Kate Middleton can't seem to catch a break these days. Between paparazzi chasing her around the world, radio DJs pranking the hospital she's in and generally having the eyes of the world on her at all times, it can't exactly be the most stress-free pregnancy. And now she has Booker prize winner Hilary Mantel on her back giving her crap about her appearance? We hate to lower ourselves to saying this, but we wouldn't be going throwing stones in that glass house now.
While it could be argued that Mantel was really fighting against monarchy or demanding that Kate show some autonomy of her own, it's still not a pleasant experience to be called out for just being married to a royal. Speaking at a lecture in the British Museum called 'Undressing Anne Boleyn', Mantel called Kate a 'jointed doll' with 'no personality of her own' and 'appeared to have been designed by a committee and built by craftsmen, with a perfect plastic smile and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and gloss-varnished'. Ouch.
Once she got the ball rolling, she just let loose on Middleton saying she used to be 'a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung... In those days she was a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore. These days she is a mother-to-be, and draped in another set of threadbare attributions... her only point and purpose being to give birth.' Her only purpose to give birth. Nice one Hilary. Way to belittle a woman who has enough criticism and judgement thrust upon her every day. The full speech is expected to appear in a new edition of the London Review of Books, so there's a strong chance that this is all a load of bitter, twisted hype being used to sell copies, but you'd think a two time winner of the Booker prize wouldn't need to stoop to such levels for press.
