I don’t get America’s infatuation with royalty. The royal wedding was a couple of weeks ago and news on every channel was clogged with coverage of something more inane than live poker on TV. I find English royalty completely irrelevant and honestly contrary to who we are as Americans. Really? Princes and princesses in the 21st century? Queens with crowns and scepters? Throngs of media outside the “royal birth hospital,” waiting in giddy anticipation for the revealing of the baby-name honoring some medieval monarch? But that’s important (to US)? The “royal” kid is in a long snaking chain of heirs to the English throne and has as much impact on America as my preferred brand of toilet paper.
I blame Disney. Every little girl in America has grown up with princesses and developed some kind of Cinderella syndrome at an early age, conditioned to believe that there is some evil wrongdoer in her life – typically an older woman – and that some prince in tights will sashay into her life, sweeping her off her feet to a life of luxury at a shiny palace.