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Once upon a time there lived a band of women’s magazine editors, who ruled the media empire with their weekly chronicles of gossip and slander. One day, a fair young maiden named Catherine appeared in their midst – for she was courting the handsome Prince William. In November 2010, a royal announcement was proclaimed across the lands – the fair young maiden and the handsome prince were to be married! The women’s magazine editors were scandalised, for the fair young maiden was a mere commoner – how could she marry the prince? They decided to become the fair young maiden’s fairy godmothers, determined as they were to turn her into a true princess. SIOBHAN DOWNES tracks the coverage of Kate Middleton in the media, and discusses the problem with fairytales.
We all know the story of Cinderella. A beautiful girl is forced to be a servant to her evil stepmother and ugly stepsisters, but one night her fairy godmother appears and she gets to go to the ball and marry Prince Charming. Yes, Kate Middleton is also beautiful, with her glossy hair and perfect teeth, and sure, she’s a commoner – her parents own a mail-order party supplies business. She has siblings, too. The big giveaway connection is that she has clinched herself a prince. But the similarities more or less end there. Cinderella didn't have a university degree. She didn’t have other boyfriends before she met Prince Charming. She didn't have a career, she didn't get to go travelling or partying (except for that one time at the ball, I guess), she didn't get to enjoy the life that most 21st century women are entitled to. We live in a very different world to that of Cinderella. But the media insists on painting Kate Middleton as Cinderella, living the classic Cinderella story, complete with the fairytale happy ending.

 
The media have demonstrated what is known as the Cinderella Complex in their reporting about Kate Middleton. The term “Cinderella Complex” was coined by psychotherapist and writer Colette Dowling, who wrote that women are unconsciously afraid of independence and need to be “rescued” by a “Prince Charming”. In other words, we want to live the life of a fairytale. With the Royal Wedding, the media has catapulted us back to an era of traditional values found in fairytales, where a woman’s sole destiny is to love, honour and obey her husband. It is suggested that rather than having dreams of ambitious careers and independence, women have only one dream; to be married.

 
According to New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, this dream starts from childhood. Childhood is when we are first spoon-fed the fairytale ideals of man and wife – princesses have their princes, just like Barbie has her Ken. In February, Woman’s Weekly reported that becoming a princess had always been Kate Middleton’s dream. “As a child, Kate always wanted to marry a prince. ‘It just shows that dreams can come true,’ says her old friend Jessica Hay. ‘She’s going to be a princess.’” A British tabloid wrote how Kate had been in love with Prince William before they even met. “She had a schoolgirl crush on the Prince and was dubbed ‘Princess-in-Waiting’ for having a poster of him in his polo gear on her wall.” Kate and William dated for eight years, during which time Kate was dubbed “Waity Katie” by the media, supposedly signaling her determination to nab that 18-carat sapphire-and-diamond rock – I mean, marry her beloved prince. The media has further emphasised the fairytale quality of Kate’s royal engagement by sharing with the world the fact that her parents were once both working-class flight attendants, in their quest to provide the perfect rags-to-riches Cinderella story. They carefully neglect to mention that Mr. and Mrs. Middleton later became self-made millionaires with their own business. The important thing is that, like Cinderella, Kate Middleton had a dream, and dreams come true. Like Kate, you too can claw your way up the social chain, get your prince, and be free to live out the rest of your days sitting safe and smug in a stately home.
 

