Opinion – Tony Goes: Common appearance and undefined personality explain Elizabeth II’s popularity

Sao Paulo

The death of Queen Elizabeth II caused a stir around the world. So big, in fact, that it seemed exaggerated to some. After all, the British monarch did not exercise any real power, nor did she have her figure associated with any specific cause.

Even so, Elizabeth II remained extremely popular throughout most of her long reign of just over 70 years. There were only two moments when her image was in jeopardy: the Aberfan disaster in 1966, when a school in Wales was hit by a landslide, and the death of Princess Diana in 1997. In both cases, the Queen was slow to respond. react to what his subjects expected.

But this sovereign’s inertia also helps to explain why she was so beloved. Elizabeth 2nd did not comment on anything. She didn’t give opinions, didn’t comment on the movies she attended for previews, didn’t publicize the playlist of hits she’d been listening to.

Even his personal tastes were shrouded in mystery. We know from third parties that she enjoyed having a gin and tonic in the evening. The queen herself never declared her preferences.

Elizabeth II’s public persona was a blank canvas. We could design whatever we wanted onto her, and create a queen according to our whims and idiosyncrasies. She was a nice grandma to a lot of people. For many others, the embodiment of UK values ​​such as perseverance and courage.

Now that she is gone, voices are emerging that accuse her of having been racist and imperialist, confusing the person with the institution and ignoring the march of history. It’s a bit like blaming Pope Francis for the Inquisition.

Elizabeth II actually reigned during the dismantling of the British Empire. And she was on a collision course with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986 when the UK refused to apply sanctions against South Africa because of the apartheid regime. All behind the scenes, of course: in public, Her Majesty never took a stand on anything.

The queen also had genetics on her side. She inherited two priceless traits from her mother: longevity and an ordinary, rather unaristocratic appearance.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, better known as the Queen Mother, lived to be 101 years old, enjoying all her physical and mental faculties. She also had what her brother-in-law Edward, who renounced the throne to marry the American Wallis Simpson, called her “cook face”: a commoner, commoner air, quite different from the unattainable arrogance of her mother-in-law, Queen Mary. .

She and her daughter looked like “people like us”, even though they were born, lived and died in the highest echelons of the British nobility. Elizabeth II, when she appeared dressed in everyday clothes, resembled a middle-class housewife going shopping at the greengrocer’s. Nothing further from reality, of course, but visual impressions have subliminal power.

In addition to her opaque personality and plebeian appearance, there is another factor that explains Elizabeth II’s success: her absolute dedication to the position. The queen had an exalted sense of duty, and she submitted to every engagement that was required of her: travel, receptions, openings, videos with Paddington or James Bond.

Poor Charles 3rd. The new king, who ascends to the throne carrying considerable baggage and a popularity far below that of his mother, has an impossible mission to accomplish. As they say in English, he needs to “fill in the shoes” of his predecessor, who exercised with the greatest grace possible one of the most watched and talked about roles on the planet.

And, no matter how well he does, he will hardly be known only as “the king.” When we said “the queen”, everyone knew who it was.