In Defence of Meghan

When you’re new to a job you make mistakes. I’ve just spent a year doing a maternity cover and – despite the thorough handover notes – there were many surprises and challenges. Sometimes these mistakes were understandable ‘rookie errors’ because I didn’t know the ropes. Sometimes, they were just silly blunders because I was tired: let’s face it, new jobs are exhausting. I can’t quite forget the ugly moment when I realised I’d just ordered several hundred branded pens with the wrong name on them! Luckily, we were able to change the order in time, but I believe the panic has shortened my life-expectancy by at least 5 years. Whenever these gaffes and disasters happened, my colleagues were understanding, kind, and helped me clear up the mess. I’m sure if the pens had arrived, they would have buried them behind the building like the corpse of a tiresome ex-boyfriend.

We tend to understand these new-to-the-post blunders from colleagues and friends, so why can’t people forgive Meghan Markle? Well, as Gilderoy Lockhart always used to say, “Fame’s a fickle friend,” so it should come as no surprise that people would become bored of this American fairy tale and begin branding Markle as a deluded diva. What surprised me was the speed of the change, and the way large swathes of the public have jumped on the bandwagon of the clichéd nonsense the media is peddling. We’re told that Meghan can’t get on with Kate. Please. Vicious female competition is a tired old story that really has no place in our society. There’s plenty of pie for both Duchesses to have a slice (although neither of them is likely to eat it). They are both selling a different story, have different priorities, and are probably just enjoying the weirdness inherent in suddenly being in the same family as an almost stranger. Yet the competition story makes both women seem petty, shallow, and childish. Another lazy trope employed against Meghan is that she is a demanding diva. The diva trope is one that has bothered me for many years. A talented woman is often accused of being a diva. Whether she’s a great singer, actor, or model, gossip columnists assure us that she is a nightmare behind the scenes. The talented woman is depicted as a petulant child who can’t control her rage when her silly whims aren’t pandered to. It is as if society needs to limit her power by making her monstrous and ridiculous. It’s no surprise that these two tired clichés are being levelled at the Duchess of Sussex, but it’s a shame the public wants to buy it.

Photograph from wikicommons, credit: Genevieve. 

 The competitive squabbler and the silly diva are just two of the hackneyed plot lines that the media has deployed against Meghan, and they’ve been used against the women who want to have a voice for change throughout history. Sometimes Shakespeare shows us inspiring women, but sometimes – reflecting the time in which he lived – he employs the same tactics we see in the media today to make powerful, vocal women into monsters. In the past I’ve written about the notoriously eloquent sisters Goneril and Regan in King Lear, whose (perhaps) justified complaints against their controlling father are buried under monstrous behaviour. The talkative sisters are contrasted with their virtuous sister who is famous for saying “nothing”. In the second half of the play they go from villainous to ridiculous as they fall over each other to compete for the affections of vile Edmund. Luckily for King Lear and the French army, this potential axis of evil disintegrates into childish squabbles as the two sisters just can’t get on.

Cleopatra is an interesting case study. Historically she was a canny and ruthless ruler who out-manoeuvred rivals and who managed to survive the Rome’s changing regimes for a long time. In Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, she is a fascinating figure, but for centuries has been seen by audiences as the woman who ruined a formerly successful Roman General. But it’s not just old-fashioned academics who see the play as a story of a great man ruined by a silly woman. If you Google “what is Antony’s tragic flaw” some results will tell you that it is his love for Cleopatra. The character of Cleopatra embodies almost every negative stereotype about women you can name. She is capricious, she is a diva, she is needy, and she is competitive. Actors talk about what a great actor she is to play, and she can be, but, in most performances she is simply annoying. She is the ultimate silly diva when she threatens to kill a messenger for saying another woman is prettier than her, when she decides she wants to go to battle but then runs away, and when her fake suicide leads to Antony’s actual death. In Plutarch’s Lives, Cleopatra is described as being at the height of her beauty and her intelligence. Her skill in rhetoric and languages is listed at length. But in Shakespeare’s – admittedly brilliant – play she becomes an absurd parody of the pitfalls of femininity. Shakespeare’s version of events, that makes Cleopatra fascinating, but limits her power, would have undoubtedly gone down well in the misogynist court of James I, but why is the same narrative still popular today?

It seems to me, that Meghan is a woman who is trying to use her position of prominence and her celebrity to highlight causes important to her. Of course, she has made the odd mistake. Her comment that appearing on the cover of Vogue would be ‘boastful’ – perceived as a dig at Kate – was a mistake. Was she throwing shade at Kate? Probably not. It is unlikely that Meghan meant to criticise those who have appeared on the front cover (a line up which includes Princess Diana), and far likelier that she was hoping to construct a humble image for herself. Was her phrase clumsy? Perhaps. I suggest that it’s the sort of mistake that should be forgiven and forgotten. Meghan’s choice to be more than a pretty mannequin, and to try to be a voice for change has raised her above the parapet and made her a target. The little mistakes she has made have been blown out of proportion and Meghan has become a target the media loves. Is it because she’s American? Maybe. The British are often ruffled by un-British enthusiasm. But it’s also because she’s a woman with an opinion, and let’s face it – it’s also because she’s a biracial woman with an opinion. Institutional racism and misogyny underlie the lazy idea that Meghan annoys people just because she is getting above her station. In fact, it is exactly Meghan’s station to promote charities, and we should be supporting her. She’s new to the job and she’s bound to make mistakes, but she’ll get there. Let’s be good feminist colleagues by highlighting her successes and burying the failures behind the building.

With my amazing colleagues - we clearly have great teamwork!