Kate visited a children’s hospice yesterday. I’ll get to everything in a moment but I want to start off by pointing out the awful reporting of a conversation Kate had with a little girl. Every article reported it as:
Demi-Leigh, helped give her a posy of roses and the Duchess wished her happy Christmas.
‘But it’s not Christmas yet,’ said Demi-Leigh.
‘Bye then,’ said Kate.
‘Oh give me a hug first,’ said the little girl, grabbing her leg, and the pair exchanged a thumbs up.
Now, reading that I thought, “what a b-tch Kate is”. The “bye then” sounded rude to me, and then merely giving a thumbs up after someone asks for a hug? WTF? But then I saw the video of the interaction and Kate’s reply was nice. She was sweet about saying it was “nearly Christmas” when the girl corrected her, and thanked them for the flowers and everything, and I didn’t even here the “bye then”. She did say “bye, bye”, but I didn’t hear a “then” anywhere. The thumbs up, by the way, was during a different part of the interaction, well before the Christmas bit. Overall, the articles really misrepresented Kate’s interaction with that little girl, cutting out most of Kate’s response, to the detriment of Kate. It’s a good thing I was able to watch the video because reading the reporter’s awful coverage of that conversation left me with a poor view of Kate. Normally I criticize articles for making Kate look like a saint when she is the total opposite, but this time I ended up defending her (I hate defending people I don’t like, but sometimes it’s a necessary evil). I doubt the articles wanted to make her look bad, but regardless of the take-away I have from that response, they did misrepresent Kate because they did not print her actual response.
Anyway, Kate visited the Shooting Star House Children’s Hospice in Hampton, Middlesex. She spent an hour and 20 minutes touring the facility, talking to parents and children and volunteers. You can read more at the Express, Daily Mail, or Mirror—but there’s no need to read more than one, they literally all say the exact same thing, like same exact wording and everything. Kate participated in a sing-along (even though she barely sang, watch the video) while wearing a frog hand puppet. All the parents and the organization fawned over her, of course. I will say she did look a bit more engaged than she normally does, so good for that. Apparently Kate (or Kate’s team because I doubt she’s actually planned this herself) wants to launch a new initiative to encourage people to volunteer in hospices. A Kensington Palace spokesman said: “The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry is currently developing a pilot for a volunteering programme to support families of children with life-limiting conditions. A key component of today’s visit is for The Duchess to meet a group of Shooting Stars volunteers, to better understand how they support the hospice and its families.” I would really love to know why Kate cares at all about children’s hospices. I wrote an op-ed about a year ago (posted on another site) questioning her charity choices, basically my theory was that someone else picked them for her, because the only one she really seemed to ever have an interest in was the sports one. Hm…
On to fashion: Kate wore PANTS!!! For the love of all that is holy, our darling duchess wore pants. They are really ugly, corduroy, skin-tight pants, but at least they’re pants. I’ve been wanting Kate to wear pants for ages, they are especially appropriate when interacting with children because of all the bending and stooping—no risk of flashing children when wearing pants. I wish she had gone with a nice wide-leg trouser, because the skinny jeans just don’t work for a duchess, especially when on an official appearance, but baby steps. Her shoes are atrocious. They are some ugly, wedge bootie with fur lining. Kate paired her pants with a grey (?) jacket by Reiss for some $500. The coat isn’t awful.
She wore her hair down, but not dolly-curled—I’m glad she’s mostly given that up. Now, I know a lot of Kate’s critics think she should chop off her hair in favor of a more “age appropriate” hair style. To that I say, FU anti-feminist troll! LOL, not really, but I don’t think that a woman should have to chop off her hair when she hits 30. Yes, Kate could do with a good six inch trim, and she most definitely needs to know when to put her hair up to keep it preofessional, but there is no reason to give her a bob just because she’s 31. The thing is, I think the “a woman needs to have shorter hair when she gets older” thing is not cool. Hair has always been looked at as very feminine and sexy (which is why Liz I chopped off her hair when she decided she would not take a husband at the end of the Cate Blanchett movie), and the thing about older women needing short hair is because they can’t be sexy, or something. By the way, I have no problem with short hair on a woman, some women look great with a pixie-cut and they love it and look just as sexy with it, and that’s great for them, the problem I have is that forcing people to have shorter hair just because they’re older and shouldn’t be rocking long, sexy hair is ridiculous. Now you might think I’m going overboard, but I’ve seen a bunch of Kate critics saying she needs to chop off her hair because she needs to not be “sexy” all the time. Now, again, I totally think Kate needs to learn when to put her hair up, because it gets in the way SO many times and is unprofessional, but there is no reason she can’t keep the hair if she likes it and for when a long hair style works—like when she’s at home banging Will. I have long hair, I love my long hair, but I also know when to put my long hair up to keep a more professional look (I’ve also not reached 30 yet, but that’s beside the point). I think if Kate put her hair up when she’s doing official appearances, I don’t think anyone would have a problem with it. The problem isn’t “long hair”, the problem is “look professional”, which Kate does not. Even someone with super long hair can look professional with a bun.
Ugh, I hate defending people I don’t like, but between the misrepresentation in the articles and the hair thing, I’ve done a lot of it today. I need to go look at the flashing pictures so I can call her a moron again…. Okay, I feel better now. LOL.
Why every one picks on the Duchess for her hair makes me so upset. The Duchess hair is beautiful. Her hair looks better than her mother in laws boring out of date hair do.
All I hear she needs to wear her hair up if she leaves the house. I guess I don’t know the Royal Rules about her hair.
I like The Duchess a lot and do not understand all this picking about her. Nothing she does or wears is good enough
It is unprofessional for someone to be playing with one’s hair while meeting people, especially dignitaries or members of charities one is supposedly patron of. It is also unprofessional to have a ton of hair falling in one’s face while giving a speech. When Kate’s hair gets in the way and makes her look unprofessional, that’s when it becomes a problem. I would say that about anyone who was constantly touching their hair when meeting people in a professional setting, or giving a speech, because it makes people look unprofessional.
It’s like how they tell you to put your hair up–if you have long hair–when going in for an interview, it’s so the hair does not get in the way, and so you’re not touching it, which gives the interviewer an unprofessional view of you.
PS. You said you like Kate a lot, would you mind elaborating? I would love to know why you like her. (I hope that doesn’t sound confrontational, it’s not–it’s always tough with print because so much is said through inflection and facial expressions–I’m just curious).