The British Royals in Australia

Abstract

<p>This article examines how and why, from Australia’s colonial past to today, the British monarchy have “intruded” into our daily lives (Cannadine <i>Orientalism</i> 103). To ‘intrude’ suggests consciousness and agency in making sure they are constantly part of our social life. Public events, press releases, Websites, ceremonies, and the like do not occur randomly. Queen Elizabeth II was very aware that she ‘needed to be seen to be believed’. Is this enough of a reason for the British royals to appear on our currency or postage stamps, for their images to adorn tea towels and magazine covers, or for them to be subject of films, television shows, and book? Is the need to be seen the reason they visit our shores so frequently?</p> <p>If the British monarch rules with divine right, why does the royal family need to spend their time intruding into the lives of everyday people? Given Cannadine’s arguments that the royal family adopts traditions, symbols, and signifiers to reinforce and legitimate their power, it is possible to come to a view that the word ‘intrusion’ is not used by Cannadine by accident. The British royals need more than to be seen: they need to be seen in a particular light, with meanings that reinforce their positive role in national life – or at least posit that they do no harm and that they may indeed be good for the economy.</p> <p>It is not only their apparent public good that endlessly intrudes in our daily lives; so too do their transgressions. Regardless, they remain ever present. While representations of the British royals are not always positive, they are constant. Because they are constant, the public form views about them and their character. In this ‘social construction of reality’, as sociologists Berger and Luckman would put it, we think we know who and what the royals are, and for the most part we accept them as their preferred representation. If this is the case, the British royal family have successfully engaged in a hegemonic project – which explains why the royal family has survived, when so many other European royal families did not, and it also explains why they need to intrude into our daily lives.</p> <p>In her 2021 book <i>Running the Family Firm: How the Monarchy Manages Its Image and Our Money</i>, Laura Clancy argues that the British royals are very conscious of the need to present and continually represent a very particular, curated, and stage-managed version of themselves as a benign middle-upper class family, committed to public duty and sacrifice, who symbolise the nation and stability. This image, along with the public’s emotional investment in their daily lives, particularly when they marry and have children, seeks to render their capital accumulation, immense wealth, corporate and political power, and social and cultural privilege invisible. Clancy argues that this carefully curated public image of family and tradition not only conceals the power and wealth of the royals, but acts to counter criticisms and silence calls for their devolution.</p>