culture of deference

 

Diana, Princess of Wales;  Princess Margaret

Was thinking about the word, "deference."

online dictionary definition:

humble submission and respect

Merriam-Webster definition is slightly different:

respect and esteem due a superior or an elder; also:  affected or ingratiating regard for another's wishes

        "Affected or ingratiating" -- that sounds more like exaggerated, performative deferring to someone--whereas "humble submission and respect" was more straightforward, and unaffected--more sincere.

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In Monday's post here, one reader comment pointed out the "dynamic of extremely unequal power that gives celebrities the means to break laws and norms while maintaining public deference for years."

        The word "deference" sort of jumped out at me, in there--it made me think of the United Kingdom--in my readings about Princess Diana, and in The Crown, I come across the word "deference." ---------------------------- [excerpt from The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown] ------------------ Like Diana, Margaret was catnip to glamour-hunting photographers; also like Diana, she at once colluded with them and hid from their attention.

        Without much to do except go out and about, Margaret was escorted at night by a parade of glossy men-about-town.  She was photographed emerging from the chic Les Ambassadeurs Club at dawn in mink coat and diamonds.  

She smoked from a long, sophisticated cigarette holder.  

Where her parents had always been careful to vacation in the country estates of their own kingdom, Margaret took jet-set holidays in the Caribbean and came back with a suntan.  

She mixed with a nonhorsey set of actors, writers, dancers, and playwrights.  

She was news.  

When, seven years after the break with Townsend, she married the swinging London photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (ennobled as the first Earl of Snowdon a year after the wedding), her plunge deeper into his café society world moved the Royal Family decisively from regal seclusion toward showbiz availability.  Press boundaries were being trampled as much by the flamboyance and glitz of Margaret herself as by press license--a fact she did not like to acknowledge....

        The culture of deference was beginning to crumble.

------------------------------------ [end / excerpt]

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