Congratulations to Pippa Middleton and James Matthews, who yesterday announced their engagement.
The news was received with much excitement, and an abundance of articles speculating who will design Pippa’s dress have appeared, while bookies have been taking bets on when the wedding will take place.
Now that Pippa is to be a wife she will join the conga of women, as her sister did before her, who morph into different beings on becoming wives
Pippa Middleton can't wipe the smile off her face as she flashes her engagement ring AGAIN https://t.co/9CVIkpAzgr pic.twitter.com/9CsQocqyHz
— Daily Mail Femail (@Femail) July 20, 2016
You may have seen them. They turn up to the right events, they look pretty and are permanently paralysed by the perfect smile. They stand by their men and they have the right number of neat children, with bows in their hair and no head lice.
But this seems a bit of a waste.
#PippaMiddleton is engaged to her boyfriend James Matthews – but will Kate be her bridesmaid? https://t.co/WPDtny3ab0
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 19, 2016
In recent years, Pippa has never been far from the headlines. Examples – seriously – include “Pippa Middleton braves the wet weather” and “Pippa Middleton carries personalised tote“.
The tabloids love her, and suggestions that she courts the paparazzi are not without substance.
But surely, surely, Pippa could have more purpose?
One cannot avoid the facts: Pippa was given the best chances in life.
She is in the very select 6.5% of UK students educated privately – first at Downe House, and then at Marlborough College, both of which charge annual fees in excess of £30,000. She is well-connected and well-travelled, and rarely pictured far from luxury.
But a silver spoon hasn’t always been firmly planted in the Middleton mouths.
Pippa’s mother, Carole, was state-educated and brought up in a small house in a deprived area in Britain.
She met Michael Middleton when she was working as an air stewardess; Michael was an aircraft dispatcher.
Our best guess as to what Pippa Middleton might choose for her wedding dress: https://t.co/RXMXc0mhSt
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) July 20, 2016
Together they founded Party Pieces, a mail-order party decoration service. It took more than ten years for the company to succeed, but their toil reaped rewards, and Party Pieces is now credited with making the Middleton fortune.
Yet this industrious gene doesn’t appear to have trickled down the family tree.
In this year alone, Pippa has had more holidays than hot dinners, has ditched her job at Party Pieces (where she worked as Blog Editor) and has, to all intents and purposes, set up camp at the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
OMG!! Pippa Middleton is marrying her HEDGE FUND MANAGER sweetheart. At last some dull clichéd posh news amongst all the death and politics.
— David Lane Pusey (@DavidsPusey) July 20, 2016
To give her her due, Pippa has partaken in numerous sport-related fundraising activities, such as bicycle rides and marathons.
She entertained a brief career as a columnist for a national magazine, has written a book on party planning (which wasn’t nearly as successful as anticipated) and she is an ambassador to the British Heart Foundation.
It’s easy to judge – Pippa, indeed any woman, should be allowed to do whatever job gives them purpose: business executive, CEO, parent, wife – even journalists.
Yet I believe there is so much more to women than being trophy wives. It’s time the trophy wives bit back. After all, standing by your man only gets you so far.
