Harriet Jean Evans takes a look at the social commentary of the past, and explains why she believes it just doesn't matter.
Our anonymous blogger reflects on her attempts to have a student Christmas... and how she came to the conclusion that home-made is always best.
Gillian Love urges you to vote 'No' to the motion to replace Women's Committee with a 'Gender Equality Committee'.
And how could you not, with the ridiculous amount of advertising, merchandise, TV programmes and newspaper coverage? And the media hasn't just been harping on about Catherine and Prince William's big day, but every Royal Wedding since the Victorian's it seems. I can't help but imagine how terrifying it has all been for the latest Royal bride - not only having made one of the most important decisions of her life, but having done it with the whole weight of British Royal history on her shoulders. Not to mention the horrible (in my opinion) prospect of seeing her face absolutely everywhere (flags, mugs, certain people's hats...).
So now, thank God, it's all over right?
Of course it isn't. You could hardly avoid it yesterday with repeats all afternoon and 'highlights' in the evening... and I couldn't help but think that surely it was getting a tad excessive.
But we're obsessed. As a nation. As individuals. We're obsessed with the fairytale of love and princesses and living happily ever after. But our obsession is complicated. As children we're fed 'Disnified' fairytales of princes and princesses and true love coming through against the odds. And it's nice. Every little girl, even the ones who spent most of their time dressing up as musketeers or Robin Hood or playing gladiators (I was a strange child), entertained the possibility of finding that prince who would make everything make sense.
But as we get older, we realise that this often does not relate to the real world. In a world filled with adult cynicism, rent that needs to be paid, work that has to be stressed over and cocktails that have to be drunk to force us how to relax, there is no room for such a fairytale. And so we regard the story with suspicion. It is subversive to our adult lives to hold on to such dreams: stops us from being a 'modern woman' rather than a 1950s drip with no backbone, right?
Well, in my opinion, marriage is the legacy of this fairytale story. And weddings the greatest offerings we can make to the dream. Marriage is the one of the most amazing things you can do - and if you're with me in thinking marriages are for life, to agree to marry someone is one of the greatest leaps of faith you can make. You have to trust your partner completely. A pre-nuptial agreement destroys this fairytale - maybe as we lose the faith in our childhood dreams of true love, our faith in marriage also fades. Because there is something terrifying about marriage. Faith, trust, belief... these are some of the hardest things to master in life; couple that with the idea of putting at least half of your happiness in someone else's hands and you have a recipe for potential meltdown.
But however wary we might be about marriage, we are even more suspicious of weddings. While most people know marriage (even if you are marrying your prince) is about sacrifice and compromise (Cinderella simply must stop those damn mice leaving droppings all over the Royal chambers), there is an irrepressible sense of hope about weddings. It is as though, for one day at least, love really can triumph over the odds.
I'm going to be honest, when I saw the Duchess of Cambridge walk down the aisle yesterday my first thought was of how beautiful she looked. And how much, despite hating the phrase, she looked like a princess.
You must log in to submit a comment.
