her growing baby bumps.We see this even with the Queen.But especially for Kate  chiffon tea length mother of the bride dresses , when she is going to a function, you can almost guarantee someone is going to describe her dress, and the colour it was, whereas most people don't pay too much attention to what William was wearing.Princess Anne was born into the spotlight, but was permitted a certain degree of distance and respectability that has eluded more contemporary royal women.An Olympian and equestrian who survived a kidnapping attempt, she was twice-married and bore two children.A staid figure, Anne remains one of the busiest members of the royal household, but has avoided the precarious glamour that enveloped Diana and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.routinely covered in the press.Even secondary royal figures are not immune.The Duchess of York's two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, captured the international limelight when they wore a pair of unconventional hats to William and Kate's wedding.The combination of relentless observation and pervasive public mockery may even be smashing the royal fairytale altogether.Ferguson has spoken openly of being unprepared for the publicity and role her marriage to Prince Andrew entailed.Her irrepressible nature found itself at odds with the prim public family, and the pair later divorced.Meanwhile, a Newsweek Europe poll commissioned last year found that only 1 per cent of women wanted to be Catherine.An astonishing 89 per cent of respondents stated they wouldn't trade places with her, even for a day.The Duchess's entire public persona has come under fire from feminists.despite being more intelligent than her family.Kate is not even allowed to decorate her own houses.Greer said last year.Choosing such a life is one thing; being born to it is another matter, entirely.No  elegant tea length mother dresses , a princess would become a fashion icon without the luxury of spontaneity or experimentation.She would be a creature of modesty without privacy; a royal without power; a bearer of the most retrograde traditions who will nonetheless be held to her generation's standard of modern womanhood.Hardly the stuff of fairytales.Re: #sticktothemusic, editorial, April 9.Valentina Lisitsa has been dropped, according to Toronto Symphony Orchestra for her hate-speech tweets, not her political views.that it has used in the past, insinuating the Holodomor, genocide by starvation, perpetrated by Stalin in the 1930s.Her tweets have also been extremely derogatory against blacks, the disabled and Jews.Her rants are akin to those of Ernst Zundel.inciting racial hatred.We have freedom of speech in Canada, but that comes with the responsibility of not disseminating hate propaganda, which is something that is prohibited by the Criminal Code.We also have freedom of association, and the TSO has and should have the right to disassociate itself from whomever it chooses.Lisitsa, the TSO made the right decision.Olena Wawryshyn, Toronto.I don't blame the TSO for firing Valentina Lisitsa from future concerts because of her political views.The concert hall is not a podium of controversial political views but rather a venue for professional music playing.Ukraine has been the centre of disputes due to the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and should be left out by bona fide artists when playing in the international scene.Musicians of international stature should refrain from issuing political statements so that the audience can concentrate on the music and not be distracted by the political stripes of an artist.Russia has been reviled by many political analysts for bullying a rather weak Ukraine.It is wise not to speak out for or against Russia since this can reflect badly on the orchestra.Edith de la Torre, Montreal.I support the decision of the TSO and the Lawrence Park Community Church to ban the performance of Russian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.are not hatemongering.Let's go back to one of her most offensive tweets in which she shows Ukrainian teachers next to a picture of an African tribe.New school year begins in Odessa with teachers forced to wear Ukrainian tribal dress  cheap mothers dresses , a truly European custom.This is one of the more widely cited tweets because of its obvious racist nature.with a sarcastic jab implying that the practice of doing so is primitive and savage.and juxtapose it with African tribal dress implying that this is all primitive, uncivilized and savage.All Canadians would no doubt call her anti-Semitic and the government would ban her entry into Canada.Send her back to the U.Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra pay attention.Walter Derzko, TorontoIt's naive to think art and politics can always be separated.Art has often been turned to promote political purposes, not always virtuously.The Nazis' very cultured Germany is a case in point.As a result of Valentina Lisitsa's hateful assault on Ukrainians, when we hear her play Rachmaninoff the pure Russian passion will be contaminated by her ardent bigotry.Her prejudice has poisoned her performance.However inadvertently, we would be complicit if we sop it up.We can't overlook what she said and its tone.Art is supposed to make us better people, emotionally more receptive, better attuned to our common humanity.then denying responsibility for its effects.I admire the TSO's principled stand.this pianist's prejudice.Alternatively, the audience could go, to confirm their support of the Calgary symphony, but then walk out en masse when Lisitsa takes her podium.We may like the medium but reject this contamination by her message.Maurice Yacowar, Calgary.As a Canadian-born citizen whose parents emigrated from Ukraine I take great offence to what Lisitsa has written about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, but I also do not agree with censorship.For me the best way to counter the lies and disgusting material which Lisitsa has spewed forth is to point out that she knows nothing about what she is talking about.One example of that is your article about Amnesty International and its report of evidence of the R.