Sunday 23 October 2011

Wallis and the Shanghai Technique


Wallis Simpson was guilty of four things: she was a woman, she was a commoner, she was a double-divorcee and she was an American. But, notwithstanding all these handicaps, she still managed to storm the House of Windsor. She shook the fusty old English establishment and she got her man, even when the man happened to be a king! The surprise here is even greater because there was something manly about this femme fatale.

I’ll come to this in a bit but first a word or two about a wholly compelling individual, a social climber, a sort of American Becky Sharp, the unscrupulous character from William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair, one who climbed high enough to catch the affections of the heir to the throne

In 1936 Edward VIII, who recently succeeded his father George V, made it plain to the English establishment, politicians and churchmen alike, that he intended to marry this double divorcee, his long-standing mistress, an unprecedented move. Oh, no, you are not, came the response, not if you want to remain as king. Oh, yes, I am, and I don't want to be king. Wallis and love came before throne and duty. Edward abdicated and, as Duke of Windsor, married his Duchess.

They were such an odd couple, the handsome and debonair prince and the gauche, angular and rather masculine Wallis. Look at her picture. She’s not just conventionally plain; she’s positively ugly. But what she lacked in looks she made up for in wit and personality. She also made up for it with other talents, at least according to long-standing rumours, talents acquired in some of the less salubrious fleshpots of old Shanghai.

It’s a subject taken up by Anne Sebba in THAT WOMAN: The Life of Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor. Among other things the author touches on, ahem, Wallis’ carnal expertise, including a speciality in oral sex, “which would not have been standard education for most British or American girls of the day.” No, it would not.


But there is, she goes on to say, a far deeper and darker secret, something that would account for her appearance and her personality. The suggestion is that she might have suffered from a condition now referred to as Disorder of Sexual Development (DSD) or intersexuality, something that apparently affects 4000 babies each year in the United Kingdom alone. I can only describe this as nature not making up its mind, producing a child that is not quite one thing and not quite the other.

Accepting this argument - and I have to say there is a more than usually high level of speculation here - , Wallis was born a girl but with the male XY chromosome. Over time, as a baby with this condition develops, the build up of testosterone in the system produces physical characteristics more associated with males.

It’s also possible, the author further suggests, that Wallis was born as a pseudo-hermaphrodite, with the internal reproductive organs of one sex and the external organs of another. This is a matter incapable of any proof but apparently, and amazingly, although she was married twice before she met Edward she once told a friend that she had never had sexual intercourse with either of her husbands, refusing to allow anyone to touch her below what she referred to as her “personal Mason-Dixon line.”

Writing in 1958 the biographer James Pope-Hennessy said that she was one of the very oddest women that he had ever seen – “She is flat and angular and could have been designed for a medieval playing card. I should be tempted to classify her as an American woman par excellence were it not for the suspicion that she is not a woman at all.”

The whole thing is quite intriguing and I confess I am intrigued. But I’m also cautious, wary when people overuse expressions like ‘might have’, ‘would have’, ‘could have’ and so on. Sebba's’ thesis is fascinating but it relies overmuch on speculation and surmise rather than evidence. It can never be proved conclusively. The truth might be much simpler: that Wallis was just an ugly woman with charm enough to win a prince, that and the Shanghai technique.

She’s quite the fashion at the moment, dear Wallis, first a biography and now a movie. I’m so looking forward to seeing W. E., the new biopic directed by Madonna (that’s reason enough for going to see it!), scheduled for release here in January. The advance signs are not good, but – who cares? – I’m such a sucker for this sort of thing, with an almost endless capacity to suspend certain forms of disbelief.

18 comments:

  1. She must have satisfied Eddie's English 'Gentlemanly' propensity towards homosexuality, she must ave givin im a right good one.

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  2. Wallis Simpson was guilty of five things: she was a woman, she was a commoner, she was a double-divorcee, she was an America and, she never loved her husband.

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  3. With the combination of peculiar bloodlines and extraordinary social constraints that surround that family no outcome is too bizarre to surprise me. Nor would I be surprised to learn Simpson was an agent of J.P. Morgan or Stalin sent to undermine the British Empire.

    Instead, I am glad that we entered WW2 with the dubious abdicator and his spouse stashed offshore, and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon as Queen and Consort of a better King.

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  4. I am intrigued! Will watch the movie directed by Madonna (she is a real femme fatale:-).

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  5. What's the problem with her being a woman who seduced the king off his throne?

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  6. Personally, I think you're being too harsh on poor Wallis' physical charms . . . personally I'm immune to them, but isn't "ugly" a bit over the top for the poor old hoofer?

    As you would know, having read the biography, she was from Baltimore, and like Poe who died there and Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott's wife, who was institutionalised near Baltimore, Wallis Simpson forms a triumvirate of outstanding, and outstandingly odd, Baltimorean Americans who left the world, a different, although not necessarily better, place. However in Simpson's case, whatever her weapons of choice may have been, by wisking the Fascist-sympthasising Edward off the throne just in time, I reckon she was worth at least 50 Divisions in the war against Hitler.

    Regarding her talents, I think it should be sufficient to remark that the director John Waters is another famous and talented American from Baltimore . . . can we just agree that she, like so many famous natives of Baltimore, Wallis Simpson was a polymath--a perfectly honourable accomplishment, to which we should all aspire?

    It muddies my theme, but to give credit where credit is due, David Byrne of the Talking Heads is another native of Baltimore, come to think of it . . .

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  7. This post was so engaging! I enjoyed reading it so much. I had no idea there was this speculation about Wallis having DSD. Even though like you mention, it might not even be true, the fact remains that this lady had a kind of power about her. I also had no idea Madonna's directorial debut was about Wallis and now I am looking forward to checking it out as well!

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  8. Nobby, do you mean that she did not love Edward? The evidence suggests otherwise but you have something specific here I'd love to know.

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  9. Yunyi, yes, she is. I had no idea that she had moved into directing.

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  10. Rehan, if the House of Windsor is all about duty now it was even more about duty then! The Queen Mother was quite bitter about Wallis, believing that Edward's abdication, and his dereliction of duty, forced her own husband to take on a role that led, in the end, to his premature death.

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  11. Chris, ugliness, I suppose, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder! I admit that in some pics she looks better than others but generally she does not strike me as very physically appealing at all. But, then, I'm in no position to judge. :-)

    Your point about the service she provided in removing Edward from the throne is excellent, something that had not occurred to me. I have no comment on the Baltimore connection, but I agree with your polymath observation 110% :-)

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  12. Shaharoh, thanks. I only found out about Madonna's movie yesterday reading the Sunday papers. Yes, I agree it will be something worth waiting for. I think you should be able to see it sooner in the States.

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  13. Hello Ana. I am no expert on this matter but I did see this:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8713438/Wallis-Simpsons-secret-letters-to-her-ex-husband.html

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  14. Thanks, Nobby. I'll have a look.

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  15. So...what did you think Ana?

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  16. Nobby, Sebba mentions this correspondence in the book. I'm not sure is the most honest answer I can give. At Wallis' age, and after two divorces, I suppose she was past love's first flush. She also faced terrific opposition and the most awful forms of condescending snobbery from within the royal family and the wider establishment, which is bound to have had some general bearing on her feelings and her sense of self-esteem. But she stayed loyal and affectionate to David through so many years of married life. Was this simply a form of gratitude for a man who had given up so much for her? I honestly don't think so. Love is such a complex emotion.

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