vox--2020-11-25--Canned cranberry sauce, explained

Canned cranberry sauce, explained

This is jellied cranberry sauce .
It is an American tradition .
Like so many American traditions , including Thanksgiving itself , its existence is controversial .
It is a feat of engineering .
It is a culinary wonder .
It is an abomination , some say , slandering the cranberry ’ s good name .
Thanksgiving will look different this year , as we observe it from the relative safety of our separate pods .
But jellied cranberry sauce will look exactly the same .
It always does .
It may wobble , in these tumultuous times , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jellied cranberry sauce is a substance that defies easy categorization .
What is jellied cranberry sauce , and is it sauce ?
No .
Also yes .
By any standard definition of the category , jellied cranberry sauce would not qualify as “ sauce.
” A sauce , according to What ’ s Cooking America , the nation ’ s “ most trusted culinary resource since 1997 ” ( according to itself ) , is a “ liquid or semi-liquid [ food ] devised to make other foods look , smell , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easily digested and more beneficial.
” Wikipedia , my personal most trusted culinary resource , agrees that “ sauces are not normally consumed by themselves , ” and that a liquid component is essential .
Jellied cranberry sauce — that majestic , jiggling store-bought log — does not meet these criteria : Clearly , it is a solid .
In fact , one of its primary features is that it does not bleed , unwanted , into other elements of a meal .
This is because it is a solid , which , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true sauce-hood , while also differentiating it from its purer sibling : whole cranberry sauce .
Whole cranberry sauce is what you ’ d most likely make , were you to follow the recipe on the back of a bag of whole cranberries , though it can also be purchased in a can .
Unlike the jiggling cranberry towers , the whole-berry version can be spooned out , sauce-like , over other elements of the meal .
It is the whole-berry version that is “ cranberry sauce.
” The jellied cylinder qualifies as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legacy applicant at Yale .
Yet it is beloved — not as a sauce , exactly , but as a food group of its own .
Indeed , it is so different from the whole-berry version that many Thanksgiving hosts serve both , in two separate dishes , side by side .
And deep down , they are not so different after all : Whole cranberry sauce indeed involves whole berries .
Jellied cranberry sauce goes through much the same process , but it is heavily strained , removing elements of nature — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its perfect silken texture .
Where did it come from ?
The history of cranberry sauce — in general , not jellied — goes back to indigenous people , who gathered the wild berries , using them for all sorts of things : textile dyes , medicines , cooking .
According to the Washington Post , a report from the colonies , circa 1672 , reported that “ Indians and English use it much , boyling them with Sugar for a Sauce to eat with their Meat , ” though it did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until more than 100 years later .
In Amelia Simmons ’ s 1796 tome , American Cookery , she suggests serving roast turkey with “ boiled onions and cranberry sauce.
” ( As an alternative , the Post notes , she proposed pickled mangoes . )
But it did not become a requirement of Thanksgiving dinners until General Ulysses S. Grant served it , alongside designated Thanksgiving turkey , to Union soldiers during the siege of Petersburg in 1864 .
“ That sort of solidifies its place as part of Thanksgiving nationally , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ affairs for Ocean Spray , tells me .
Cranberries themselves , she points out , only grow in five states , even now : Wisconsin grows the most , followed by Massachusetts , New Jersey , Oregon , and Washington state .
( Also , British Columbia and Quebec . )
All of that is only context for what happened less than 50 years later : the introduction of canned jellied cranberry sauce , a testament to the possibilities of American ingenuity .
Cranberries are delicate fruits .
They are “ picky when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explains K. Annabelle Smith at Smithsonian.com .
“ Because they are traditionally grown in natural wetlands , they need a lot of water .
During the long , cold winter months , they also require a period of dormancy which rules out any southern region of the US as an option for cranberry farming.
” This reality put a cap on possibilities of the cranberry market : There are only so many cold-weather bogs to go around .
Then in the very early 1910s , Marcus Urann , a lawyer who abandoned his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — and would go on to become one of the founders of what would become Ocean Spray — began canning the stuff as a way to sell the seasonal berry year-round .
The cranberry harvest lasts six weeks , Robert Cox , a co-author of Massachusetts Cranberry Culture : A History from Bog to Table , told Smithsonian .
“ Before canning technology , the product had to be consumed immediately and the rest of the year there was almost no market.
” Then suddenly , there was .
The jellied log became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was forever changed .
Ocean Spray , currently the world ’ s largest grower of cranberries , sells roughly 80 percent of its jellied sauce for the year Thanksgiving week .
( There are also miniature peaks around Christmas , Easter , and the Super Bowl , thanks to a cult recipe for “ Ultimate Party Meatballs.
” ) Ocean Spray makes 70 million cans of jellied cranberry sauce , which Dignan observes amounts to one for every American family .
It is wildly more popular than canned whole-berry sauce ; three cans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can of whole-berry .
Every jellied can requires 220 cranberries .
“ What ’ s interesting about cranberry sauce is that three-quarters of Americans use store-bought sauce for their Thanksgiving , ” Dignan muses .
“ It really is the only thing on the table that the majority of people don ’ t just buy but want to buy.
” Making your own cranberry sauce is much easier than roasting your own turkey , or making your own stuffing , or baking your own pie .
It is arguably even easier than throwing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apparently how people celebrate , healthfully , on the West Coast .
It takes 15 minutes , some sugar , and a saucepan .
Yet it is our favorite thing to buy .
Here is Chris Cillizza of CNN , weighing in with passion : Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post agrees , as does , apparently , Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown .
Nowhere is this is truer than in the southeastern United States , where they grow no cranberries at all .
The biggest state for canned cranberry sauce consumption is Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explain this , it has , Dignan says , always been true .
In an age where processed food is in decline , one might imagine that canned cranberry sauce would be struggling .
But according to Dignan , it is not .
Seventy-six percent of people buy the stuff .
“ I wouldn ’ t say cranberry sauce is something that ’ s expanding in terms of our portfolio — we ’ re not seeing tons of year over year growth , ” she says , but sales are “ amazingly steady.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nostalgia to it , ” she suggests .
“ There ’ s something about taking it out of the can and sort of that noise it makes and slicing it and it ’ s very uniquely American.
” They don ’ t even sell canned cranberry sauce overseas , she says ; they package it like a spread , in glass jars .
The appeal is in its timelessness .
“ There ’ s something about the fact that it hasn ’ t changed much .
Even if someone doesn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole rest of the year , I think , for some reason , cranberry sauce really speaks to them , ” she says .
She is not alone in her assessment of the non-sauce sauce ’ s appeal .
“ How can you beat the tangy , sweet flavor of store-bought cranberry sauce , ” said one taste tester at Bon Appétit .
At Fortune , Clifton Leaf vigorously defended the “ jiggly , wiggly mold of tartness.
” The jellied slices , he wrote , go “ down easy , like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a whiff of history.
” Are there dissenters ?
Of course .
As there should be .
This is America .
“ The wobbly crimson substance added nothing to my Thanksgiving enjoyment , unlike my mother ’ s lemon-zested , multi-spiced version , ” lamented Gwen Ihnat at the Takeout .
“ Once you take the time to make a fresh cranberry or lingonberry jam in its place , you ’ ll never go back , ” Jim Stein , executive chef at McCrady ’ s , told Food & Wine , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lingonberries cooked down in a little bit of sugar , cinnamon , star anise , and orange juice/zest.
” ( Dissenters love to zest . )
The exquisite beauty of the great jellied cranberry debate is that unlike many divisions — between families , between nations — it does not matter .
Celebrate your freedom .
Dance like no one ’ s watching ; love like you ’ ve never been hurt ; eat your cranberries in the gelatinous form of your choice .

This is jellied cranberry sauce. It is an American tradition. Like so many American traditions, including Thanksgiving itself, its existence is controversial. It is a feat of engineering. It is a culinary wonder. It is an abomination, some say, slandering the cranberry’s good name.
Thanksgiving will look different this year, as we observe it from the relative safety of our separate pods. But jellied cranberry sauce will look exactly the same. It always does. It may wobble, in these tumultuous times, but it will never break.
And yet jellied cranberry sauce is a substance that defies easy categorization.
What is jellied cranberry sauce, and is it sauce?
No. Also yes. By any standard definition of the category, jellied cranberry sauce would not qualify as “sauce.” A sauce, according to What’s Cooking America, the nation’s “most trusted culinary resource since 1997” (according to itself), is a “liquid or semi-liquid [food] devised to make other foods look, smell, and taste better, and hence be more easily digested and more beneficial.” Wikipedia, my personal most trusted culinary resource, agrees that “sauces are not normally consumed by themselves,” and that a liquid component is essential.
Jellied cranberry sauce — that majestic, jiggling store-bought log — does not meet these criteria: Clearly, it is a solid. In fact, one of its primary features is that it does not bleed, unwanted, into other elements of a meal. This is because it is a solid, which, by crowdsourced definition, disqualifies it from true sauce-hood, while also differentiating it from its purer sibling: whole cranberry sauce.
Whole cranberry sauce is what you’d most likely make, were you to follow the recipe on the back of a bag of whole cranberries, though it can also be purchased in a can. Unlike the jiggling cranberry towers, the whole-berry version can be spooned out, sauce-like, over other elements of the meal. It is the whole-berry version that is “cranberry sauce.” The jellied cylinder qualifies as sauce only by relation, like a legacy applicant at Yale.
Yet it is beloved — not as a sauce, exactly, but as a food group of its own. Indeed, it is so different from the whole-berry version that many Thanksgiving hosts serve both, in two separate dishes, side by side. And deep down, they are not so different after all: Whole cranberry sauce indeed involves whole berries. Jellied cranberry sauce goes through much the same process, but it is heavily strained, removing elements of nature — skin, seeds — that would impede its perfect silken texture.
