Laapataa lady: The world has gone bonkers over the ‘disappearance’ of Kate Middleton

Speculation about the 'missing' future queen of England tells us a lot about our obsession with curating the perfect image. Read on…

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Sunday, March 17, 2024
By Namita Bhandare

Speculation about the ‘missing’ future queen of England tells us a lot about our obsession with curating the perfect image. Read on…

     

The Big Story

Laapataa lady: The world has gone bonkers over the ‘disappearance’ of Kate Middleton

The pic that launched a thousand conspiracies

In a post AI world, rarely have images mattered as much as they do now. An innocuous-enough photograph of a mother and her three children has created a stir that is bouncing off our planet as if the first bugle of armageddon has been sounded.

Kate Middleton, on track to be the future queen of England, released a picture on Mother’s Day presumably with the intention to scotch rumours about her ‘disappearance’ from public view since Christmas last year. On January 17, official sources had informed the British public that she had undergone abdominal surgery that is not cancer-related and she wouldn’t be seen in public until after Easter.

That statement notwithstanding, there’s been a frenzy of conspiracy and other theories.

She’s dead (or in a coma).

She’s recovering from botched up plastic surgery.

She’s in a sulk over her husband’s ‘mistress’.

The Mother’s Day picture, reportedly taken by her husband William (who, unsurprisingly faced no flak from the fallout), was designed to put to rest these and other saner questions: Just where is Middleton? It has, in fact, had the opposite effect.

The culprit is the discovery of some what seems to be some pretty harmless tinkering, a daughter’s sweater sleeve, the position of a zipper, a blurry hand, which Middleton has belatedly admitted to. Except for one theory that her face itself has been superimposed from an earlier Vogue cover, nobody has so far suggested that Middleton’s image has been altered to make her look healthier or other than she really is.

Yet, major wire news services decided to ‘kill’ the image and asked clients to pull it down because it had been altered in violation of their ethical standards.

Picture perfect

Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani (Source: Hindustan Times)

More than anything else what ‘Kate-Gate’ tells us is the primacy of images in a world where news is now ‘content’ and words are increasingly being replaced by pictures.

There is nothing thoughtless or candid about these images. Whether we are consuming images of the British royal family, a naked John Cena presenting the Oscars for best costume design, airport sightings of immaculately dressed celebrities by paparazzi, or the wedding celebrations of the son of Asia’s richest man. What we see are pre-planned exercises crafted to project a certain image.

The picture of a mother surrounded by her happy, smiling children? Robust wholesomeness. A-list Bollywood stars and global industry leaders at the wedding celebrations of the son of Asia’s wealthiest individual? Glamour, power and unabashed excess. The curated photographs of family and hand-picked friends resulted in a flurry of coverage from every media outlet in India and also the more conservative Financial Times and The Economist.

The fact that we simply cannot get enough of either—too little of one and too much of the other—says something about us as a society, rivetted, entertained and distracted by what would be tabloid fodder but now makes mainstream headlines.

Perhaps the reality of our world is too much to bear. We are witnessing an ongoing genocide in Gaza where children subsist on animal feed or starve to death. Where gangs in Haiti led by a figure called Barbecue has erupted in violence. Where economic crisis in Nigeria has led to food looting. Where the war between Ukraine and Russia drags on. Where we must gloomily consider the prospect of Donald Trump coming back to power in a country where hard-won rights for abortion won half a century ago are under threat again.

But equally, the two moments tell us of the vulnerabilities and humanity of their subjects. Behind the picture-perfect images is a mother airbrushing her children’s images to their best advantage. Images of the world’s rich and beautiful celebrating an individual’s impending nuptials tells us that for all his wealth and influence, Asia’s richest man is not immune to being a film fan—like billions of others across the globe.

Eleonora of Toledo (Source: Wiki Commons)

In 1545, the artist Agnolo Bronzino completed a commissioned portrait of Eleonora di Toleda, a Spanish noblewoman who had married into the powerful Medici family. A fascinating April 2023 report in The Economist recounts how the portrait, which hangs in Pitti Palace in Florence built by her funds, conveys not just Medici wealth but the source of that wealth too. It was Eleonora who not only financed many of her husband’s political campaigns but stepped in as regent thrice while he was away.

