Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith

Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith

Essays

A Princess’s Guide to Body Liberation

A roundup of the most bonkers Kate Middleton body theories—and what we hope she's been doing instead.

Virginia Sole-Smith's avatar
Virginia Sole-Smith
Mar 19, 2024
∙ Paid

I’m going to say straight off that I feel somewhat self-conscious that last week’s essay was about Oprah and this week we’re talking about Kate Middleton, even though—BREAKING NEWS—she has now been sighted, ostensibly alive and well and enjoying a farm shop. (Assuming it’s really her and not a body double or a doctored video, trust no one.)

But Burnt Toast is not a celebrity journalism newsletter! A lot of you had thoughts about whether it’s remotely productive to dissect a famous woman’s performance of her body or should we just focus on our own damn selves and the hard work of making real systemic change, and those were excellent notes! Also I really, really hear Jessica Grose who wants us all to leave Kate Middleton alone! (Whew, she published that back on March 8 and we…did NOT listen.)

Photo by PAUL ELLIS / Contributor via Getty Images

Kate Middleton deserves body autonomy. But we haven’t been trained to give it to her.

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