In all the reading that I've done over the years, Diana is usually praised for talking about her bulimia publicly. Those who disagreed with her for exposing so much of her personal life tend to make the argument that royalty just doesn't
do such things. But I've never seen an article suggesting the point that I've made. So it's good to know that someone thinks that it has some validity.
The problem that I've had with Diana's speeches about bulimia, married life, addiction, etc., is that--in the later years of her being Princess of Wales--the emphasis in her speeches seemed to be her getting her point across about
her problems and
her victimization. It was as though, rather than using her speeches to raise awareness about the organization she was addressing and encouraging them, she used the podium as a "bully pulpit" for her own agenda, portraying herself as a victim/heroine battling against the cold family and institution that she freely married into.
Being a "victim" was very much in vogue during the 90s, and sometimes I wonder how much Diana popularized that way of thinking, "Yes, I'm an addict/bulimic/homeless, but it has nothing to do with me."
Diana did do a lot of good for a lot of people. But perhaps she could have done even more good by not sending "coded" messages in her speeches. I actually prefer videos of her earlier speeches, such as the one that she made to the wives of the men serving in the Gulf, or even the rushed, nervous ones of the 80s. They were no less heartfelt than her mid-90s speeches, but they were less about her and more about the people she was addressing.
