Princess Diana: Queen of Hearts

By the turn of the twentieth century, women began to play a larger role and emerged into the public eye on all fronts, including arts and politics. The concepts of ideal womanhood had began to change significantly.

Princess Diana was one woman who have change the world. Diana was the most charismatic and publicly adored member of the British royal family. She did not only imposed her own distincly modern style and attitudes on Great Britain's traditionalist monarchy, but she was able to plunge that institution into its lowest level of public unpopularity and after her death, forcing the Royal family to moderate its aloof image. Diana's celebrity status and considerable influence traveled across the continent.

Media icons, have a number of things happened to their public image once there is a market stories about their personal life. Some pull out in one piece, others are ruined and a few were made into gods or goddesses like Princess Diana. She was the most photographed woman in the world. Magazines competed to see who could get the best pictures of Diana knowing that a good picture would sell thousands of extra copies.

The press hounded Princess Diana eager for any story or picture that would expose the crack in her life. She was subject to much scrutiny and the media tried to uncover her affairs. She was harassed, bullied and hunted in an unprecedented way in this modern high tech world. But however awful Diana felt privately, she knew that the show must go on. She quickly learned to cover up her inner feelings with an amazing show of happiness.

While Diana had increasingly become the target of the paparazzi, she had also become increasingly skillful at using the media to represent herself on her own terms.She tried to persuade photographers not to pursue her. When that did not work, she tried slipping out to back doors, hiding her face behind bags and driving off at high speed.

She took advantage of the media's relentless coverage of her every move by redirecting their attention from her private life to her charity work. The princess used her sudden celebrity role to fight for the causes she believes in such as: better understanding of AIDS and cancer patients; againsts the use of landmines, for the care of terminally ill children and other causes that benefited from her care and love.

After her separation from Charles, Diana hoped for a normal life, but the media would not leave her. She was blamed Diana for their separation. Diana determined to fight back. Diana helped a journalist named Andrew Morton to write a book "Diana Her True Story" to tell her side of story. The book become best seller, she gave television interview in which she spoke about her life, her troubles, her ideas about royalty. The Royal family were horrified by the program but she won the sympathy and affection of millions.

One of the hardest things for many of us to accept will be to acknowledge that we did not really know Diana. We only knew those things the media saw fit to tell us or to show us, about her life. It will be hard for many to acknowledge that the real person may well have been different from the image that they have personally constructed of her.

Princess Diana was a young, modern, vulnerable, inexperienced, insecure woman who married into a traditional, autocratic family. She found that they attempted to mould her into a form of womanhood that they wanted. Diana carried out her royal duty within years of marriage, giving birth to two sons to carry on the royal lineage and tolerating a loveless marriage. She went on to develop a career as a royal advocate for the sick and the needy.

Diana did not hide her problems behind the wall. Instead, she used the media, such as confessional biography and confessional television, as a kind of therapy. She came out publicly as someone who suffered from bulimia, depression, low self-esteem and her husband's love for another woman and someone who had an affair herself. It enabled ordinary people to feel that they knew her and could identify with her.

The scenario of Diana's life is familiar to many women around the world. Diana found the strength to fight back, to analyze her illness and to build up her self esteem in ways taht she thought was appropriate. Diana use of confession, positioned her as someone who took charge of her life by confronting her problems head on and inspired others to do the same. Today her life laid bare to many contradictions and complexities that women face in the twentieth century.

One of the goals of feminism over the decades has been to create the new women those who construct themselves independently of others. The turning of Princess Diana into a modern myth reflects a yearning for a return of female divinity and the making of primary values such as compassion and tolerance. Diana's elegance, taste and style were truly exceptional even in a beauty-conscious age. She was a feminist who championed feminine values.