How true was Marie Antoinette´s reputation as a cold and irresponsible queen?

Hi so look at like a royal who had no contact with the common people.

She was irresponsible as long as she was ignorant of the real deplorable bankrupt state of France's treasury. She did cut back on frivolities after her eldest son's death caused her to grieve and after she was made aware of France's financial emergency after the American Revolution ended. She wasn't deliberately "cold", but she didn't notice the poor. She thought everyone had enough for their needs.

Poor Marie Antoinette was really on a loser from the start. It's true that she wasn't all that bright or all that tactful, but France's political and financial situation was sliding into disaster due to social causes (royal absolutism on top of a fossilised feudal system giving rights only to nobles) that weren't her fault and about which she couldn't have done anything. Heck, she was so constrained in her role by court etiquette that she couldn't even put her chemise on herself when she was cold - in the mornings there was a strict protocol by which the queen's nightdress was first taken off, then the woman responsible for the royal underwear passed a clean chemise to the Mistress of the Robes, who passed it to the highest-ranking lady present, who put it on over the queen's head. On one famous occasion three ladies turned up late for the royal levee, each higher-ranking than the last, so three times the chemise had to be halted, passed back to the linen-woman and the whole palaver began again while the Queen stood naked and shivering. No wonder she yearned for a fantasy of "simple peasant life"!

But as a foreigner (we tend to forget how many queens in the past were distrusted and hated for being foreign) she just became a focus for the general social discontent. She couldn't please people whatever she did. When she wore elaborate costly court robes she was accused of bankrupting the country by the extravagance (even though the cost was of course peanuts in terms of the entire country's revenue) but when she set a fashion for simple muslin chemise dresses she was blamed for failing to uphold the dignity of the monarchy and also of causing a slump in the dressmaking and haberdashery trades! And everyone was prepared to believe quite absurd slanders about her, as with the Affair of the Necklace.

So, she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but she meant well. And it's hard to see how even the most gifted and intelligent woman could have done much to save the Ancien Regime from disaster.

its not true France was at war with England and it had a military force world wide the occupied islands in the pacific and Atlantic they had a large force in eastern countries like Vietnam they occupied Canada and were war mongering in north America the British defeated them in Canada when they took Quebec and there was much fighting in North America siding with the revolutionaries so like America now they were spending huge amounts on wars and military the King was still living as France had always lived with decadence throwing parties Antoinette was the queen and behaved like a queen had always done in France yes she was spoiled and remote from ordinary life she knew the people were suffering but had never known it how could she understand her let them eat cake I have mentioned several times on here was pure ignorance it was not meant as a joke or mocking the poor it was a slip of the tongue she was a queen she had to be seen as dignified as a queen aloof its what made them special its no different to the Russian revolution and the TSAR Nicholas they were considered the same his whole family were executed his daughters to mere girls how could they be evil no its another piece of fake news we know so well today they were aloof it was their job to be so none of us know what its like it is cold it is irresponsible its the job that is why America doesn't have one well if you discount Trump

That was her reputation, whether it was deserved or excusable is another matter. She and many other aristocrats were symbolic of the malaise that affected France and she certainly benefited from France's spending while playing at milkmaids.