Is It Okay That I Don't Really Care About Kate Middleton Anymore?

Chris Pizzello/AP Photo via ABC News

Wils and Kate have completed their tour of The Colonies, and are back in England by now, so, confession: after all of it; the dresses! the funny hats with Canada leaves! the inevitable upskirt wardrobe malfunction!  the only thing I can think of is...ugh, still?

This is not a Katey-Hatey post, she seems like a wonderful, nice person who we could all be bff's with forever.  And I'd hazard a guess that, after the complete press seizure that was her wedding, and the paps at the supermarket snapping away because The Duchess Pushes Her Own Cart, and now the American Tour, she'd probably be relieved if no one cared about her for five seconds. As Will and Kate prove they're the opposite of Heidi and Spencer (or even Charles and Di), you have to assume that some part of her brain is saying, "come on, I'm just me." At least because she seems like the kind of person you want to like.

I was completely on board for the wedding.  I didn't even expect to be, but there I was, eating cake at work at 8 in the morning and pretending I had something in my contact lens.  But that day she was the girl that her man fought for, and stuffy royals and your snobbery be damned because love won!  It was beautiful and romantic and now I have something in my contact lens.

And then. And then...what?  She's never had a job, and isn't really supposed (allowed?) to have a proper "work" job, and what will she DO? It's doubtful she'll ever have an identity that is her own, ever again, and not based upon, or a reflection of, her husband. Which is all fine, but, then, what exactly are we so excited about? Does it jangle the feminist amygdala in anybody else that, still, in 2011, The Kate Swoon in its present incarnation is based solely on the fact that she married well?

Which isn't to say she owes us anything; that she's a public figure by marriage doesn't mean she belongs wholly to the ionosphere of celebrity now.  That she wore nice clothes and spent the tour applauding the doing of things by her husband may in fact be a cleverly managed attempt at NOT cultivating a public identity.  Which would allow her a sliver of the privacy she and William seem to want to try to hold on to for as long as they can.  Which is great! And I promise to look away if that's what she wants.

Or maybe it's still too soon.  Maybe she'll be the next Angelina, or hell even bring back flesh-colored tights (please can we do this, everybody?).  For now, as a good citizen of the hive-mind of intelligentsia (Internet-eratti?), I'm duty-bound to fall in awe of every Shiny Thing We All Love.  But if you see my eyes get glassy over the two-hundreth photo of The Duchess In A Dress, it will be because I'm faking it. Unless I get the tights, and then we'll see about getting the girl canonized.