She also apparently commissioned her own portrait to send out one simple message: She mattered.

In numbers

India stands at rank 108 out of 193 countries, an improvement of 14 points over the previous year, according to the most recent Gender Inequality Index for 2022.

Source: United Nations Development Progress report for 2022.

Can’t make this s*** up

The United Nations, which in 2024 has yet to elect a woman general secretary, opened its annual meeting on the status of women on Monday with five speakers in a row—all male. The last of the five men seems to have been aware of the awkward visual optics and began with what sounded like an apology: “I am very conscious of the fact that I am yet another man standing at this podium addressing you,” he said. But he had two choices, he said, “Don’t speak or stand up.” He chose the first.

The long(ish) read

Don’t look away: Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech should make you uncomfortable (Source: LA Times)

The whole point of Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech was to make you uncomfortable, writes Naomi Klein in The Guardian. Klein, who is among the writers who signed an open letter to PEN America announcing their decision to stay away from the World Voices Festival due to the organisation’s inadequate response to the unfolding genocide in Gaza, writes about the ‘daily slaughter’ in Gaza, where “genocide is becoming ambient once more—at least for those of us fortunate enough to live on the safe sides of the many wall that carve up our world.”

Read her article here.

News you might have missed

(Source: NWLC)

Being a mum is full-time work

Recognising childcare and housework as a full-time job, the Karnataka high court doubled the interim maintenance payable to a woman in a matrimonial dispute. The woman’s estranged husband had told the court that his wife was idling away her time despite being capable of employment. Justice M. Nagaprasanna dismissed the husband’s contention, noted that the work of mother and a wife is a ‘full-time commitment’ and then doubled interim maintenance from Rs 18,000 to Rs 36,000.

Smells like an election

After the Aam Aadmi Party promised Rs 1,000 a month in its Budget to needy women, the Congress has come up with a more elaborate five-pronged strategy designed to empower women.

The party’s ‘nari nyay’ (literally, justice for women) promises a direct annual deposit of Rs 100,000 into the bank accounts of poor women. There is, in addition, 50% reservation in all new central government jobs, doubling the income of ASHA and anganwadi workers as well as those in the midday meal scheme and plans to establish Savitribai Phule hostels for working women – all of which will enable women’s greater participation in the workforce, a win for both women and the economy. Finally, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promised an adhikar maitri or a paralegal officer in every panchayat who will educate women about their rights and entitlements.

The only caveat: these are poll promises and will come to fruit only if the Congress comes to power later this year.

Around the world

Olivia Rodrigo (Source: The Rolling Stones)

In Missouri, USA, a state where abortion is banned, musician Olivia Rodrigo ensured the distribution of free emergency contraceptives and condoms during her Guts world tour concert in St Louis. Last month, the Drivers License singer launched the Fund 4 Good campaign, a global initiative for people seeking reproductive health freedom.

Teachers and students in Florida will finally be able to discuss LGBTQ+ issues, effectively cancelling earlier ‘don’t say gay’ legislation passed two years ago by Republican governor Ron DeSantis. The law banned classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. But a legal settlement reached earlier this week means that while the law will remain in place, classroom discussions cannot restrict the mere discussion of LGBTQ+ issues, nor can books on the subject be banned in the library.

The on-pitch proposal by Australia’s first openly gay active male professional footballer to his partner at Adelaide United’s home ground on Thursday. Cavallo thanked United for not just helping him spring the surprise but for its ‘endless support’ and providing him “a safe space in footballs’.

[Thanks to Dhiman Sarkar’s newsletter for the happy news.]

        

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That’s it for this week. If you have a tip, feedback, criticism, please write to me at: namita.bhandare@gmail.com.
Produced by Nirmalya Dutta nirmalya.dutta@htdigital.in.

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