Where did it come from?
The history of cranberry sauce — in general, not jellied — goes back to indigenous people, who gathered the wild berries, using them for all sorts of things: textile dyes, medicines, cooking. According to the Washington Post, a report from the colonies, circa 1672, reported that “Indians and English use it much, boyling them with Sugar for a Sauce to eat with their Meat,” though it did not come into fashion as a turkey-specific accompaniment until more than 100 years later.
In Amelia Simmons’s 1796 tome, American Cookery, she suggests serving roast turkey with “boiled onions and cranberry sauce.” (As an alternative, the Post notes, she proposed pickled mangoes.) But it did not become a requirement of Thanksgiving dinners until General Ulysses S. Grant served it, alongside designated Thanksgiving turkey, to Union soldiers during the siege of Petersburg in 1864.
“That sort of solidifies its place as part of Thanksgiving nationally,” Kellyanne Dignan, director of global affairs for Ocean Spray, tells me. Cranberries themselves, she points out, only grow in five states, even now: Wisconsin grows the most, followed by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington state. (Also, British Columbia and Quebec.)
All of that is only context for what happened less than 50 years later: the introduction of canned jellied cranberry sauce, a testament to the possibilities of American ingenuity.
Cranberries are delicate fruits. They are “picky when it comes to growing conditions,” explains K. Annabelle Smith at Smithsonian.com. “Because they are traditionally grown in natural wetlands, they need a lot of water. During the long, cold winter months, they also require a period of dormancy which rules out any southern region of the US as an option for cranberry farming.” This reality put a cap on possibilities of the cranberry market: There are only so many cold-weather bogs to go around.
Then in the very early 1910s, Marcus Urann, a lawyer who abandoned his first career to buy a cranberry bog — and would go on to become one of the founders of what would become Ocean Spray — began canning the stuff as a way to sell the seasonal berry year-round. The cranberry harvest lasts six weeks, Robert Cox, a co-author of Massachusetts Cranberry Culture: A History from Bog to Table, told Smithsonian. “Before canning technology, the product had to be consumed immediately and the rest of the year there was almost no market.” Then suddenly, there was.
The jellied log became available nationwide in 1941. Thanksgiving history was forever changed. Ocean Spray, currently the world’s largest grower of cranberries, sells roughly 80 percent of its jellied sauce for the year Thanksgiving week. (There are also miniature peaks around Christmas, Easter, and the Super Bowl, thanks to a cult recipe for “Ultimate Party Meatballs.”)
Americans love buying jellied cranberry sauce
Ocean Spray makes 70 million cans of jellied cranberry sauce, which Dignan observes amounts to one for every American family. It is wildly more popular than canned whole-berry sauce; three cans of jellied are sold for every one can of whole-berry. Every jellied can requires 220 cranberries.
“What’s interesting about cranberry sauce is that three-quarters of Americans use store-bought sauce for their Thanksgiving,” Dignan muses. “It really is the only thing on the table that the majority of people don’t just buy but want to buy.”
Making your own cranberry sauce is much easier than roasting your own turkey, or making your own stuffing, or baking your own pie. It is arguably even easier than throwing together your own salad, which is apparently how people celebrate, healthfully, on the West Coast. It takes 15 minutes, some sugar, and a saucepan. Yet it is our favorite thing to buy.
Here is Chris Cillizza of CNN, weighing in with passion:
But seriously: The cranberry sauce in the can is the best. https://t.co/73a5G4i61n — Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) November 20, 2018
Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post agrees, as does, apparently, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Cillizza is 100 percent right here -- if the cranberry sauce doesn't have can lines I'm not eating it https://t.co/rJscVFf8YN — Wesley (@WesleyLowery) November 20, 2018
See, this is what I mean. You think you know somebody & then they come at you with crazy talk. Canned cranberry blob is a @SenSherrodBrown thing, too, and he should have told me that way before we said, “I do.” Some things a woman needs to know early. https://t.co/BIsgK1ckTX — Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) November 20, 2018
Nowhere is this is truer than in the southeastern United States, where they grow no cranberries at all. The biggest state for canned cranberry sauce consumption is Georgia, and while she cannot exactly explain this, it has, Dignan says, always been true.
In an age where processed food is in decline, one might imagine that canned cranberry sauce would be struggling. But according to Dignan, it is not. Seventy-six percent of people buy the stuff. “I wouldn’t say cranberry sauce is something that’s expanding in terms of our portfolio — we’re not seeing tons of year over year growth,” she says, but sales are “amazingly steady.”
“I think there’s a nostalgia to it,” she suggests. “There’s something about taking it out of the can and sort of that noise it makes and slicing it and it’s very uniquely American.” They don’t even sell canned cranberry sauce overseas, she says; they package it like a spread, in glass jars.
The appeal is in its timelessness. “There’s something about the fact that it hasn’t changed much. Even if someone doesn’t eat anything out of a can the whole rest of the year, I think, for some reason, cranberry sauce really speaks to them,” she says. She is not alone in her assessment of the non-sauce sauce’s appeal.
“How can you beat the tangy, sweet flavor of store-bought cranberry sauce,” said one taste tester at Bon Appétit. At Fortune, Clifton Leaf vigorously defended the “jiggly, wiggly mold of tartness.” The jellied slices, he wrote, go “down easy, like a slippery jam, potent with berry flavor and a whiff of history.”
Are there dissenters? Of course. As there should be. This is America. “The wobbly crimson substance added nothing to my Thanksgiving enjoyment, unlike my mother’s lemon-zested, multi-spiced version,” lamented Gwen Ihnat at the Takeout. “Once you take the time to make a fresh cranberry or lingonberry jam in its place, you’ll never go back,” Jim Stein, executive chef at McCrady’s, told Food & Wine, proposing instead a version with “fresh lingonberries cooked down in a little bit of sugar, cinnamon, star anise, and orange juice/zest.” (Dissenters love to zest.)
The exquisite beauty of the great jellied cranberry debate is that unlike many divisions — between families, between nations — it does not matter. Celebrate your freedom. Dance like no one’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt; eat your cranberries in the gelatinous form of your choice.


vox--2020-11-25--What happens to Black Friday crowds in a pandemic?

Even before the coronavirus pandemic changed everything about , well , everything , Black Friday was already on its last legs .
The post-Thanksgiving shopping holiday kept creeping up earlier and earlier .
Retailers started opening their stores before dawn on Friday , then at midnight , encouraging shoppers to wait in line for doorbusters before they had even finished digesting their turkey and mashed potatoes .
Eventually they threw caution to the wind and started opening on Thursday afternoons , well before most people had gotten a chance to eat dinner at all .
This year , thanks to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has become even more nebulous , with major retailers emphasizing online shopping and offering month-long sales to keep crowds at bay .
And with good reason : a Deloitte survey found that more than half of shoppers polled are anxious about shopping in stores during the holiday season , not just on Black Friday but in the time leading up to the winter holidays as well .
Another survey , by Accenture , found that 61 percent of respondents plan on limiting their in-store shopping time , not only to keep themselves safe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well .
More than half of shoppers polled are anxious about shopping in stores during the holiday season .
Nothing says “ super spreader event ” quite like a crowd of hundreds of people — many of whom just finished having a lengthy indoor meal with friends or relatives who may or may not have traveled across the country — gathered outside a store .
A traditional Black Friday wouldn ’ t just be dangerous for shoppers ; it ’ d also be dangerous for store employees , who already have to work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ order to avoid that worst-case scenario , many big retailers are changing the structure of their Black Friday sales , extending them for weeks and encouragingonline shopping .
Walmart , for example , is stretching its sales across three weeks .
The retailer had a November 4 online sale followed by a November 7 in-person sale , a November 11 online sale followed by an in-person sale three days later , and is having a final online sale on November 25 , with its last in-person sale happening on Black Friday proper .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be safer and more manageable for both our customers and our associates , ” Scott McCall , Walmart ’ s executive Vice President and chief merchandising officer , said in a press release .
For each of the three in-person sales , customers are being asked to wait in a single-file line outside the store .
Employees — including a designated “ health ambassador ” — will greet customers , ask them to put on masks , and let them into the store in batches .
Stores will be kept at 20 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to the Associated Press .
Customers will be given sanitized shopping carts .
Target , arguably Walmart ’ s biggest competitor , is taking a similar approach .
The retailer is having several week-long sales over the course of November .
Like Walmart , Target will limit the number of customers who can be present in any given store at a time , though it ’ s unclear what those limits will be .
When asked whether stores would be operating at limited capacity , a spokesperson told The Goods that stores @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social distancing guidance throughout our stores and key areas like our check lanes .
We also continue to follow local government mandates.
” Target is encouraging customers to reserve spots in line ahead of time , and said it ’ ll let customers check online to see if there ’ s a line at their local store before heading over .
Rather than waiting in a physical line , customers will get a text telling them when it ’ s their turn to enter the store , presumably to allow people to wait @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in clusters outside the store .
Several retailers are also expanding curbside pickup to include sale items , another tactic to encourage customers to shop online instead of in-store .
Target , Walmart , Best Buy , and Macy ’ s are all expanding curbside pickup for this reason .
Both Macy ’ s and Best Buy will be closed on Thanksgiving Day , harkening back to a time when Black Friday was a single-day event rather than a weekend-long one .
That said , both retailers have extended their sales throughout the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Thanksgiving , both Best Buy and Macy ’ s had sales throughout November .
JCPenney , another major Black Friday retailer , is having an eight-day sale .
While traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are trying to encourage customers to shop online , Amazon is playing up its in-person offerings .
It may seem counterintuitive , given Amazon ’ s delivery-focused business model , but according to RetailDive , the digital retailer is also focusing on alternatives to home delivery .
Getting packages delivered may be safer , but given the uptick in online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ orders being delayed or even lost .
For that reason , Amazon is emphasizing its “ alternative delivery locations ” for customers “ in more than 900 cities and towns across the U.S. ” Though Amazon is a primarily online retailer , it does have Amazon 4-star stores , Amazon Bookstores , and delivery hubs inside some Whole Foods locations .
Retailers are largely framing their pandemic-era Black Friday plans as a way of protecting customers and encouraging them to feel safe , but there ’ s also the matter of worker safety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the option of picking up their items at the door or getting a text when it ’ s their turn to shop , retail workers will still be expected to do what they ’ ve been doing throughout the pandemic : greet customers , help them find what they ’ re looking for , ring them up , and hope that they don ’ t get exposed to the virus .
During the spring coronavirus surge , many retailers offered hazard pay to their workers .
As the New York Times recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stopped .
Walmart , for example , offered workers cash bonuses but never raised their wages .
A few companies are still offering extra pay , however : a JCPenney spokesperson told The Goods that the brand still offers hazard pay to its workers .
Nearly every major retailer has said they ’ ll require all customers and employees to wear masks while in stores , a precaution that is particularly important during crowded sales .
However , mask enforcement will be left to hourly employees or managers , who may have little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In October , the Times reported that the National Retail Federation had a new partnership with the Crisis Prevention Institute to teach workers how to prevent and deescalate disputes with shoppers who refuse to wear masks or follow other safety precautions .
“ This is one additional opportunity for our retailers to say : ‘ Our staff members are trained .
If there is an incident , they will handle it and you will be safe shopping , ’ ” Bill Thorne , the executive director of the National Retail Federation , told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned stores against doing that very thing .
In August , the health agency told retailers that their employees should refrain from arguing with anti-maskers , because they could become violent .
It ’ s essentially a choice between asking employees to be potentially exposed to coronavirus and asking them to be potentially exposed to coronavirus and a violent attack .
Ultimately , this year ’ s Black Friday is a balancing act between keeping customers safe , keeping workers safe , and perhaps most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ongoing logistical and financial side effects of a pandemic that seems to have no end in sight .

Even before the coronavirus pandemic changed everything about, well, everything, Black Friday was already on its last legs. The post-Thanksgiving shopping holiday kept creeping up earlier and earlier. Retailers started opening their stores before dawn on Friday, then at midnight, encouraging shoppers to wait in line for doorbusters before they had even finished digesting their turkey and mashed potatoes. Eventually they threw caution to the wind and started opening on Thursday afternoons, well before most people had gotten a chance to eat dinner at all.
This year, due to the seemingly endless pandemic, Black Friday has become even more nebulous, with major retailers emphasizing online shopping and offering month-long sales to keep crowds at bay. And with good reason: A Deloitte survey found that more than half of shoppers polled are anxious about shopping in stores during the holiday season, not just on Black Friday but in the time leading up to the winter holidays as well. Another survey, by Accenture, found that 61 percent of respondents plan on limiting their in-store shopping time, to keep themselves and essential workers safe.
More than half of shoppers polled are anxious about shopping in stores during the holiday season
Nothing says “superspreader event” quite like a crowd of hundreds of people — many of whom just finished having a lengthy indoor meal with friends or relatives who may or may not have traveled across the country — gathered outside a store. A traditional Black Friday wouldn’t just be dangerous for shoppers; it’d also be dangerous for store employees, who already have to work long hours on the holiday.
In order to avoid that worst-case scenario, many big retailers are changing the structure of their Black Friday sales, extending them for weeks and encouraging online shopping. Walmart, for example, is stretching its sales across three weeks. The retailer had a November 4 online sale followed by a November 7 in-person sale, plus a November 11 online sale followed by an in-person sale three days later, and is having a final online sale on November 25, with its last in-person sale happening on Black Friday proper. Spreading the sales across three weeks “will be safer and more manageable for both our customers and our associates,” Scott McCall, Walmart’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, said in a press release.
For each of the three in-person sales, customers are being asked to wait in a single-file line outside the store. Employees — including a designated “health ambassador” — will greet customers, ask them to put on masks, and let them into the store in batches. Stores will be kept at 20 percent capacity to facilitate physical distancing, according to the Associated Press. Customers will be given sanitized shopping carts.
Target, arguably Walmart’s biggest competitor, is taking a similar approach. The retailer is having several week-long sales through November. Like Walmart, Target will limit the number of customers who can be present in any given store at a time, though it’s unclear what those limits will be. When asked whether stores would operate at limited capacity, a spokesperson told The Goods that stores’ “capacities account for six feet social distancing guidance throughout our stores and key areas like our check lanes. We also continue to follow local government mandates.”
Target is encouraging customers to reserve spots in line ahead of time, and said it will let customers check online to see if there’s a line at their local store before heading over. Rather than waiting in a physical line, customers will get a text telling them when it’s their turn to enter the store, presumably to allow people to wait in their cars or homes rather than in clusters outside the store.
Several retailers are also expanding curbside pickup to include sale items, another tactic to encourage customers to shop online instead of in store. Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Macy’s are all expanding curbside pickup for this reason. Both Macy’s and Best Buy will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, harking back to a time when Black Friday was a single-day event rather than a weekend-long one. That said, both retailers have extended their sales throughout the month. While they may be closed on Thanksgiving, both Best Buy and Macy’s had sales throughout November. J.C. Penney, another major Black Friday retailer, is having an eight-day sale.
While traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are trying to encourage customers to shop online, Amazon is playing up its in-person offerings. It may seem counterintuitive, given Amazon’s delivery-focused business model, but according to RetailDive, the digital retailer is also focusing on alternatives to home delivery. Getting packages delivered may be safer, but given the uptick in online shopping, it could also lead to orders being delayed or even lost. For that reason, Amazon is emphasizing its “alternative delivery locations” for customers “in more than 900 cities and towns across the U.S.” Though Amazon is a primarily online retailer, it does have Amazon 4-star stores, Amazon Bookstores, and delivery hubs inside some Whole Foods locations.
Retailers are largely framing their pandemic-era Black Friday plans as a way of protecting customers and encouraging them to feel safe, but there’s also the matter of worker safety. Unlike shoppers, who have the option of picking up their items at the door or getting a text when it’s their turn to shop, retail workers will still be expected to do what they’ve been doing throughout the pandemic: greet customers, help them find what they’re looking for, ring them up, and hope that they don’t get exposed to the virus.
During the spring coronavirus surge, many retailers offered hazard pay to their workers. As the New York Times recently reported, most major retailers have since stopped. Walmart, for example, offered workers cash bonuses but never raised their wages. A few companies are still offering extra pay, however: A J.C. Penney spokesperson told The Goods that the brand still offers hazard pay to its workers.
Nearly every major retailer has said they’ll require all customers and employees to wear masks while in stores, a precaution that is particularly important during crowded sales. However, mask enforcement will be left to hourly employees or managers, who may have little recourse when dealing with hostile customers. In October, the Times reported that the National Retail Federation had a new partnership with the Crisis Prevention Institute to teach workers how to prevent and deescalate disputes with shoppers who refuse to wear masks or follow other safety precautions.
“This is one additional opportunity for our retailers to say: ‘Our staff members are trained. If there is an incident, they will handle it and you will be safe shopping,’” Bill Thorne, the executive director of the National Retail Federation, told the Times.
But earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned stores against doing that very thing. In August, the health agency told retailers that their employees should refrain from arguing with anti-maskers, because they could become violent. It’s essentially a choice between asking employees to be potentially exposed to the coronavirus and asking them to be potentially exposed to the coronavirus and a violent attack.
Ultimately, this year’s Black Friday is a balancing act between keeping customers safe, keeping workers safe, and, perhaps most importantly for retailers, dealing with the ongoing logistical and financial side effects of a pandemic that seems to have no end in sight.


vox--2020-11-25--A delicious feast of food movies

A delicious feast of food movies

In the US , it ’ s the week of Thanksgiving , and a very unusual one .
With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic hampering travel and families rethinking their celebrations in pursuit of safety , the holiday defined by a feast looks different for a lot of people .
But it ’ s still a feast , even if it ’ s on Zoom .
And after any feast , the best thing to do is curl up on the couch with a slice of pumpkin pie , a cup of something warm , and a delicious , joyful food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ screen for a long , long time , using food to evoke desire , love , loneliness , bounty , happiness , and a lot more .
And there are many to take in , whether you ’ re craving a little cinematic confectionery or a grand banquet .
Here are 10 great films you can stream about feasts , food , family , and what cooking and eating teach us about being human .
Based on a story by Isak Dinesen , Babette ’ s Feast is about a sect of austere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remote Denmark coast in the 19th century .
They are led by the elderly daughters of the sect ’ s founder , they view pleasures as a distraction from God , and they eat only bland food .
But their lives are upended when Babette ( Stéphane Audran ) shows up at the women ’ s home , seeking refuge from violence in her native Paris .
They ’ re suspicious of her .
But she offers to work for free , and stays with them for 14 years , gaining their trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lottery , and instead of using the money to finally go back home , she uses it to prepare a lavish feast in honor of the sect ’ s founder .
And that feast — both in the story and as an on-screen repast — becomes legendary .
How to watch it : Babette ’ s Feast is streaming for subscribers on HBO Max .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon .
