Towering poufs, diamonds and disgust. Did Marie Antoinette deserve to be cancelled?

Judging by the sold out exhibition at the V&A ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ we are just as intrigued by the French Queen as her 18th Century courtiers. Last week I was lucky enough to visit the curation of 50 personal belongings and fell down a gilded, silk -lined rabbit hole into her fascinating life. A target of great criticism, Marie Antoinette was constantly placed in a ‘no win’ situation that would be familiar to many high-profile women today.

Labelled a ‘spend-thrift’ and known for her vast consumption of luxury goods, there is no doubt that the young Queen liked fancy diamonds, huge frocks and big parties. It was expected that she would champion French fashion and her preference for wearing simple chiffon dresses at her country residence, was highly criticised. Marie Antoinette’s extravagance pales in significance to that of the King’s brother and the vast expenditure under Louis XVI’s reign. However it was Marie Antoinette or ‘Madam Déficit’ who was blamed for the downfall of the French economy and the fiscal decisions made by other people.

Historical and courtly rumors frequently labelled Marie Antoinette as "frigid" primarily because it took seven years for her and King Louis XVI to consummate their marriage (nothing to do with her husband or the fact that she was only 14 years old). However, as the French Revolution gathered momentum and anti-monarchy sentiment grew, Marie Antoinette was frequently depicted as sordid and debauched in cartoons distributed across Paris which referenced incest and homosexuality. It seems cancel culture is not a new phenomenon.

Marie Antoinette depicted as a harpy, tearing up the Constitution.

High profile women in our society are relentlessly subjected to higher levels scrutiny over their male counterparts : Megan Markle, Monica Lewinsky, Yoko Ono. Britney Spears to name a few… Marie Antoinette was married off at 14 years old as part of a ‘peace dividend’ between Austria and France, she lost a child to tuberculosis and was constantly under the critical eye of bitchy courtiers. I am not surprised she found pleasure in fancy dresses and towering poufs. I would have done far worse had I been given a palace to play with as a teenager, can you imagine?

Kate Moss as Marie Antoinette for US Vogue, 2012