is this a new cultural (ie. daily mail) trend? this recent glut of Guys Who’ve Got To Get Married RIGHTNOW…
last week it was Guys Who’ve Got To Get Married RIGHTNOW… macaulay culkin edition. this week it’s Guys Who’ve Got To Get Married RIGHTNOW… prince harry. and yes, yes, i realize we probably need more than a pair to constitute a glut, but still. it’s weird. in the tabloid press, men aren’t usually portrayed this way and now we’ve two in quick succession.
so the press has been banging the drum of Harry Has to Marry for awhile now…
because the press has also been banging the drum of harry WANTS to get married…
and harry WANTS to have babies…
from the Sunday Mirror
a traditionally feminized narrative that it is rather beguiling to, at long last, see applied to a man, despite its still being deeply obnoxious.
so this has been going on for awhile, pretty much ever since the cambridges got married and harry gave some interviews wistfully reflecting that he would like to get married some day too.
but the march to westminster abbey seems to really have gained traction in the last few weeks.
primarily because cressida and harry have begun appearing in public more. not just sneaking to byron for burgers…
but actually going out in daylight and standing closer than ten feet apart…
summer 2013
march 2014
Getty, Karwai Tang / WireImage
progress!
in recent months, there’s been an inundation of details about harry and cressida seeping out. we’ve been told cressida is making harry wait to marry her (a stance that appears almost radically feminist compared to the ‘waity’ narrative of kate middleton). that harry’s totally crazy about her because she’s not pushy. that they text all of the time and- in what is maybe my favorite quote ever uttered about anyone of the royal family- ‘it is emoji central’.
we’ve heard that cressida and duchess kate ‘aren’t a natural fit’. OR that kate is secretly advising cressida and they’re becoming BFFs. BFFs or enemies… take your pick.
the one thing that hasn’t been reported is the thing that is perhaps most obvious: they have some terribly blabby ‘friends’.
were i asked to call this, i should think the details that most support the idea of an impending engagement- or, at least, details that support the idea that the relationship is rather serious- are the fact that (1) cressida has (reportedly) essentially moved into KP, but, more tellingly, (2) SHE HAS ABANDONED HER DREAMS.
dream abandonment seems to be step #1 in becoming a princess.
grace kelly
exhibit B:
or maybe that’s only a pre-requisite in monaco…
in particular, re-enforcing the idea of something more formalized between harry and cressida, there was a lot of talk about how the pair were going to be hosting an event at st. james together. (the news that they ultimately didn’t dropped with a gentler thud.)
and now we’ve got this:
a ‘wedding summit’. omg.
so i want to talk about two things… cressida and 1980/81.
first, cressida. who is she? well, actually, come to think of it, i don’t even care who she is. rather, i care about how she’s being portrayed. and she’s being portrayed like this:
a free-spirit who wears overalls and scrunchies and takes selfies on the beach.
mind you, it’s not that this image isn’t based in a reality, because she has obviously done all of those things. but it’s also an image that is being reenforced by the press in support of a narrative.
cressida is being positioned as the anti-you-know-who…
be real. who do you want to hang out with?
but lo! everything old is new again!
cressida is actually tight with the york girls…
an association that easily lends itself to this:
which, btw, have you ever noticed this?
connie britton stars in SHATTERED DREAMZ: the duchess fergie story, a lifetime original television event.
so there’s a precedent. and, if that precedent holds true, there will be a backlash. for it seems we can only stomach free spirits for so long…
second, 1980/81. remember that?
i don’t because i was an infant, but it looked a lot like this:
sound familiar? 