In fairytales, in order to achieve your lifelong dream of becoming a princess, you have to change your appearance so that the prince will love you. Why else would Cinderella need her fairy godmother to transform her old servant clothes into a totally babin’ gown? Kate Middleton, too, could not escape her looks coming under scrutiny, as the media worked to transform her into their ideal fairytale princess. Wrote one disappointed blogger in January 2011, “when we think of royal women we picture long, ladylike coats, fancy hats, and elegant cocktail dresses. What we don’t conjure up: jeans, miniskirts, leather jackets and sheer tops.” As the date of the Royal Wedding drew closer, however, Kate suddenly became a style icon – as if a fairy godmother had waved her magic wand. Journalists traipsed the United Kingdom, trying to hunt down Kate’s wedding dress, to no avail. “Secrecy Surrounds Kate Middleton’s Dress”, lamented the headlines. Not even Julian Assange was going to WikiLeak that dress. So the media worked with what they had, analysing every outfit that the princess-to-be had ever worn. Quoted Woman’s Weekly the week before the wedding, “’Her style is definitely evolving,’ says celebrity stylist Camilla Ridley-Day. ‘She is dressing rather more formally, as befits a royal bride.’” There is one new requirement for the physical appearance of the modern fairytale princess, however – 21st century Cinderella has to be sexy. Reported Woman’s Weekly, “‘[Kate] is positively glowing with good health and happiness,’ said one royal watcher. ‘And she looks smoking hot in a bikini’.”
 

Princesses in fairytales are also graceful and charming, and are usually friends with small and cute animals. In the week before the wedding, the Woman’s Weekly proudly wrote about Kate Middleton’s developing “regal etiquette”: “Polished to perfection, a new Kate Middleton is emerging as her wedding day draws near,” they boasted, “it seemed some serious work had gone on behind the scenes to transform the princess-to-be.” They got an expert in to analyse Kate’s body language, “’There is a definite change in the way Kate is carrying herself, which would imply instruction,’ says body language expert Judi James. ‘She appears choreographed. Her head is held much higher and her shoulders have dropped, suggesting she’s been told to stand straighter.’” All fairytale heroines must undergo some kind of transformation to become princesses – and Kate Middleton is no exception. Even the Queen is said to have played a part in Kate’s princess makeover, encouraging her to become involved with an animal rights charity to complete the Disney image. What the Queen and recent media conveniently ignored was the fact that back in 2007, PETA slammed the princess-to-be, when she was spotted deer hunting with the rest of the royal family. You read it here first: it was Cinderella who shot Bambi’s mum.
 

What fairytales tend to leave out is what happens after that fairytale kiss. We watch Cinderella and Prince Charming ride off into the sunset in ambiguous marital bliss, and the happy ending is kept G-rated. But with Kate Middleton’s ‘modern’ Cinderella story, the media want the more intimate details. They don’t just want the fairytale wedding and fairytale princess; they want the fairytale wedding night, ending in the fairytale conception of a fairytale heir to the throne. As early as January, the Woman’s Weekly was speculating on Kate’s reproductive capability. “Unlike many brides who embark on strict diets so they’ll look good in their wedding dress, slim Kate Middleton has no need to lose any weight. But she may be only eating certain foods for another reason – so that when the time comes to get pregnant, she’ll be able to provide her royal in-laws with an heir to the throne.” The current British law states that any male royal heirs have precedence over females to the throne, so the pressure is on for Kate to bear a son. The Woman’s Weekly had some helpful tips for Kate: “There are many theories on how to influence the sex of your unborn child, and limiting your diet to particular foods is a very popular method. In one study, scientists at Oxford University found that the more calories women eat, the more likely they are to conceive a boy.”
 

The completely ironic thing is that the media seem to have truly convinced themselves that the story of Kate Middleton is a 21st century fairytale, for all women to aspire to. In actual fact, their “fairytale” Royal Wedding reports have taken feminist progress back about two hundred years. What do fairytales teach us, anyway? Princesses need rescuing by a prince. Princesses are obsessed with getting married. Princesses need to be beautiful to be married. Princesses shouldn’t have sex; they are only allowed to kiss their one true love. But if they do have sex, they’d better use it as an opportunity to produce a male heir to the throne. According to the media, princesses should be perfection. Give Kate a break – no woman could possibly live up to that. This is the real world, there are no fairy godmothers, and there is no such thing as a “perfect princess”. And hey - even Cinderella was a badass and broke her curfew.