She grew in confidence

LouisFerdinand · February 03, 2018, 08:54:10 PM

I bought the book Diana The People's Princess by Nicholas Owen. I like this statement: As she grew in confidence, Diana realized that she could use her fame and her influence to make people's lives better.
What is your opinion?

Kritter · February 03, 2018, 09:09:23 PM

As her confidence grew she became a very strong Independent woman & did use her strength to highlight many world problems which scared the you know what out of the BRF.

Weak people never seem to understand strong people but I guess they really can't since they are weak.

Duch_Luver_4ever · February 05, 2018, 03:04:59 PM

Yes @LouisFerdinand I would agree with the author's statement, she also knew it would help her deal with the issues she was feeling in her personal life, and at the same time elevate her standing and protect her from TPTB and the other royals who wished she would just disappear.

I dont know if i would say the RF was weak, but they certainly didnt understand where her strength and resolve came from, and didnt expect she would have that being relatively alone and cut off from the power structure that they relied on to extend power, so I think that threw them for a loop. Although I did feel in panorama she sort of diluted that by so frequently referring to herself as strong, to paraphrase a line in GoT, a king that has to say hes king is no king. I think she was giving herself a pep talk as much as trying to get her point across, it was a very daunting time for her, so I cant blame her, but it did come of as a bit much, I thought in 95.

The doc the summer of 97 gives one a taste of the sea change in the UK that she had been riding for years ahead of everyone else. Were she still alive today I think she would have been a super PR/campaign adviser, heck she might have even got Hillary elected :lol: :lol: :lol:

LouisFerdinand · February 05, 2018, 08:19:41 PM

What does TPTB stand for?

SophieChloe · February 05, 2018, 09:26:04 PM

The Powers That Be, SCxx

Curryong · February 05, 2018, 10:42:40 PM

The Powers That Be.

Duch_Luver_4ever · February 05, 2018, 10:53:07 PM

Thanks guys, sorry @LouisFerdinand it does mean The Powers That Be, basically either the government itself, or more usually the career people either in or outside the government that serve the various govts as they come and go but they stay in place.

You may have heard it referred to recently post election as "The Deep State" in the US or "The Grey Suits" as far as the royals/Buckingham Palace with their courtiers and secretaries, etc. They used to call them "Mandarins" in terms of parliamentary politics in Canada, and im assuming the UK as well.

The US also tends to refer to them as "Continuity of government" officials, I believe theres a TV show called "designated survivor" about a low level govt official who was the highest remaining govt offical to survive some kind of catastrophe.

It was also a great song by Roger Waters on his late 80s CD "Radio KAOS" (man that takes me back)

This sequeys into the more tin foil hat ppl call them as "Illuminati" or "Bilderberg Group" Council on foreign Relations in the US and Chatham House in the UK.

royalanthropologist · February 06, 2018, 05:09:35 AM

I do think Diana actually used her fame very well to highlight and support those in need. In that she is different from those who are famous for the sake of being famous. Although she did enjoy the limelight and the exploited the accolades, there was also an altruistic part to her public work.

When you read her story (I don't believe it to be all objective but it has a ring of truth in some parts), Charles and to some extent the men in grey suits had always treated her as if she were an airhead. That comment about "shopping darling" is very telling. As she saw the amazing reaction to her, Diana realized that she was far from being an airhead and that it was not true to say that "all she did was say yes to me".

I think that started the transformation because she realized that members of the public liked, supported and respected her as a person not just because she was the Princess of Wales. That can be a very empowering thing for someone who already has limited internal resources.

Duch_Luver_4ever · February 06, 2018, 11:47:17 PM

I think they made the mistake of thinking her easily broken and swept aside, whereas the better option from their desired objectives, would have been to keep her occupied and contained.

LouisFerdinand · August 04, 2019, 01:25:38 AM

In King Charles III, the author Anthony Holden wrote that Diana's "shyness, as one female observer later put it, was 'not the bashfulness of youth, but the statement of her whole style of operating'."

