchy) received from the photogenicness of young Harry and William has sure gone places. Since I find celebrity gossip annoying on the whole and am philosophically opposed to monarchies in principle, my observation of these trends was usually tinged with impatience, but I have to admit that in recent years the turn towards anti-monarchism has livened it up. I do enjoy seeing that with mild glee, although not enough to seek out more of it than inevitably crosses my path anyway.
Obviously breakup fic is never going to reach huge status in slash fanfiction because romance drives the fannishness of the relationships, but it is really funny to think about the wavy fanfic mirrors of Prince William also turning out to be a combination of cruel and pathetic, cheating on the fairytale gay princess characters while suddenly looking haplessly terrible in every possible PR framing.