“Middleton, pictured with her perfect Barbie lavender biscuits. For commoners.”
Until 20 minutes ago, I had never heard of Hilary Mantel. So I did what I normally do in these cases and Googled her. After doing so, I didn’t recognize the names of any of her books, but apparently she’s won the Booker Prize twice, and that’s great! But what’s not so great are the comments she made about Kate Middleton recently.
It was during a lecture at the British Museum that Mantel decided to load on the hate commentary about Kate’s physical appearance — both her body and face. The following are some of the words she chose to use:
“Plastic”
“Machine-made” (In contrast to the late Princess Di, apparently.)
“Gloss varnished”
“Painfully thin … without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character.”
It’s hard to decide which insult I like the best! Some are boring, while others are very colorful! Oh, to choose, to choose! Are you leaning toward one more than the other?
Although her lecture was supposed to be about oppressive media coverage, and Royal Historian Kate Williams, has suggested these comments were taken out of context, it doesn’t really matter. What person runs around calling anyone those words? Especially a member of the royal family (as a Brit, Mantel should know her fellow Brits won’t stand for such slander), who’s probably as darling as they come? Even if Kate were a bitch, she still wouldn’t deserve such adjectives, but her overall niceness and her recent battle with severe morning-sickness make Mantel look like she’s a big fan of kicking puppies, and extra cuddly ones at that!
No matter what her intention for including these words in her lecture, she’s already pissed off the wrong people. Prime Minister David Cameron has said of Mantel’s speech that it was “completely misguided and completely wrong;” and the Daily Mail, since they always have a say in these matters, cited it “an astonishing and venomous attack”.
Body snarking — when will it ever stop?
Photo: WENN
