My dearest friend Sami, who has an incredible blog about his life, asked me to accompany him to a wonderful movie called "Young Victoria". It is an independent film, not yet released, but will be soon at select theaters. (sidenote: Sami becomes an American citizen on Dec 22. We should all take the time to thank him not only for being a law abiding immigrant, but mostly for reminding us what an incredible blessing it is to be an American citizen by birth and that we should not take it for granted any longer).
Back to Queen Victoria.
I don't know what I learned in history class, but it was NOT about Queen Victoria. I would have remembered such a bad ass woman!
For those of you who either paid attention in high school history class or who know more than I do about Queen Victoria, you can stop reading now. I just have to rave about how incredible the film was and how much more incredible this woman is.
The film is a phenomenal portrait of young Queen Victoria's life. It begins when she is a young girl and the monarchy realizes she is the only heir to the throne. The royal monarchs are unbelievably over protective of her; to the point where she was not allowed to walk up or down the stairs without holding someone's hand until age 18. Yet refused to prepare her in any way shape or form to rule a country, even forbidding her to read at times.
Nobody expected her to become sovereign of England, but she knew she would be great.
Queen Victoria focused much of her political prowess on restoring family values, expanding educational opportunities, and creating mobility within England both socially and scientifically. DUH..it's why they call it THE VICTORIAN ERA!! (rolling my eyes at my lack of historical knowledge).
She reigned with her beloved, Prince Albert, by her side who became her most trusted advisor and confidant. She is to date, the longest reigning sovereign of the United Kingdom.
At the end of the film, my friend Sami commented on how she was still somewhat influenced by the men around her. I too, found it distracting that she allowed first Lord Melbourne of the Whig Party to advice her, and later replaced him with her husband, Prince Albert. Yet there are two important things to remember: First, ALL great leaders lead with the guidance and advice of close colleagues and friends (even our presidency has loads of advisors on all levels of government) and second, although her advisors were all men, there were NO other women who were educated on matters of political leadership (including herself).
To me, although she ruled a country quite some time ago, this is an astonishing portrait of what female leadership looks like. Things get done! People get helped and countries prosper. There are no scandals and bribes. Women should and will lead more in the future. Let's draw our power from amazing leaders such as Queen Victoria. Can I also mention that Prince Albert and her had something like 9 children. And she still managed to rule a country.
1 comment:
First, you are too kind! Thank you! I can't wait for the 22nd and my tears of joy to run wild!
Second, that film was incredible. Often times historical films tend to be misleading but this was good! It really was powerful as well. I remember now when she said "I will be great" and how at a young age she determined to run across the odds stacked upon her. You are right. All great leaders do have advisers to guide them along their journey. All in all, good times ^__^b
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