Why Does the Royal Wedding Matter?

I’ve already offered my opinion of the Royal Wedding here and here, but I found Simon Doonan’s analysis to be especially clear and perspicacious. Link here.

The Royal Wedding matters because decorum and propriety matter. This Royal Wedding in particular, matters because it offers the world a chance to exorcise the ghost of Princess Diana.

As I posted a while back, Princess Diana was a model of moral indiscretion. I do not know how much she influenced the behavior of young women, but the example she set did no one any good.

Deep thinkers imagine that the media determines cultural and behavioral trends. That’s because they write for the media and are seriously self-important. If you read the learned dismissals of the
Royal Wedding from the cognoscenti, you will see that they are rather snobby, to boot.

We err, however, when we ignore the importance of role models, and especially when we neglect the influence of people like the British royal family.

Anyway, the Royal Wedding matters, as Simon Doonan suggested, because girls matter. And because the way girls dress matters. The way girls dress has an influence on their values and on how they behave.

If, as Doonan says, the Duchess of Cambridge can lead even a small number of American girls away from the world of “porno chic” and into a “new era of elegant restraint,” that would surely be a good thing.

For the record, here’s Doonan analysis: “As I watched her [Kate Middleton] sailing down the aisle like a romance novel heroine, a serious question formed itself under that powdered wig of mine. Might the lovely Kate, with her modest allure, her natural bosom and her quiet mystery, have the power to stem the flood of boob-jiggling hooker style which has engulfed not just fashion, but our entire culture? Could April 29, 2011 mark the beginning of a whole new era of elegant restraint?

“An entire generation has grown up in a world of hair extensions, pneumatic hooters, and stripper poles. In the absence of a Jackie Kennedy or a Grace Kelly, these kids—and their mothers!—have been subjected to an unadulterated diet of Girls Gone Wild, busty Real Housewives, Jenna Jameson, and The Girls Next Door. The message? "Hotness" is the single viable currency. The only effective way to get attention is to flaunt your lady bits. Now along comes Kate, the anti-hooker, garnering the attention and admiration of the entire world with barely a glimpse of flesh.”

“My prediction: If she keeps up the simple elegance, she might well make a dent in the all-pervading culture of porno-chic.”