If you want a comedy with heart and a pitch-perfect ending ... Watch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Tony Shalhoub ( need I say more ? )
play brothers , Italian immigrants to the US , who open a restaurant that is suffering for business because their customers ’ tastes lean more toward Italian-American food .
Vexed and facing a shutdown , they reach out to a friend who arranges for a famous jazz singer to attend a fancy dinner at the restaurant and thereby drum up business .
They prepare a sumptuous meal and invite their friends but , of course , nothing goes as planned .
Tucci co-wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and it ’ s wonderful : A bittersweet movie about a feast that is , itself , a feast .
How to watch it : Big Night is available to stream for Amazon Prime subscribers and for free ( with ads ) on Pluto .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , YouTube , Vudu , and Google Play .
For a satisfying portrait of one of the greatest food critics of all time ... See City of Gold ( 2016 ) City of Gold , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food critic Jonathan Gold , is among the best food documentaries ever made , largely because it isn ’ t just about food ; it ’ s about loving a place through being a critic .
Directed by Laura Gabbert ( who also directed Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles ) , the film follows Gold as he drives his green pickup truck through LA , eating at a handful of hole-in-the-wall strip mall restaurants that most people just blithely sail past , talking about his career and his approach to his work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not just of a writer but of a city , and it ’ s a kind of master class in how good critics think , work , and live .
How to watch it : City of Gold is available to stream on Amazon Prime for subscribers with the IFC add-on subscription .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase from iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
For an experimental doc-fiction hybrid with a philosophical edge ... Watch Feast of the Epiphany ( 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most experimental and daring of the films on this list , and one that will haunt you after it ’ s over .
The first half is a scripted , fictional drama set in a New York apartment at an Epiphany dinner ( celebrated by some Christians on January 6 , traditionally the day the Magi arrived at the stable where the infant Jesus lay in a manger ) .
The second half is a documentary centering on Roxbury Farms in upstate New York , where a team of farmers raise food and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michael Koresky , Jeff Reichert , and Farihah Zaman , it ’ s a diptych in which the two halves echo and mirror one another implicitly , and make us think about the role that food plays in our lives — both as social beings and creatures of the earth .
How to watch it : Feast of the Epiphany is available to digitally rent on Vimeo through November 29 .
For a modest drama about capitalism , male friendship , and baking ... Watch First Cow ( 2020 ) Kelly Reichardt ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19th-century frontier settlement somewhere in Oregon , near the Columbia River , populated by people who are living in tiny houses and trying to scratch out a living in the New World , as well as the First Nations people who ’ ve been there for generations .
Into that settlement , a cow arrives , setting off a chain of events that are both momentous and small .
But the film is about much more than just that .
First Cow is also a gentle ( and gently devastating ) tale about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ share your aspirations and dreams with , and , most deliciously , about cooking .
( Don ’ t be surprised if you have a craving for blueberry clafoutis when it ’ s done . )
And it ’ s also about the kinds of constructed hierarchies — based on factors like race , class , money , and firepower — that seem to be imposed on the world wherever new civilizations pop up .
How to watch it : First Cow is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ With a Showtime add-on , it ’ s available to stream on Hulu .
For a side of family drama along with a portrait of an artist whose medium is raw fish ... Watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi ( 2011 ) An entire documentary about sushi ?
Well , not exactly .
Jiro Dreams of Sushi ( made by the same team behind Netflix ’ s Chef ’ s Table series ) is a gentle , meditative , and entrancing portrait of Jiro Ono , considered possibly the greatest sushi chef in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sushi for a long time in his small , exquisite restaurant , which is inside a subway station in Tokyo .
It ’ s a story of true dedication to art , as well as the pressure his sons feel to follow in their father ’ s footsteps .
Order some tuna rolls beforehand and make an evening of it .
How to watch it : Jiro Dreams of Sushi is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
A time-spanning tale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ love ...
Try Julie & Julia ( 2009 ) Meryl Streep as Julia Child may go down as one of the best casting choices of the century , but the entirety of Julie & Julia — written and directed by Nora Ephron — is just as delightful .
Amy Adams plays Julie Powell ( on whose memoir the movie is based ) , who in 2002 has a stressful job answering phone calls about plans to rebuild the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terror attacks .
She begins cooking ( and blogging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking , much to the amusement of her supportive husband ( Chris Messina ) .
The film cuts between 2002 and the 1950s , when Child and her husband Paul ( Stanley Tucci ) are in France , and Child is just learning to cook .
The result is a movie about marriage , love , and the healing power of food , and its feeling runs deeper than its chipper exterior initially suggests .
How to watch it : Julie & Julia is streaming for free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for subscribers on Hulu with the Showtime add-on subscription .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
If you ’ re looking for an unpretentious , outside-the-box romance , try ...
The Lunchbox ( 2013 ) The Lunchbox is a gentle romance between two people who communicate through food .
Ila ( Nimrat Kaur ) is trying to rekindle her husband ’ s love for her by sending him sumptuous lunches at work .
When the courier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Khan ) becomes the accidental recipient of one of these meals and starts to wonder about the cook behind it .
When they both realize the mistake , they start sending small notes to one another , and a friendship that fills both their lonely hearts begins to blossom .
Not only is The Lunchbox a sweet film , but it ’ s a delicious one ; be sure to have your favorite biryani or saag paneer on hand , or your stomach will be growling .
How to watch it : The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
For a kinky , brilliant reminder of food ’ s place in our domestic lives ... Watch Phantom Thread ( 2017 ) Phantom Thread masquerades as a film about fashion , but everybody who ’ s seen it knows it ’ s really about food .
That ’ s clear from the start : The central romance ’ s meet-cute occurs in a hotel restaurant , in which Daniel Day-Lewis ( playing finicky couture designer Reynolds Woodcock ) orders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a poached egg , bacon , scones , butter , cream , jam , a pot of lapsang souchong tea .
And some sausages.
” And once you ’ ve seen the movie , you ’ ll never look at a mushroom omelet the same way again .
How to watch it : Phantom Thread is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
For a family-friendly reminder that cooking is an art ... Watch Ratatouille ( 2007 ) Ratatouille is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who wants to be a chef but is , well , a rat .
Yet through a series of unlikely events , he becomes a chef in the kitchen of an upscale Paris restaurant .
As much a reminder of the power of criticism as the power of art , Ratatouille boasts some memorable meals , and an indelible scene in which Remy — trying to coax his fellow rats into actually tasting their food — experiences a true fantasia of flavor , rendered in visual form .
It ’ s a delight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ How to watch it : Ratatouille is available for subscribers to stream on Disney+ .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
5 more movies to please your palate and whet your appetite ... • Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ( 2009 ) , available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
Read Roger Ebert ’ s review .
• Eat Drink Man Woman ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , or Vudu .
Listen to the episode of the Blank Check podcast on the movie .
• Goodfellas ( 1990 ) , available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
Here ’ s how to cook the pasta sauce from the movie .
• Tampopo ( 1987 ) , available for subscribers to stream on HBO Max , or to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s favorite film .
• The Trip series — including The Trip ( 2010 ) , The Trip to Italy ( 2014 ) , The Trip to Spain ( 2017 ) , and The Trip to Greece ( 2020 ) — are streaming for subscribers on Hulu .
They ’ re also available to digitally rent or purchase on various platforms ; The Trip , for instance , is on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , and Google Play .
Here ’ s an introduction to the series following the final installment @ @ @ @

In the US, it’s the week of Thanksgiving, and a very unusual one. With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic hampering travel and families rethinking their celebrations in pursuit of safety, the holiday defined by a feast looks different for a lot of people.
But it’s still a feast, even if it’s on Zoom. And after any feast, the best thing to do is curl up on the couch with a slice of pumpkin pie, a cup of something warm, and a delicious, joyful food movie.
Cinema has set feasts on screen for a long, long time, using food to evoke desire, love, loneliness, bounty, happiness, and a lot more. And there are many to take in, whether you’re craving a little cinematic confectionery or a grand banquet. Here are 10 great films you can stream about feasts, food, family, and what cooking and eating teach us about being human.
For a tale of feasts overcoming ascetic grimness ...
Try Babette’s Feast (1987)
Based on a story by Isak Dinesen, Babette’s Feast is about a sect of austere, severe religious people living on a remote Denmark coast in the 19th century. They are led by the elderly daughters of the sect’s founder, they view pleasures as a distraction from God, and they eat only bland food. But their lives are upended when Babette (Stéphane Audran) shows up at the women’s home, seeking refuge from violence in her native Paris. They’re suspicious of her. But she offers to work for free, and stays with them for 14 years, gaining their trust. One day, she wins the lottery, and instead of using the money to finally go back home, she uses it to prepare a lavish feast in honor of the sect’s founder. And that feast — both in the story and as an on-screen repast — becomes legendary.
How to watch it: Babette’s Feast is streaming for subscribers on HBO Max. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon.
If you want a comedy with heart and a pitch-perfect ending ...
Watch Big Night (1996)
Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub (need I say more?) play brothers, Italian immigrants to the US, who open a restaurant that is suffering for business because their customers’ tastes lean more toward Italian-American food. Vexed and facing a shutdown, they reach out to a friend who arranges for a famous jazz singer to attend a fancy dinner at the restaurant and thereby drum up business. They prepare a sumptuous meal and invite their friends but, of course, nothing goes as planned. Tucci co-wrote and co-directed Big Night with Campbell Scott, and it’s wonderful: A bittersweet movie about a feast that is, itself, a feast.
How to watch it: Big Night is available to stream for Amazon Prime subscribers and for free (with ads) on Pluto. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, YouTube, Vudu, and Google Play.
For a satisfying portrait of one of the greatest food critics of all time ...
