A very interesting poll question Lena! I think that this will lead to a very interesting discussion.
Lena said:
I notice, that new princesses like Letizia and Mary are extremly popular, but IMO they also have to face harder criticism than e.g Märtha Louise, Victoria, Madeleine, Christina or Elena.
I think there is a slight difference in the reasoning for the criticism amongst the above examples. Martha Louise, Madeleine, Cristina and Elena share similar roles (amongst each other) in that they are the sisters of the heir to the thrones; while Letizia, Mary, Maxima, Mathilde, et. al. are the future queens of their respective countries. The demands and expectations on the present Crown Princesses are much different than the demands and expectations on their (royal born) sister-in-laws.
Martha Louise, Cristina, Elena, and when she finishes school Madeleine, all have jobs on top of their royal duties, while Letizia, Mary, Maxima, Mathilde's sole jobs are to perform royal duties. In that sense I think less is expected of the former because their time is divided. If Cristina and Elena each only do 25 royal duties a year there isn't too much public fuss over the cost of the monarchy being exorbitant or public outcries of King Juan Carlos' daughters being lazy. But if Letizia were to perform only 25 royal duties in one year, I'm certain that there would be public outcries of Letizia being lazy and living off the Spanish tax payers money (and rightfully so).
The Crown Princesses also have much pressure to produce an heir -- a pressure that has weighed much less (if at all) on Martha Louise, Cristina, Elena and presumably Madeleine when the time comes for her. Maud Angelica and Froilan were respectively, the Norwegian and Spanish King's first grandchildren. And while I noticed the Norwegian and Spanish press much anticipated and chronicled these arrivals, there was much more pressure on Mette-Marit to produce a child -- a child, Ingrid Alexandra, who is now the heir to the throne. And consider the constant, incessant speculation and predictions of when Letizia will announce that she is pregnant, and all the rumours and stories of why she is not pregnant yet. I don't think I ever read one story about why Elena and Cristina didn't have children yet only 5 months after their marriage or stories about how Elena's high heels were causing her infertility problems.
Victoria is in a class of her own in that she will be the Queen of Sweden, and not "only" the Queen Consort, as Letizia, Mary, Maxima, Mathilde and Mette-Marit will be. Although all the pressures faced by the other crown princesses (hard working enough, when will she produce an heir) will also follow Victoria.
cd_1 said:
Furthermore, those princess born royal have a strong support network among the royal community. Theyare all friends of their parents, their relatives, etc. So in a sense I think they feel more secure in such community, its like they are marrying into their own family. whereas commoners are looked upon as outsiders, and are first recieved with hestitaion, background checks are made, etc. and if they make mistakes, then they, in my opinion, are more harshly critisized.
I think this is a really good point cd_1. Cristina, Elena, Martha Louise, Astrid, etc. grew up with royal expectations drilled into them, or at least they learned from the examples of their parents about royal life, protocol, expectations, etc. Letizia, Mary, Mette-Marit all came from middle-class/upper-middle class backgrounds and with the exception of Letizia, none of them ever lived a second in the public eye until meeting their respective princely husbands. Becoming a royal is a big adjustment. Life in a fish bowl would be, for me, the biggest adjustment because your life is no longer your own and subject to all sorts of scrutiny by hundreds, thousands of people who don't know you but feel that they know you or that they have a right to judge and criticize you because of what you're wearing, your actions, how you carry yourself, etc. Even one little mis-step by any of these ladies can lead to tremendous criticism on the media and public's part. (I think Mette-Marit received the most heavy criticism of all the Crown Princesses for her "colourful" past.)
When you think about born royals who have led "colourful" lives which are just as "colourful" as Mette-Marit's, or just as "un-royal" as Mette-Marit's (eg. Stephanie of Monaco, Margrita of the Netherlands, Frederick of Great Britain), they are indeed subject to much less scruitiny because their parents were princesses or dukes -- although they are much less "significant" royals in comparison to Crown Princesses.
It's also sexist, but I think in most cases men are not subjected to as much criticism as women. Prince Harry has certainly had his missteps rather publicly chronicled and has been raked through the coals for them, but not as much as the public outcry over Mette-Marit in her first months as Crown Princess or when she made equally public mis-steps such as the airline incident when she yelled (and I think slapped at her assistant's hand). And how much ink has been spilled over Letizia's weight issue in comparison to Prince Ernst August's peeing incident on the Turkish pavilion several years ago.