Who is to blame for Kate's new bum rap?

Egads! Revealing photographs of Kate have been published - yet again!


In this case the photographs are from her recent tour of New Zealand/Australia showing her dress blown up by the wind showing her bottom in all its glory. This is not the first time her skirt has blown up revealing more than we needed to see, and I'm waging a guess that it won't be the last.


Now on to the crucial part: Who is to blame for all of this?


The royal watching twitterverse fired up with various explanations, scenarios, excuses, good reasons, bad reasons. The whole gamut of reactions covered. Bad article title puns (ahem), feminist rallying cries, heated exchanges and people unfollowed forever for expressing differing opinions! Stop the insanity! For the love of God it's a butt. WE ALL HAVE ONE!

So who gets the blame? Some blame the photographer - she shouldn't have taken such a prurient picture and then *gasp* sold it. Some blame the media, in this case, foreign publications which dared to publish those photos.

And most divisive of the arguments, some blamed Kate herself. As we have seen her skirt blow up before, the twitterverse offered commonsense tips for future reference: Kate should choose a different dress, put weights in the hems, wear longer skirts or trousers around helicopters.

However there was another side to those tweets blaming Kate. Some defended her, portraying her as the victim whose privacy had been invaded.  Other tweets had a disturbing 'she was asking for it,' tone. I don't think she is a victim but I don't think she helps herself in these situations either, especially when it has happened more than once. Regardless of what Kate was wearing, did those photos need to be taken? Did they need to be published? No. Is it a surprise that they were taken and published? Given the usual media coverage of Kate, no not really.

What is curious about this incident is people crying invasion of Kate's privacy. Not necessarily because of where she was, in a public place, performing royal duties. No, it was because we saw something we shouldn't have seen (If only we had looked away!)We all have a bottom but for some reason, Kate's is special and now in the public domain when it shouldn't be.

One party that seemed to be forgotten in the blame game. Us. Given how minutely her appearance is dissected, it is only natural that every aspect of her appearance would be seen as fair game. People who complain now that she is being objectified because of this appearance will be the same ones who objectify her over the color of her toe nails or a run in her pantyhose. Doing so feeds the interest and creates the demand for more. Even if it crosses a line we deem unacceptable.

I know where I place the blame for all of this. Do you?


© Marilyn Braun 2014
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