See City of Gold (2016)
City of Gold, about the late and beloved Los Angeles food critic Jonathan Gold, is among the best food documentaries ever made, largely because it isn’t just about food; it’s about loving a place through being a critic. Directed by Laura Gabbert (who also directed Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles), the film follows Gold as he drives his green pickup truck through LA, eating at a handful of hole-in-the-wall strip mall restaurants that most people just blithely sail past, talking about his career and his approach to his work. It’s an illuminating portrait not just of a writer but of a city, and it’s a kind of master class in how good critics think, work, and live.
How to watch it: City of Gold is available to stream on Amazon Prime for subscribers with the IFC add-on subscription. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase from iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu.
For an experimental doc-fiction hybrid with a philosophical edge ...
Watch Feast of the Epiphany (2018)
Feast of the Epiphany is the most experimental and daring of the films on this list, and one that will haunt you after it’s over. The first half is a scripted, fictional drama set in a New York apartment at an Epiphany dinner (celebrated by some Christians on January 6, traditionally the day the Magi arrived at the stable where the infant Jesus lay in a manger). The second half is a documentary centering on Roxbury Farms in upstate New York, where a team of farmers raise food and live off the land. Directed by Michael Koresky, Jeff Reichert, and Farihah Zaman, it’s a diptych in which the two halves echo and mirror one another implicitly, and make us think about the role that food plays in our lives — both as social beings and creatures of the earth.
How to watch it: Feast of the Epiphany is available to digitally rent on Vimeo through November 29.
For a modest drama about capitalism, male friendship, and baking ...
Watch First Cow (2020)
Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow is set in a 19th-century frontier settlement somewhere in Oregon, near the Columbia River, populated by people who are living in tiny houses and trying to scratch out a living in the New World, as well as the First Nations people who’ve been there for generations. Into that settlement, a cow arrives, setting off a chain of events that are both momentous and small. But the film is about much more than just that. First Cow is also a gentle (and gently devastating) tale about male friendship, about finding someone to share your aspirations and dreams with, and, most deliciously, about cooking. (Don’t be surprised if you have a craving for blueberry clafoutis when it’s done.) And it’s also about the kinds of constructed hierarchies — based on factors like race, class, money, and firepower — that seem to be imposed on the world wherever new civilizations pop up.
How to watch it: First Cow is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, or Google Play. With a Showtime add-on, it’s available to stream on Hulu.
For a side of family drama along with a portrait of an artist whose medium is raw fish ...
Watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
An entire documentary about sushi? Well, not exactly. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (made by the same team behind Netflix’s Chef’s Table series) is a gentle, meditative, and entrancing portrait of Jiro Ono, considered possibly the greatest sushi chef in the world. He’s been making sushi for a long time in his small, exquisite restaurant, which is inside a subway station in Tokyo. It’s a story of true dedication to art, as well as the pressure his sons feel to follow in their father’s footsteps. Order some tuna rolls beforehand and make an evening of it.
How to watch it: Jiro Dreams of Sushi is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu.
A time-spanning tale of learning to cook and trying to love ...
Try Julie & Julia (2009)
Meryl Streep as Julia Child may go down as one of the best casting choices of the century, but the entirety of Julie & Julia — written and directed by Nora Ephron — is just as delightful. Amy Adams plays Julie Powell (on whose memoir the movie is based), who in 2002 has a stressful job answering phone calls about plans to rebuild the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terror attacks. She begins cooking (and blogging) through Julia Child’s classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, much to the amusement of her supportive husband (Chris Messina). The film cuts between 2002 and the 1950s, when Child and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) are in France, and Child is just learning to cook. The result is a movie about marriage, love, and the healing power of food, and its feeling runs deeper than its chipper exterior initially suggests.
How to watch it: Julie & Julia is streaming for free (with ads) on Amazon and for subscribers on Hulu with the Showtime add-on subscription. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
If you’re looking for an unpretentious, outside-the-box romance, try ...
The Lunchbox (2013)
The Lunchbox is a gentle romance between two people who communicate through food. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is trying to rekindle her husband’s love for her by sending him sumptuous lunches at work. When the courier screws up, Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) becomes the accidental recipient of one of these meals and starts to wonder about the cook behind it. When they both realize the mistake, they start sending small notes to one another, and a friendship that fills both their lonely hearts begins to blossom. Not only is The Lunchbox a sweet film, but it’s a delicious one; be sure to have your favorite biryani or saag paneer on hand, or your stomach will be growling.
How to watch it: The Lunchbox is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
For a kinky, brilliant reminder of food’s place in our domestic lives ...
Watch Phantom Thread (2017)
Phantom Thread masquerades as a film about fashion, but everybody who’s seen it knows it’s really about food. That’s clear from the start: The central romance’s meet-cute occurs in a hotel restaurant, in which Daniel Day-Lewis (playing finicky couture designer Reynolds Woodcock) orders a legendary meal of “Welsh rabbit with a poached egg, bacon, scones, butter, cream, jam, a pot of lapsang souchong tea. And some sausages.” And once you’ve seen the movie, you’ll never look at a mushroom omelet the same way again.
How to watch it: Phantom Thread is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
Related Phantom Thread tells a sumptuous story of fashion and kink that keeps viewers at a distance
For a family-friendly reminder that cooking is an art ...
Watch Ratatouille (2007)
Ratatouille is the tale of Remy the Rat, who wants to be a chef but is, well, a rat. Yet through a series of unlikely events, he becomes a chef in the kitchen of an upscale Paris restaurant. As much a reminder of the power of criticism as the power of art, Ratatouille boasts some memorable meals, and an indelible scene in which Remy — trying to coax his fellow rats into actually tasting their food — experiences a true fantasia of flavor, rendered in visual form. It’s a delight to return to again and again.
How to watch it: Ratatouille is available for subscribers to stream on Disney+. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu.
5 more movies to please your palate and whet your appetite ...


vox--2020-11-25--The pop cultural obsession with Princess Diana’s innocence, explained

Fame is a dragon .
We feed it with virgin sacrifices .
And was there ever a virgin sacrifice like Princess Diana ?
From the moment that Diana first appears on Netflix ’ s The Crown , a gawky 16-year-old tiptoeing away from Prince Charles with her supermodel face peeping out from behind a schoolgirl ’ s costume mask , a thread of electricity runs into the show : Ah , at last , there she is .
There is Princess Diana , who will win over a nation , rend the Windsors apart , and die young and beautiful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waiting for her .
We ’ ve been waiting for Diana to show up and liven things up with scandal .
And most importantly , we ’ ve been waiting for her to die .
Her death is built into the structure of the show , the moment we ’ ve all been waiting for it to catch up to .
What , after all , was the 2006 film The Queen — written by The Crown showrunner Peter Morgan and taking place in the days after the car accident that killed Diana @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that her death is the moment that must be the inevitable climax of The Crown ?
So The Crown lingers on the foreknowledge of that moment with exquisite care .
It features shot after shot of her slipping into the back seat of a black Mercedes like the one she died in ; shot after shot of the paparazzi coming in too close , just as they did on the night she died .
The Crown has been laying out a seven-course meal for seasons now , and Diana and her death are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about Diana ’ s story that is very appealing to us , because we repeat it so often .
Not just in tellings and retellings about Diana herself , but in the stories of other virgin sacrifices , other famous women who match the Diana archetype .
It ’ s the story of Marilyn Monroe .
It ’ s the story of Britney Spears .
It ’ s the story of the women whose combined innocence and sex appeal and star power makes the public worship them ; the story of women hounded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ using all that sex appeal and star power to make the public worship them on purpose , rather than out of sheer innocence .
It ’ s the story of the women we love to death .
Diana became famous for being accidentally sexy .
The contradiction was fundamental to her image .
The picture that made Princess Diana famous was taken when she was still known as Diana Spencer , before she was engaged to Prince Charles .
She was just his unremarkable new girlfriend , the one the tabloids had dubbed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ducking her head and laughing nervously when the paparazzi photographed her .
She didn ’ t strike the press , then , as particularly pretty or particularly special .
Then one day in 1980 , a photographer from the Evening Standard came to the kindergarten where Diana worked and asked to take a picture .
Diana posed outside with a couple of children from the classroom , and halfway through the shoot , the sun came out , backlighting Diana ’ s skirt .
The fabric went transparent , so that in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long legs form a striking silhouette .
“ I knew your legs were good , ” Prince Charles is said to have commented upon seeing the resulting news spread , “ but I didn ’ t realize they were that spectacular.
” From then on , whether or not a love affair blossomed between Diana and Charles , there was certainly a love affair blooming between Diana and the media .
And it wasn ’ t only because they had realized she was pretty .
Diana was a lovely girl , but there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prince Charles in 1980 .
What made the picture iconic , and what made Diana an instant sensation , is the fact that she clearly did not know her legs would be visible in the photograph , that she clearly had no intention of showing them off , and yet there they were anyway .
“ The picture was so obviously , and beguilingly , a show of inexperience , ” writes Tina Brown in The Diana Chronicles , the definitive Diana text .
“ The British public was instantly enchanted by this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sexuality , and affection for children.
” Diana would manage to preserve that contradiction all the way through to her wedding day .
“ I have never seen such a strong charge of innocently provocative sex , ” wrote one wedding guest in his diary afterward .
This idea that sex appeal is at its most appealing when it is unintentional , a product of innocence , is a familiar one .
The same idea was at the heart of Marilyn Monroe ’ s star image : that she couldn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just breathed naturally out of her .
“ She was our angel , the sweet angel of sex , ” wrote Norman Mailer of Marilyn , “ and the sugar of sex came up from her like a resonance of sound in the clearest grain of a violin.