Curryong · August 04, 2019, 01:43:03 AM

I do think that Diana genuinely was quite shy. I don't think that she pretended to be so in order to project an image, if that's what Holden is implying. It would be going too far I think, to attach those sorts of strategies to a 19/20 year old girl. And any shyness had to be put on the back burner anyway as soon as she became Prss of Wales. I don't think her reactions to the first tour, of Wales with the huge crowds, sheer terror, were pretended, for instance.

Holden was a republican, a not unknown species among commentators on royalty, so I tend to believe that his observations on various members of the BRF, not just Diana, were often tinged with cynicism.

amabel · August 04, 2019, 09:17:22 AM

Quote from: Curryong on August 04, 2019, 01:43:03 AM
I do think that Diana genuinely was quite shy. I don't think that she pretended to be so in order to project an image, if that's what Holden is implying. It would be going too far I think, to attach those sorts of strategies to a 19/20 year old girl. And any shyness had to be put on the back burner anyway as soon as she became Prss of Wales. I don't think her reactions to the first tour, of Wales with the huge crowds, sheer terror, were pretended, for instance.

Ho

Holden did not write this play, it was Mike Bartlett. (Unless this is a reference to a quote form Holden IN te play...).
And if it is the real Holden..my impression is that he was quite pro Diana.. He had written biographies of Charles, but over time had become more criticial of Chas because he didn't agree with C's "romantic reactionary" ideas. He seems as far as I can recall to have preferred Diana's more modern style, in the last years of her life.. and felt that she was better at being the "face of a modern monarchy" than her husband was. So Im not sure why he would be saying that her "shyness" was put on.. unless he did genuinely feel that it was..

Curryong · August 04, 2019, 11:57:28 AM

If I'm reading Louis Ferdinand's post right ^^^ upthread, I think it is a quote from a book that Anthony Holden wrote a few decades ago now, a biography of Charles, renamed 'Charles III' for US readers, not the later play. Seemingly some female observer said of Diana's shyness that it was 'not the bashfulness of youth but the statement of her whole style of operating' first, but Holden quoted but apparently apparently didn't name her. I imagine the quote comes from the early 1980s, the 'Shy Di' days.

amabel · August 04, 2019, 01:24:57 PM

I think thtat female journalists were more apt to be a bit sharp about the young Diana... and to feel that she was putting on the shyness or that she was not the magical princess that some journoes saw her as..and that she was really a rather silly lightweight young woman..
Im surprised if Holden was really critical of her.. since he was IMO quite favourable to her and much more negative about Charles..He may have quoted this opinion wtithout necessarily agreeing with it..or he may have felt genueinly on her side but thought that she did sometimes put on the Shy Di act...

Princess Cassandra · August 04, 2019, 03:39:20 PM

In my view the term "strength" is not adequate. Rather than being strong I think it's better to say that she had "gifts" of reaching others, especially those who were vulnerable or in need. She may not even have recognized what it was exactly, but just knew that she had an affinity for people. Or maybe she did and realized she could use this to undertake her royal work, thus explaining why she grew confident. Although she was confident in her work she remained vulnerable and easily hurt herself, which is very sad considering how much she inspired and helped others.

amabel · August 06, 2019, 08:25:56 AM

Quote from: Princess Cassandra on August 04, 2019, 03:39:20 PM
In my view the term "strength" is not adequate. Rather than being strong I think it's better to say that she had "gifts" of reaching others, especially those who were vulnerable or in need. She may not even have recognized what it was exactly, but just knew that she had an affinity for people. Or maybe she did and realized she could use this to undertake her royal work, thus explaining why she grew confident. Although she was confident in her work she remained vulnerable and easily hurt herself, which is very sad considering how much she inspired and helped others.

I don't know if she was ever really confident in her abilities. but she did have a gift, and she did try to use it to help and support people. But I think she was always unsure of herslelf.. and it was difficult for her, in the last few years, to concentrate on the work side of her life because she was burned out...