Harry and Meghan: Going Beyond the Disney Princess

The happiest news of recent weeks is surely the engagement of Britain’s Prince Harry and commoner Meghan Markle. Markle is surely not the most obvious choice to be a royal princess bride. In fact, some have compared her to the infamous Wallis Simpson, whose love affair with King Edward VIII led to his abdicating his throne in order to marry the woman he loved. Back in 1936, Mrs. Simpson was widely considered unsuitable to be an English king’s consort because not only was she an  American but she’d also had two failed marriages prior to her romance with the man she called David Windsor. (Her portrayal in The King’s Speech as a haughty glamour girl is hardly a sympathetic one. Which is understandable when you realize that in the post-abdication years the couple, from their hideaway in the south of France, apparently became Adolf Hitler enthusiasts.)

Like Mrs. Simpson, Meghan Markle is American-born. In fact, she’s a native Angeleno with no apparent high society ties. Yes, she’s had a previous spouse, though only one. (These days, being divorced is hardly a rarity.) She’s an actress by trade, and an independent woman by inclination. Most remarkable of all, she’s the produce of a mixed-race marriage, with an African-American mother and an Anglo dad. The fact that the Queen of England has welcomed the match is a sign of a real shift among British nobility, though this hasn’t stopped British tabloids from posting nasty stories about Markle’s “ghetto” roots.

Naturally most of the public, both here and in England, has been swept away by the Cinderella story of a commoner marrying a prince. The pending nuptials seem especially exciting in an era wherein every little girl seems to want to grow up to be a Disney princess. (Even William and Kate’s small daughter, Charlotte, is said to yearn to be a princess someday: she’s totally oblivious to the fact that in reality she IS a princess.) 

Disney’s animated films these days lean strongly toward young female characters who are, or become, princesses. Take, for instance, Anna and Elsa as ice-princess sisters in the Disney mega-hit of 2013, Frozen. But Disney had jumped on the princess bandwagon as early as 2001, with the release of The Princess Diaries, a film version of Meg Cabot’s popular series of YA novels. The Princess Diaries, which marked the screen debut of the adorable Anne Hathaway, can be considered wish-fulfillment for every awkward young girl. Hathaway’s character, Mia, is a gawky and not-very-popular American teenager, until she suddenly stumbles upon the family secret: she’s actually the crown princess of the (purely fictitious) European kingdom of Genovia. Which means, of course, tiaras and balls and all things royal.  

Little girls fantasize that being a princess means pretty dresses and romantic escapades galore. I can’t help remembering one of my favorite films, which has an entirely different message. In 1953’s Roman Holiday, Audrey Hepburn is Princess Ann, who—when traveling outside of her own country—is stuck listening to dreary welcome speeches and making diplomatic small talk at formal receptions. The film’s focus is on her escape into the streets of Rome, where she gets a trendy haircut, rides on the back of a motorcycle, participates in a street brawl, and otherwise has a commoner’s kind of fun. She can’t dodge her royal duties forever, but we know that in the interim she’s learned something about being an independent young woman. 

Here’s hoping that Meghan Markle, the American commoner on the brink of becoming British royalty, never feels the need for an escape route.

20th Century Women: Struggling to Be All Right

Who can be said to be quintessential twentieth-century women?  Adventurous sorts like Amelia Earhart? Political and social leaders like Golda Meir and Eleanor Roosevelt? Inspirations like Coretta Scott King? Style icons and glamour-girls like Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe? I’ve just seen the new film, 20^th Century Women, so the question comes to me naturally. All the names I’ve mentioned above are worth considering. But I’ve just been lucky enough to see again (on an airplane!) Audrey Hepburn’s first big film,1953’s Roman Holiday. It’s a blithe little romance, though one with a bit of substance, broaching as it does the tension between personal freedom and the need to do one’s duty. And of course it’s proof that Audrey Hepburn was one of the most delicious actresses who ever lived.

Writers other than me have crowned Hepburn (Audrey, not Katharine) a major social influence. Sam Wasson’s 2010 bestseller, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M., is subtitled Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman. Wasson’s argument is that Hepburn’s Holly Golightly character contains a very modern moral ambiguity that doesn’t distract from her charm. Though I loved Wasson’s book, I can’t say it convinced me on that point. My vision of Audrey Hepburn is still that of someone who’s pristine: girlish and adorable. And, as she is in Roman Holiday, a genuine princess.

If you’ve been around little girls lately, you know that princesses are a very big deal. The Disney universe is full of them (see Frozen, Tangled, Brave, and now Moana). Why? Partly it’s because they wear great clothes. The modern Disney princess (unlike the very boring Sleeping Beauty) gets to go on adventures, and heroically save her people. At the same time, she’s always well-dressed, and when her adventures are over she gets to return to the castle and marry the prince (or at least an appealing stand-in). What more could a little girl want?

Which brings me to 20^th Century Women, the quirky semi-autobiographical film in which Mike Mills (who’d chronicled his father’s coming out in Beginners) reveals what it was like to be a young man coming of age in the late 1970s, surrounded by women working hard at the new concept of female empowerment. The #1 woman in young Jamie’s life is his mother, Dorothea, a smart, nervous chain-smoker who would like to have been a World War II pilot. As played by the always-gutsy Annette Bening, Dorothea is both lovable and exasperating; she’s capable of a joyous exuberance but remains at the same time fundamentally sad about the ways life has let her down. The film’s other two 20^th century women are Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a punked-out artist with serious health issues, and Julie (Elle Fanning), a gorgeous high-schooler who sleeps around with unworthy men but demands of the sexually frustrated Jamie a purely platonic friendship. Quixotically, Dorothea turns to these two young women to help teach her son about life and love. Meanwhile he’s reading classic feminist tracts like Robin Morgan’s Sisterhood is Powerful to try to make sense of the world that his mother and her surrogates inhabit.

It’s been Annette Bening’s lot in recent years to play unusual “mom” roles. With spouse Warren Beatty she’s raised four children of her own, so she certainly knows the territory. In American Beauty she was an angry, hostile mother. In The Kids Are All Right, she played a devoted lesbian mother. .Dorothea is an equally worthy role for Bening: she captures both the love and the confusion of a mother trying desperately to make sure the kid is all right.