![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkan...for which Japanese law requires her to surrender her membership in the Imperial family. People seem to think this is a shame.
I heard the news and thought, who cares? What strikes me as the real shame here is that this college educated woman who once contributed articles to scholarly publications is giving up her career "in order to focus on her family life and potential motherhood." Now that is something to cry over.
In fact, I'm willing to bet that living a "commoner's" life out of the Imperial family limelight and away from the influence of the creepy Imperial Household Agency is by far the more pleasant option. I have never harbored any romantic notions about royalty anywhere in the world. After all, being 'royal' merely means that your ancestors were historically more brutal than the rest of the population.
On a related tangent, this is why I have such trouble with a lot of historical fiction, even the historical fiction I enjoy. Take Daejangeum for instance: if said drama is anything by which to judge, the Joseon Emperor's sole purpose in life was to sit around taking dainty bites of massive quantities of food that had been prepared for him to evaluate. Even supposing that all the royalty ever did was eat craploads of meticulously prepared food, watching Daejangeum (and having visited both the Korean palaces and their Chinese and Japanese counterparts), part of me can't help but balk at how utterly wasteful and disgusting royal conspicuous consumption truly was, even while enjoying it as entertainment.
Same thing with any movie or book whose plot revolves around saving the kingdom from the Evil Outside Threat. Take Onmyoji. Who cares if the Mikado is killed by demon hordes? The entire dramatic thrust of the Onmyoji movies, the tension, is created by the premise that the Mikado must not die. But why not? If you aren't the Mikado or a male member of his court, chances are your life is pretty shitty in the Onmyoji world (incidentally, the historical Heian government collapsed in no small part because of the crushing poverty suffered by the majority of its citizens). The narrative's conceit is that royalty mush continue because it is royalty, and that's a conceit I've never been able to wholly buy into, namely because I recognise that royalty doesn not equal inherent worthiness.
Someone better hand me my damn Howard Zinn reader. I'm outta here.
That will be all.
I heard the news and thought, who cares? What strikes me as the real shame here is that this college educated woman who once contributed articles to scholarly publications is giving up her career "in order to focus on her family life and potential motherhood." Now that is something to cry over.
In fact, I'm willing to bet that living a "commoner's" life out of the Imperial family limelight and away from the influence of the creepy Imperial Household Agency is by far the more pleasant option. I have never harbored any romantic notions about royalty anywhere in the world. After all, being 'royal' merely means that your ancestors were historically more brutal than the rest of the population.
On a related tangent, this is why I have such trouble with a lot of historical fiction, even the historical fiction I enjoy. Take Daejangeum for instance: if said drama is anything by which to judge, the Joseon Emperor's sole purpose in life was to sit around taking dainty bites of massive quantities of food that had been prepared for him to evaluate. Even supposing that all the royalty ever did was eat craploads of meticulously prepared food, watching Daejangeum (and having visited both the Korean palaces and their Chinese and Japanese counterparts), part of me can't help but balk at how utterly wasteful and disgusting royal conspicuous consumption truly was, even while enjoying it as entertainment.
Same thing with any movie or book whose plot revolves around saving the kingdom from the Evil Outside Threat. Take Onmyoji. Who cares if the Mikado is killed by demon hordes? The entire dramatic thrust of the Onmyoji movies, the tension, is created by the premise that the Mikado must not die. But why not? If you aren't the Mikado or a male member of his court, chances are your life is pretty shitty in the Onmyoji world (incidentally, the historical Heian government collapsed in no small part because of the crushing poverty suffered by the majority of its citizens). The narrative's conceit is that royalty mush continue because it is royalty, and that's a conceit I've never been able to wholly buy into, namely because I recognise that royalty doesn not equal inherent worthiness.
Someone better hand me my damn Howard Zinn reader. I'm outta here.
That will be all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2005-11-16 07:06 pm (UTC)<- I totally agree.
no subject
on 2005-11-17 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2005-11-17 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-11-17 04:45 pm (UTC)When (if?) I marry I'm keeping my own name, keeping my job, and my kids are gonna have my name because dammit, I birthed 'em.
And hell, being a house husband is cool. My dad did it.
no subject
on 2005-11-21 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-11-21 06:43 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-11-22 05:03 pm (UTC)or just plain hopeless XDit's just, how many people would honestly give up being a Princess for the person she loves? i've only seen that kind of thing happen in fairy tales...