” Marilyn helped along the idea that it was all pure accident , with frequent quotes that managed to sound both dirty and unintentional .
“ It ’ s not true I had nothing on , ” she said of her nude calendar photos .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ An insistence that Marilyn ’ s sexuality was a pure and natural accident she did not intend is part of why the famous photograph of Marilyn with her skirt flying up over the subway grate in The Seven-Year Itch became so indelible : As with Diana 25 years later , part of the play of the moment is that Marilyn doesn ’ t intend to show off her legs .
It ’ s not her fault .
Her skirt was caught by the passing breeze of a subway train .
She ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just like Diana with the sun .
It just happens .
In the 1990s , the media would perform a similar dance with a young Britney Spears and the newly released video for “ Baby One More Time , ” which features Spears in a tiny midriff-baring schoolgirl outfit .
The archetype of the sexy schoolgirl was already a play on the idea of adolescent innocence intertwined with adult sexuality , and whenever Spears spoke about it in public , she did so with wide-eyed incredulity at the idea that anyone would consider @ @ @ @ @ @ @ All I did was tie up my shirt !
” she told Rolling Stone , in a line that would have done Marilyn proud .
It ’ s this combination of innocence and sexuality that the press would find so intoxicating in Diana , Marilyn , and Britney alike : These women were all hot , but they didn ’ t know it , and they weren ’ t doing it on purpose .
( It goes without saying that this contradiction works best with a blonde . )
Underlying this archetype is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watching man — and it is always a man who is assumed to be watching — “ It ’ s okay .
She can ’ t manipulate you because she doesn ’ t know what she ’ s doing .
She will never use sex to get her own way because she doesn ’ t know she ’ s sexy .
It ’ s safe to want her .
You will always have more power than she has.
” Unless the woman does know what she ’ s doing .
Unless she ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That would ruin everything , wouldn ’ t it ?
As Diana ’ s wedding to Charles approached , the press went into a frenzy over her virginity Princess Diana had to be a virgin .
The Windsors were very clear on that : The woman who married Prince Charles , the woman who would someday be queen , had to walk to the altar virgo intacta .
By 1980 , this view was already so retro that wags would crack that Charles married Diana solely because she was the only aristocratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s virginity — the proof of her desirable youth and desirable innocence — was central to the fairy tale glamour of her myth .
It had to be protected from any threat of scandal .
In November 1980 , Diana ’ s uncle gave an infamous interview to the Daily Star .
“ Purity seems to be at a premium when it comes to discussing a possible bride for Prince Charles at the moment , ” he said .
“ And after one or two of his most recent girlfriends I am @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assure you , has never had a lover.
” Less than a week later , the Sunday Mirror reported that Prince Charles had smuggled his new fiancée , the now-19-year-old Diana Spencer , onto the Royal Train , where he was known to take his girlfriends for unsupervised overnight visits .
The Mirror reported that Diana had spent two consecutive nights on the train , where “ there followed hours alone together for the couple whose friendship has captured the country ’ s imagination.
” Charles and Diana , the paper was suggesting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Diana issued outraged denials .
“ I am not a liar , ” she said .
“ I have never been on that train .
I have never even been near it.
” The queen ’ s press secretary wrote to the Mirror demanding an apology .
While the Mirror stood by its sourcing and its story , an editor agreed to publish correspondence from the palace making its denials known .
Plausible deniability had to remain in place all the way up to the wedding march .
So strong was the insistence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fundamental was it to her image , that the idea of violating that image added an extra frisson of intrigue to the intrusive paparazzi photos of Diana ’ s pregnant belly in a bikini in 1982 , taken in secret with a long-distance lens when she was pregnant with Prince William .
Queen Elizabeth called it “ the blackest day in the history of British journalism.
” “ In those pre-Demi Moore days , ” writes Tina Brown in The Diana Chronicles , “ a photograph of a beautiful pregnant woman , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proclaiming her sexual experience , bordered on the pornographic .
If the woman was not only famous but also famously demure , private , ‘ innocent , ’ and protected , and if she had been photographed against her will , then to the thrill of voyeurism was added the stronger kick of — the word is all too apt — violation.
” There was the virgin fairy tale princess , knocked up .
What a feast of signifiers .
A few decades earlier , the tabloids had never quite dared to speculate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At that point , the official story of the press was that you were a virgin unless you were married .
But Marilyn knew that the careful balancing act of her image could never survive a hint of sexual knowingness .
When Truman Capote was looking for an actress to play the courtesan Holly Golightly as his novel Breakfast at Tiffany ’ s went from stage to screen , he thought at once of Marilyn Monroe .
But Marilyn took herself out of the running .
She would not , she said , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Unspoken in Marilyn ’ s refusal was the idea that putting the sheen of sexual impropriety on an actress whose image depended on balancing sex with innocence risked blowing the whole thing up .
Instead , the role went to Audrey Hepburn , whose image was so unsexed that audiences left the theater remarking not on Holly ’ s scandalous job but on Audrey ’ s cool elegance .
Forty years later , Britney Spears would not be so lucky .
By the time Britney ’ s fame reached its peak , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the status of her virginity .
“ I am a virgin , ” Britney said in a radio interview as a newly famous 18-year-old .
“ I definitely want to try not to have had sex until I ’ m married .
I just want to wait for this special someone.
” “ Britney Spears swirls her virginity about like a tasselled nipple , ” said an article in the Guardian in 2000 .
And that tease , the article concludes , is what makes Britney fascinating : “ It ’ s what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doesn ’ t really know what she ’ s doing , or singing , or how she ’ s thrilling her boy fans with her customised school uniform .
She is that innocent.
” In 2001 , an interviewer asked Britney point-blank if she was still a virgin .
“ That ’ s private , ” Britney protested — but the speculation was rampant nonetheless .
The Church of England hailed her as a “ great ambassador for virginity.
” Justin Timberlake gossiped that she wasn ’ t a real virgin in post-breakup @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview to having sex with Timberlake , and in 2008 , her mom made headlines when she claimed that Britney had had sex at age 14 .
The fairy tale virgin pop princess , not that innocent after all .
What a feast of signifiers , yet again .
For the virgin sacrifice to work , the virgin can ’ t know what she ’ s doing What ’ s at stake in all this Sturm und Drang over virginity is a more metaphorical question that has to do with knowingness .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the press treats their sexuality as unthreatening .
They are hot , but not in a scary way ; they don ’ t know what they ’ re doing ; they are safe to want .
But if they begin to wield their sexuality knowingly , everything changes .
And their relationship with the public changes , too .
The big question with Diana , the question on the cover of The Diana Chronicles : How much of it did she do on purpose ?
“ Was she ‘ the people ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world with her beauty and humanitarian missions ?
” asks Brown .
“ Or was she a manipulative , media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy ?
” Any honest reckoning of Diana would have to say the answer to that question is both .
She was beautiful ; she did have a remarkable gift for connecting with disenfranchised people doing humanitarian work — and she also spent much of her time as Princess of Wales in the grips of bulimia and suicidal ideation , using her skill with the press as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Throughout Diana ’ s marriage to Charles , she consistently outshined and outworked him .
At public gatherings and charity events , she was able to genuinely connect with the crowds in a way Charles couldn ’ t .
She would crouch down on her knees to talk to the kids .
She would shake hands with an AIDS patient .
Such moments established both her reputation as the “ people ’ s princess ” — the saint in the killer designer suit who could love her subjects more than anyone else @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — and her reputation as a schemer who was upstaging the monarchy on purpose , out of selfishness and greed .
And after Diana ’ s divorce from Charles in 1996 , as she partied her way across multiple continents and began campaigning against land mines , those two ideas became ever stronger .
But Brown frames her question in a way that suggests these two opposing images of Diana are mutually exclusive .
The idea that Diana might have been intentionally using the press , that she might have desired to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that she might have intentionally wielded her beauty and charisma to get there , seems to somehow negate the idea of saintly Diana , the people ’ s princess .
And if Diana courted the press , if she used them in the same way they used her — well , how does that square with the way she died ?
How can we say that Diana was using the press that drove her off the road and to her death ?
A similar contradiction runs through Britney Spears ’ s career @ @ @ @ @ @ @ question of how much of her life and her success are of her own making .
It emerged early , when she was a fresh-faced young star on the make singing “ Baby One More Time ” : Was she the architect of her own image , or was she just a passable singer being molded by brilliant music producers ?
It still exists today , as the # FreeBritney movement rages and Britney fails , once again , to have her father removed from the conservatorship that controls her life : Is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that gives her life shape and meaning and purpose ?
Or is she being held captive by her family , and by her very fame ?
As for Marilyn Monroe , the question of whether she might have had control over her own image wasn ’ t a subject of major attention until after she died .
Audiences and producers alike considered her to be interchangeable with the dumb blondes she played onscreen , and she wasn ’ t allowed to leave those dumb blondes behind until she broke her contract with 20th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company .
Only in the decades since has the idea that Marilyn was smart — and that she built her dumb blonde persona deliberately — begun to take center stage .
“ I began my book with the expectation that the way she was viewed over time , from her death in 1962 until I finished writing , which was 2004 , would have changed according to changing ideas about women — the gradual acceptance of feminism , basically , ” remarked Marilyn image analyst Sarah Churchwell in 2004 .
“ And how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t survive her own story The story of the virgin sacrifice can only end one way : with her destruction .
And like her rise , her end comes as a collaboration between the virgin sacrifice and the press that worships her , one in which complicity and responsibility are deeply muddied .
“ A sex symbol becomes a thing , ” Marilyn Monroe remarked a week before she died by suicide .
