The People's Monster

Princess Diana was perhaps the most sacred and profane of them all.

Of all the gods and monsters in the world, there’s one entity that I continue to land on when I ponder the grey areas of humanity. It’s an entity that used to rule the world; it’s the entity that, one could argue, played a large part in the very creation of the ideas surrounding who and what is and is not sacred, who is and is not profane. It’s an entity that, I say in jest – but not really – can be found at the scene of most of today’s geopolitical crimes if you unravel the threads even just a little bit.

I’m talking about the British monarchy, of course.

All monarchies remained or obtained power throughout millennia by claiming their direct lineage to the various gods that ruled their lands; claiming that a royal is a Sacred Monster stretches the definition of the term as such that the result looks less like a human being or recognizable artist than the deformed Monstro Elisasue thing that appeared in place of Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley at the end of 2024’s The Substance. (Google that one at your own peril, and perhaps on an empty stomach.)

However, there was one who seemed to fit the bill when it comes to sacred monstrosity, and whose spectre has arguably haunted the British royal family since her introduction into it and tragic death in 1997. She’s so sacred and so monstrous that I don’t even have to say her name.