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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Emma Beddington

Is ‘princess treatment’ a harmless trend – or yet more fuel for misogyny?

Woman in ball gown pretending to be surprised while vacuuming bedroom.
‘A calm, frictionless domestic paradise for their provider prince’ is the lot of the housewife princess. Photograph: Posed by model; D Anschutz/Getty Images

Do you wish you were a princess? Do you crave being cosseted and showered with gifts, having every door opened and every chair pulled out? Perhaps you’d rather not pay for your clothes; maybe you’re sick of deciding what to eat and where.

Courtney Palmer can help. The self-proclaimed housewife princess has a series of TikTok videos on “princess treatment” and how to get it. It’s a matter of accepting compliments graciously, dressing the part, being unapologetically good to yourself (disappointingly, this seems to mean exercising and drinking water) but mostly ministering to your partner, who is treated as a weirdly needy and highly suggestible man-baby. Would-be princesses should create a calm, frictionless domestic paradise for their provider prince, “speaking in a feminine way – we’re not screaming, yelling; we’re not cursing”, thanking him for picking up his dirty underwear. Princess treatment is the reward and it comes in the form of diamond earrings, Chanel flats, flowers and old-school chivalry.

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