“ I just hate to be a thing.
” She seems to have increasingly experienced her public image @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it was one she had little chance of escaping .
Britney Spears managed to survive her own destruction .
But her public nadir in 2007 was both a reaction to and fueled by furious press coverage .
The paparazzi followed her around for upskirt shots .
She started yelling at them in a British accent .
She shaved her own head , allegedly telling a nearby tattoo artist that she was sick of people touching her hair , while paparazzi photographed every angle through the windows of the hair salon .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an umbrella .
She went in and out of rehab .
She sleepwalked through her performance at the 2007 VMAs so badly that Perez Hilton lectured her for being “ disrespectful ” to her fans , and then the press made fun of her for gaining weight .
In 2008 , Britney ’ s father petitioned the court for emergency conservatorship over Britney .
She ’ s been living under that conservatorship ever since .
In contrast , Diana ’ s destruction wasn ’ t metaphorical , and the press was intimately involved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with her boyfriend after paparazzi aggressively tailed them out of the Ritz in Paris .
The car ’ s driver was drinking and using prescription drugs , and a formal investigation would later clear the paparazzi of responsibility for the crash .
But the image of the paparazzi mobbing Diana in that black Mercedes is an inextricable part of the spectacle of her death .
And so is the rage that her family directed at the press afterward .
“ I always believed that the press would kill her in the end , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spencer shortly after she died .
“ But not even I could imagine that they would take such a direct hand in her death as seems to be the case .
It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her , encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana ’ s image , has blood on their hands today.
” In The Diana Chronicles , Tina Brown describes Diana on the night of her death as displaying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen.
” She went to the Ritz , mobbed with tourists , and walked in the front door instead of the back .
Three times she and her boyfriend would make the circuit — in through the Ritz ’ s front door , inside , out again to another destination , and back to the Ritz — and every time , the crowd of fans outside was bigger .
It was as though the press couldn ’ t get enough of her , and she couldn ’ t get enough of them either @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s fatal attraction , ” Brown writes .
“ It had created the image that had given her so much power , and she was addicted to its magic , even when it hurt .
Her life ’ s obsession was how to control the genie she had released.
” But the point of the story of the virgin sacrifice is that she is not allowed to control her own power .
We treat her with profound suspicion the second we begin to suspect that she ’ s trying .
We want her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we first saw her : vulnerable and open and possessed of a charisma she does not fully understand , such that her vulnerability is even more compounded .
Such that she is easy prey for unscrupulous men .
That ’ s how Diana first appears in The Crown , flirting bashfully with the man who will unleash disaster on her life .
The scene gets its juice from the horror of its foreshadowing : She is so innocent , she is so beautiful , she has no idea how pretty she is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s to come , and isn ’ t it awful ?
You can ’ t look away .
We feast on the spectacle of the virgin sacrifice .
And the spectacle climaxes with her destruction .
That ’ s always how the story of the virgin sacrifice ends , the one we tell over and over and over again .
That ’ s the story of Princess Diana .

Fame is a dragon. We feed it with virgin sacrifices. And was there ever a virgin sacrifice like Princess Diana?
From the moment that Diana first appears on Netflix’s The Crown, a gawky 16-year-old tiptoeing away from Prince Charles with her supermodel face peeping out from behind a schoolgirl’s costume mask, a thread of electricity runs into the show: Ah, at last, there she is. There is Princess Diana, who will win over a nation, rend the Windsors apart, and die young and beautiful and tragic. We’ve been waiting for her.
We’ve been waiting for Diana to show up and liven things up with scandal. And most importantly, we’ve been waiting for her to die. Her death is built into the structure of the show, the moment we’ve all been waiting for it to catch up to. What, after all, was the 2006 film The Queen — written by The Crown showrunner Peter Morgan and taking place in the days after the car accident that killed Diana — if not a statement of intention that her death is the moment that must be the inevitable climax of The Crown?
So The Crown lingers on the foreknowledge of that moment with exquisite care. It features shot after shot of her slipping into the back seat of a black Mercedes like the one she died in; shot after shot of the paparazzi coming in too close, just as they did on the night she died. The Crown has been laying out a seven-course meal for seasons now, and Diana and her death are the entrée.
There must be something about Diana’s story that is very appealing to us, because we repeat it so often. Not just in tellings and retellings about Diana herself, but in the stories of other virgin sacrifices, other famous women who match the Diana archetype.
It’s the story of Marilyn Monroe. It’s the story of Britney Spears. It’s the story of the women whose combined innocence and sex appeal and star power makes the public worship them; the story of women hounded for the idea that they might be using all that sex appeal and star power to make the public worship them on purpose, rather than out of sheer innocence. It’s the story of the women we love to death.
Diana became famous for being accidentally sexy. The contradiction was fundamental to her image.
The picture that made Princess Diana famous was taken when she was still known as Diana Spencer, before she was engaged to Prince Charles. She was just his unremarkable new girlfriend, the one the tabloids had dubbed Shy Di because of her trick of ducking her head and laughing nervously when the paparazzi photographed her. She didn’t strike the press, then, as particularly pretty or particularly special.
Then one day in 1980, a photographer from the Evening Standard came to the kindergarten where Diana worked and asked to take a picture. Diana posed outside with a couple of children from the classroom, and halfway through the shoot, the sun came out, backlighting Diana’s skirt. The fabric went transparent, so that in the finished photograph, Diana’s soon-to-be-famous long legs form a striking silhouette. “I knew your legs were good,” Prince Charles is said to have commented upon seeing the resulting news spread, “but I didn’t realize they were that spectacular.”
From then on, whether or not a love affair blossomed between Diana and Charles, there was certainly a love affair blooming between Diana and the media. And it wasn’t only because they had realized she was pretty. Diana was a lovely girl, but there were plenty of lovely girls hanging around Prince Charles in 1980. What made the picture iconic, and what made Diana an instant sensation, is the fact that she clearly did not know her legs would be visible in the photograph, that she clearly had no intention of showing them off, and yet there they were anyway.
“The picture was so obviously, and beguilingly, a show of inexperience,” writes Tina Brown in The Diana Chronicles, the definitive Diana text. “The British public was instantly enchanted by this delightful mixture of feminine messages — modesty, sexuality, and affection for children.”
Diana would manage to preserve that contradiction all the way through to her wedding day. “I have never seen such a strong charge of innocently provocative sex,” wrote one wedding guest in his diary afterward.
This idea that sex appeal is at its most appealing when it is unintentional, a product of innocence, is a familiar one. The same idea was at the heart of Marilyn Monroe’s star image: that she couldn’t really help being so sexy, it just breathed naturally out of her.
“She was our angel, the sweet angel of sex,” wrote Norman Mailer of Monroe, “and the sugar of sex came up from her like a resonance of sound in the clearest grain of a violin.” Marilyn helped along the idea that it was all pure accident, with frequent quotes that managed to sound both dirty and unintentional. “It’s not true I had nothing on,” she said of her nude calendar photos. “I had the radio on.”
An insistence that Marilyn’s sexuality was a pure and natural accident she did not intend is part of why the famous photograph of Marilyn with her skirt flying up over the subway grate in The Seven-Year Itch became so indelible: As with Diana 25 years later, part of the play of the moment is that Marilyn doesn’t intend to show off her legs. It’s not her fault. Her skirt was caught by the passing breeze of a subway train. She’s at the mercy of the elements, just like Diana with the sun. It just happens.
In the 1990s, the media would perform a similar dance with a young Britney Spears and the newly released video for “Baby One More Time,” which features Spears in a tiny, midriff-baring schoolgirl outfit. The archetype of the sexy schoolgirl was already a play on the idea of adolescent innocence intertwined with adult sexuality, and whenever Spears spoke about it in public, she did so with wide-eyed incredulity at the idea that anyone would consider her outfit to be provocative. “All I did was tie up my shirt!” she told Rolling Stone, in a line that would have done Marilyn proud.
It’s this combination of innocence and sexuality that the press would find so intoxicating in Diana, Marilyn, and Britney alike: These women were all hot, but they didn’t know it, and they weren’t doing it on purpose. (It goes without saying that this contradiction works best with a blonde.) Underlying this archetype is a sort of reassuring whisper to the watching man — and it is always a man who is assumed to be watching — “It’s okay. She can’t manipulate you because she doesn’t know what she’s doing. She will never use sex to get her own way because she doesn’t know she’s sexy. It’s safe to want her. You will always have more power than she has.”
Unless the woman does know what she’s doing. Unless she’s not a real virgin after all. That would ruin everything, wouldn’t it?
As Diana’s wedding to Charles approached, the press went into a frenzy over her virginity
Princess Diana had to be a virgin. The Windsors were very clear on that: The woman who married Prince Charles, the woman who would someday be queen, had to walk to the altar virgo intacta. By 1980, this view was already so retro that wags would crack that Charles married Diana solely because she was the only aristocratic virgin left in England.
But Diana’s virginity — the proof of her desirable youth and desirable innocence — was central to the fairy tale glamour of her myth. It had to be protected from any threat of scandal.
In November 1980, Diana’s uncle gave an infamous interview to the Daily Star. “Purity seems to be at a premium when it comes to discussing a possible bride for Prince Charles at the moment,” he said. “And after one or two of his most recent girlfriends I am not surprised. Diana, I can assure you, has never had a lover.”
Less than a week later, the Sunday Mirror reported that Prince Charles had smuggled his new fiancée, the now-19-year-old Diana Spencer, onto the Royal Train, where he was known to take his girlfriends for unsupervised overnight visits. The Mirror reported that Diana had spent two consecutive nights on the train, where “there followed hours alone together for the couple whose friendship has captured the country’s imagination.”
