Word: diana
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...People's princess." "Queen of hearts." "Saint Diana." After the Aug. 31 death of Diana, Princess of Wales, overblown eulogies such as these dominated the senses. The shift in public opinion (or, in any case, media coverage of the public's opinion) was reminiscent of that surrounding President John F. Kennedy '40 after his death: post-assassination, it is said, he gained thousands more voters than he had when he was alive...
Among the culprits which supporters of Princess Diana pointed to after her death was the British royal family. This target made for interesting criticism in light of the fact that Princess Diana would have been a non-entity without the British royal family, whose trust and popularity she had abused and usurped. It is true that Diana was a popular princess, beloved by democratic masses the world over. But why exactly was Diana so popular--and can we reconcile such popularity with the proper role of the royal...
...Part of Diana's popularity lay in her representation of mediocrity--mediocrity put on a pedestal. Diana was a giggly high school dropout with no particular interests except for babies. Among the mediocre are many giggly high school dropouts who might relate to her. Diana's greatest excitement in life was meeting movie and rock stars: loving pop culture from the top down, just like the throngs who flock to movies and concerts would love to do. And when Diana's marriage failed, she spent a great deal of time talking about how ill-treated she was, just...
...case, most of Diana's popularity had nothing to do with anything that she did. Diana had rarity value: Great Britain had not had a Princess of Wales since Princess Mary of Teck married the future George V in 1893. Diana also had escapist value: Margaret Thatcher's early 1980s Britain was one of economic depression...
...Diana only became a so-called "social worker" after her marriage broke up, starting in the 1990s. Much of the reason for this change, it seems, came from her need for attention and revenge rather than for the particular cause or charity at hand. Today, one never hears that she manipulated the press in order to make herself look good at the expense of the royal family, and that she timed her appearances to coincide with and upstage important events hosted by the other royals...