Ugly

[poliphilo]

Margaret Thatcher was an ugly person who wore ugly clothes. Only an uncritical admirer could think of her as a style icon. The Victoria and Albert Museum- which defines itself as a museum of design and the decorative arts- was quite right to turn down a collection of her old duds. It's not part of its remit to warehouse the wardrobes of the famous.

So why did the Thatcher family approach the V & A and apparently no-one else? Mrs T's Aquascutums are of genuine historical interest- and I'm sure there are plenty of charity shops museums which would be only to happy to house them. Did the family never think of approaching the museum in Grantham for instance- or was it not grand enough?

Diehard Thatcherites keep on trying to pressure the rest of us into accepting their heroine as a national icon- like Churchill or Nelson or Elizabeth I- and keep suffering rebuffs. I wish they'd go away. They're not doing my blood pressure any good.

Comments

[matrixmann]

That leaves to fear for the time when some plan to try to establish this with Ms. Merkel... (*shivers)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Surely no-one thinks of Ms Merkel as a style icon.

[matrixmann]

Hm, well, some people in the press were always... I don't want to say "delighted" with her suits, but you barely found someone who complained about the style of her clothes or the style of her hair. Only her rhombus that she folds with her hands is something the web - especially the political opposition outside of the parliament - regularly mocks about.

But, to say it, maybe I expressed that a little missunderstandable.
I meant that transported onto Ms. Thatcher as a whole.
She hasn't become an icon already, but try to find someone in Western economy and poltics in office who talks bad about her...
I fear the same happenening with Angie when she says goodbye to everything. (Making someone an icon who deserves a place in forgottenness at most.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't know how it is elsewhere but here in Britain Thatcher is still a very contentious figure. She's loved and hated in about equal measure. Politicians tend to tread carefully around her memory, but the rest of us don't.

[matrixmann]

About the same in other countries.
Well, there's less about her in current political discussions at all times, now and then, but that may be due to this being an issue of the UK and abroad is always less discussed about than the home country.

If people of the mainstream political and economical agenda come to talk about her, then it's rather positive than negative, as what she did strengthens their mind set.
If you listen to people from the political and economical counterculture to this - then you have the voices stating what she did to the UK was a disaster, and the worst is others followed her example after (which are the results of today).

So, pretty much the same.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Given the time of year, there should be plenty of guys we could dress in Maggie's duds. There'd be some pleasure in burning her effigy...

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I believe it has been done in Lewes once.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I could enjoy that.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Actually charity shops would have been the best place for them.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Or Madame Tussaud's

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Only that way Mark and Carol wouldn't be any better off. I'm reading between the lines but I don't think they were actually offering to give them away.

The auction- at Christies- is expected to raise half a million.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Wasn't she operating in a man's world? Wouldn't that have influenced how she dressed? And maybe caused her to wear unfortunate things?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think she had much dress sense- and her personal taste was (unsurprisingly) conservative. Her image as PM was very largely crafted for her by her designer- and, yes, it reflected her status as a woman in a man's world.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

She IS a national icon... The trouble is, the icon doesn't stand for much that is good! :-)