Charles and Diana, the paper was suggesting, had done it.
A furious Diana issued outraged denials. “I am not a liar,” she said. “I have never been on that train. I have never even been near it.” The queen’s press secretary wrote to the Mirror demanding an apology. While the Mirror stood by its sourcing and its story, an editor agreed to publish correspondence from the palace making its denials known. Plausible deniability had to remain in place all the way up to the wedding march.
So strong was the insistence on Diana’s virginity, so fundamental was it to her image, that the idea of violating that image added an extra frisson of intrigue to the intrusive paparazzi photos of Diana’s pregnant belly in a bikini in 1982, taken in secret with a long-distance lens when she was pregnant with Prince William. Queen Elizabeth called it “the blackest day in the history of British journalism.”
“In those pre-Demi Moore days,” writes Tina Brown in The Diana Chronicles, “a photograph of a beautiful pregnant woman, the bare skin of her swollen belly unmistakably proclaiming her sexual experience, bordered on the pornographic. If the woman was not only famous but also famously demure, private, ‘innocent,’ and protected, and if she had been photographed against her will, then to the thrill of voyeurism was added the stronger kick of — the word is all too apt — violation.”
There was the virgin fairy tale princess, knocked up. What a feast of signifiers.
A few decades earlier, the tabloids had never quite dared to speculate about Marilyn Monroe’s virginity. At that point, the official story of the press was that you were a virgin unless you were married. But Marilyn knew that the careful balancing act of her image could never survive a hint of sexual knowingness.
When Truman Capote was looking for an actress to play the courtesan Holly Golightly as his novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s went from stage to screen, he thought at once of Marilyn Monroe. But Marilyn took herself out of the running. She would not, she said, play a lady of the evening.
Unspoken in Marilyn’s refusal was the idea that putting the sheen of sexual impropriety on an actress whose image depended on balancing sex with innocence risked blowing the whole thing up. Instead, the role went to Audrey Hepburn, whose image was so unsexed that audiences left the theater remarking not on Holly’s scandalous job but on Audrey’s cool elegance.
Forty years later, Britney Spears would not be so lucky. By the time Britney’s fame reached its peak, the press felt no compunctions about inquiring after the status of her virginity.
“I am a virgin,” Britney said in a radio interview as a newly famous 18-year-old. “I definitely want to try not to have had sex until I’m married. I just want to wait for this special someone.”
“Britney Spears swirls her virginity about like a tasselled nipple,” said an article in the Guardian in 2000. And that tease, the article concludes, is what makes Britney fascinating: “It’s what makes her videos so exciting — she doesn’t really know what she’s doing, or singing, or how she’s thrilling her boy fans with her customised school uniform. She is that innocent.”
In 2001, an interviewer asked Britney point-blank if she was still a virgin. “That’s private,” Britney protested — but the speculation was rampant nonetheless.
The Church of England hailed her as a “great ambassador for virginity.” Justin Timberlake gossiped that she wasn’t a real virgin in post-breakup interviews. Britney confessed in a 2003 interview to having sex with Timberlake, and in 2008, her mom made headlines when she claimed that Britney had had sex at age 14.
The fairy tale virgin pop princess, not that innocent after all. What a feast of signifiers, yet again.
For the virgin sacrifice to work, the virgin can’t know what she’s doing
What’s at stake in all this Sturm und Drang over virginity is a more metaphorical question that has to do with knowingness.
When pop culture’s princesses are virgins, the press treats their sexuality as unthreatening. They are hot, but not in a scary way; they don’t know what they’re doing; they are safe to want.
But if they begin to wield their sexuality knowingly, everything changes. And their relationship with the public changes, too.
The big question with Diana, the question on the cover of The Diana Chronicles: How much of it did she do on purpose?
“Was she ‘the people’s princess,’ who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions?” asks Brown. “Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy?”
Any honest reckoning of Diana would have to say the answer to that question is both. She was beautiful; she did have a remarkable gift for connecting with disenfranchised people doing humanitarian work — and she also spent much of her time as Princess of Wales in the grips of bulimia and suicidal ideation, using her skill with the press as her most potent weapon against the Windsors.
Throughout Diana’s marriage to Charles, she consistently outshined and outworked him. At public gatherings and charity events, she was able to genuinely connect with the crowds in a way Charles couldn’t. She would crouch down on her knees to talk to the kids. She would shake hands with an AIDS patient. Such moments established both her reputation as the “people’s princess” — the saint in the killer designer suit who could love her subjects more than anyone else could, who could transcend the monarchy — and her reputation as a schemer who was upstaging the monarchy on purpose, out of selfishness and greed. And after Diana’s divorce from Charles in 1996, as she partied her way across multiple continents and began campaigning against land mines, those two ideas became ever stronger.
But Brown frames her question in a way that suggests these two opposing images of Diana are mutually exclusive. The idea that Diana might have been intentionally using the press, that she might have desired to be as famous and beloved as she was and that she might have intentionally wielded her beauty and charisma to get there, seems to somehow negate the idea of saintly Diana, the people’s princess.
And if Diana courted the press, if she used them in the same way they used her — well, how does that square with the way she died? How can we say that Diana was using the press that drove her off the road and to her death?
A similar contradiction runs through Britney Spears’s career, a similar deep concern around the question of how much of her life and her success are of her own making. It emerged early, when she was a fresh-faced young star on the make singing “Baby One More Time”: Was she the architect of her own image, or was she just a passable singer being molded by brilliant music producers?
It still exists today, as the #FreeBritney movement rages and Britney fails, once again, to have her father removed from the conservatorship that controls her life: Is Britney surviving and thriving in a conservatorship that gives her life shape and meaning and purpose? Or is she being held captive by her family, and by her very fame?
As for Marilyn Monroe, the question of whether she might have had control over her own image wasn’t a subject of major attention until after she died. Audiences and producers alike considered her to be interchangeable with the dumb blondes she played onscreen, and she wasn’t allowed to leave those dumb blondes behind until she broke her contract with 20th Century Fox and started her own production company. Only in the decades since has the idea that Marilyn was smart — and that she built her dumb blonde persona deliberately — begun to take center stage.
“I began my book with the expectation that the way she was viewed over time, from her death in 1962 until I finished writing, which was 2004, would have changed according to changing ideas about women — the gradual acceptance of feminism, basically,” remarked Marilyn image analyst Sarah Churchwell in 2004. “And how wrong I was.”
The virgin sacrifice can’t survive her own story
The story of the virgin sacrifice can only end one way: with her destruction. And like her rise, her end comes as a collaboration between the virgin sacrifice and the press that worships her, one in which complicity and responsibility are deeply muddied.
“A sex symbol becomes a thing,” Marilyn Monroe remarked a week before she died by suicide. “I just hate to be a thing.” She seems to have increasingly experienced her public image as a trap, and to know that it was one she had little chance of escaping.
Britney Spears managed to survive her own destruction. But her public nadir in 2007 was both a reaction to and fueled by furious press coverage. The paparazzi followed her around for upskirt shots. She started yelling at them in a British accent. She shaved her own head, allegedly telling a nearby tattoo artist that she was sick of people touching her hair, while paparazzi photographed every angle through the windows of the hair salon. She attacked a paparazzo’s car with an umbrella. She went in and out of rehab. She sleepwalked through her performance at the 2007 VMAs so badly that Perez Hilton lectured her for being “disrespectful” to her fans, and then the press made fun of her for gaining weight.
In 2008, Britney’s father petitioned the court for emergency conservatorship over Britney. She’s been living under that conservatorship ever since.
In contrast, Diana’s destruction wasn’t metaphorical, and the press was intimately involved. Diana died in a car crash with her boyfriend after paparazzi aggressively tailed them out of the Ritz in Paris. The car’s driver was drinking and using prescription drugs, and a formal investigation would later clear the paparazzi of responsibility for the crash. But the image of the paparazzi mobbing Diana in that black Mercedes is an inextricable part of the spectacle of her death. And so is the rage that her family directed at the press afterward.
“I always believed that the press would kill her in the end,” said Diana’s brother Earl Spencer shortly after she died. “But not even I could imagine that they would take such a direct hand in her death as seems to be the case. It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana’s image, has blood on their hands today.”
In The Diana Chronicles, Tina Brown describes Diana on the night of her death as displaying “an almost compulsive need to be seen.” She went to the Ritz, mobbed with tourists, and walked in the front door instead of the back. Three times she and her boyfriend would make the circuit — in through the Ritz’s front door, inside, out again to another destination, and back to the Ritz — and every time, the crowd of fans outside was bigger. It was as though the press couldn’t get enough of her, and she couldn’t get enough of them either.
“The camera was Diana’s fatal attraction,” Brown writes. “It had created the image that had given her so much power, and she was addicted to its magic, even when it hurt. Her life’s obsession was how to control the genie she had released.”
But the point of the story of the virgin sacrifice is that she is not allowed to control her own power. We treat her with profound suspicion the second we begin to suspect that she’s trying. We want her to be always as she was when we first saw her: vulnerable and open and possessed of a charisma she does not fully understand, such that her vulnerability is even more compounded. Such that she is easy prey for unscrupulous men.
That’s how Diana first appears in The Crown, flirting bashfully with the man who will unleash disaster on her life. The scene gets its juice from the horror of its foreshadowing: She is so innocent, she is so beautiful, she has no idea how pretty she is, she has no idea of what’s to come, and isn’t it awful? You can’t look away.
We feast on the spectacle of the virgin sacrifice. And the spectacle climaxes with her destruction.
That’s always how the story of the virgin sacrifice ends, the one we tell over and over and over again. That’s the story of Princess Diana.