Kate Middleton is being "attacked" by Booker Prize winner author Hilary Mantel for being a "a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung" whose "only point and purpose being to give birth." She also noted her appearance as "plastic" and function as "designed to breed."
Middleton's comments were spewed from the acclaimed author's mouth during a hour-long lecture titled, "Royal Bodies," for a London Review of Books event at the British Museum on February 4th. The lecture was focused on the media and British public's role in defining female monarchs to be perfect women whose true appeal comes from their appearance. She also described the role of the female monarch as one that serves entertainment purposes and likened them to pandas in a cage.
You can follow the link to the London Review of Books to listen to Mantel's lecture and read the full transcript.
An excerpt from Mantel's speech reads, "Kate seems to have been selected for her role of princess because she was irreproachable: as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character. She appears precision-made, machine-made, so different from Diana whose human awkwardness and emotional incontinence showed in her every gesture. Diana was capable of transforming herself from galumphing schoolgirl to ice queen, from wraith to Amazon. Kate seems capable of going from perfect bride to perfect mother, with no messy deviation."
Prime Minister David Cameron does not agree with Mantel's assertions about the Duchess as 'machine-made.'
"What I've seen of Princess Kate at public events, at the Olympics and elsewhere is this is someone who's bright, who's engaging, who's a fantastic ambassador for Britain," the BBC reports Cameron as saying. "We should be proud of that, rather than make these rather misguided remarks."
How do you think Kate fits into the role as female monarch? Is she more than a puppet? Let us know!