Nothing like a good old royal twitter debate

I admit it.

There’s nothing I enjoy more than to get into a meaty discussion about royalty. Following twitter arguments where republicans go toe to toe with monarchists, journalists stirring the pot by bringing up divisive issues about royal privacy and whether Catherine Cambridge could should be doing more and then innocently denying the spoon in their hand.

Bring out the popcorn, I LOVE it.

Sometimes I wade into those arguments, which continue throughout the day until some exhausted person tweets ‘let’s agree to disagree’ and we all go back to our respective lives until the next divisive topic comes along. Because it is always fun to argue about something where our opinions have no effect whatsoever on the outcome!

In several cases I usually finding myself in the minority when expressing my viewpoints. Such was the case a few weeks back when Prince Carl Philip of Sweden became engaged to Sofia Hellqvist, who has a rather ‘colorful’ past. People argued how royal standards had lowered to the point where anyone could marry into the royal family regardless of how unsuitable we regarded them to be. How this type of stuff would harm the monarchy down the road. But some monarchies are fairly resilient. for instance, how many times have people claimed things would bring down the British monarchy, and yet they're still here?

Yes, I’m usually outnumbered. But dammit! Someone has to offer a counterpoint! I won’t discuss my views about William and Kate here because I’ve done that so many times in blog posts that I have nothing new to add. Twitter is a different story.

Back to Sofia Hellqvist and Prince Carl Philip. Yes she has a colorful past – posing nude as a teenager, amongst other damning things people do in their past and can do nothing to change now. But, to me, if the King and Queen are happy with Carl Philip’s choice then that’s what counts. Or at least it should. Look at Camilla and Charles. Disapproval galore but their PR campaign wore us down and 9 years later we can congratulate ourselves for forgetting everything that made her unsuitable to us in the first place.

The days when royalty was supposed to marry for only duty instead of happiness are fading. Many now marry for love. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But royalty is not supposed to be a life sentence of misery because no one approves of your choices. Plenty of people thought Kate Middleton was an inappropriate choice for Prince William because she is *gasp* (clutches pearls) a commoner! Some people still think she is an inappropriate choice. Should William have taken a poll about his choice of bride? Depends on who you ask.

People have very short memories. Forget the double standard about blood royal males misbehaving badly by having affairs. That’s OK. When it’s a woman, suddenly the future of the monarchy is in doubt. Why is that?

Discuss amongst yourselves on twitter, I’ll swing by later to join you.

Here’s my prediction, once Sofia Hellqvist appears in her elegant wedding dress donning a historic tiara and paying tribute to some obscure royal bride, people will forget. Suddenly she will magically transform into princess material and everything that made people question her suitability will be swept under a carpet - just like it was with Camilla.

Then we will have to find something new to argue debate about!

© Marilyn Braun 2014


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