The Royals Had a Baby! How Disney Is At Least Partially to Blame for America's British Royals Fascination ...

The Royals had a baby! The Royals had a baby! I can’t contain my excitement. The Royals had a baby!

That was roughly the sentiment of many today (mostly women) when they heard the news, and for some reason it’s all American cable news felt like covering today (July 22), that Kate Middleton, ahem excuse me, Catherine Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to an, as of yet unnamed, eight pound, six ounce baby boy.

It’s always been a mystery to me why American media and American citizens (again mostly the women folk) give a damn about the British Royal family. Many of these people care more about what’s going on with the British Royal family than they do with the family of the President of the United States. I guarantee these people will know the name of Prince William and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge’s son, whenever it’s announced. However, most of those same people probably couldn’t tell you the names of President Barack Obama’s two daughters … their names are Sasha and Malia, by the way.

The coverage of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s relationship, then wedding, then married life, then pregnancy and now birth of their baby has been somewhat infuriating to me; mostly because it’s not news and partially because the American infatuation with them makes absolutely little-to-no-sense. That is at least to me.

However, I think I have a sound theory as to why there is such an infatuation. It’s a theory that frankly runs the risk of sounding sexist, but I’m willing to sound slightly sexist for the sake of this piece. The hubbub surrounding the British Royals, any new relationship and wedding among them and the birth of the Royal Baby and the reason why all of this seems to be a fad among only women is more than likely to do with fairytales and Disney princesses.

What do many little girls want to be when they grow up?

They want to be Cinderella or Belle or Ariel or Snow White.

Naturally they grow up and these dreams they had as young girls are unattainable. But, there are a very select few in this world who do have the opportunity and honor to become princesses, like Kate Middleton did.

And, because these little girls who grow up to be women wanted everything that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge has they become interested – oftentimes a little too much so – with her story, her life, her marriage, the birth of her baby and even (in the case of Princess Diana) her death. These women who pay so much attention to everything Princess Kate are doing so in a mixture of admiration and jealousy, because it’s the closest thing to being Cinderella that they have and ever will. It’s really not much different than the little boys who want to grow up to be Peyton Manning, LeBron James or in my case Chipper Jones and end up with a sometimes unhealthy admiration of athletes. Or the way that other little boys worship Spider-Man, Batman and Superman when they’re young and grow up to be men who can’t part with their superhero fantasies.

Does this make it wrong or right to be this excited over a couple having a baby all the way across the Atlantic Ocean? I really don’t know, that’s for each individual to decide for themselves, I suppose.  

As for the media’s incessant coverage of the Royal Baby, it’s really no surprise. Media is going to do – wrong or right – whatever brings home the highest television ratings, sells the most magazine issues or garners the most website hits. As a journalism nerd this is the part of it all that steams me the most, because I know media outlets are ignoring much more important news stories than whether or not it’s a boy or a girl, but I also know media is a business and this will occasionally lead to them whoring themselves out for stories that they know will have people paying attention. And, what’s going to get thousands of housewives and stay-at-home-mom’s attention on a Monday afternoon than coverage of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge bringing a future prince into this world? Absolutely nothing. Because that’s the life they dreamed of when they were little girls and it’s the life they still long for now after finding out that real life is far from a Disney fairytale.