The tiring way of reporting the women of the royal family

What does it mean to be a princess in 2018? What does it mean to be a queen? The royal family’s job is to function as figureheads – to offend nobody, to take no positions. For 60 years, the head of that family has been a woman.

Monica Hesse, on the Age and Washington post says that the combination of these two circumstances has resulted in the coverage of the modern monarchy being oddly feminised: Nobody can know what the Queen is thinking, so let’s turn our attention to her renewed love of gardening and a photo gallery of her 51 best hats.

The women of the royal family have become the perfect targets for societies struggling with sexism: the women are there to be judged. They are not allowed to talk back.