by Marilisa Palumbo
From the splendor of 2018’s wedding to Harry, to forgoing the behemoth Spotify, to the Dukes of Sussex podcast. So the actress let the fairy tale degenerate. And now also in the crosshairs of feminists, from Camille Paglia to Germaine Greer. Even “his” America seems to have had enough. Who is to blame now?
At the entrance to St George’s Chapel inside Windsor Castle, Charles, holding Meghan’s arm, turns to smile at her with a father’s tender gaze, even if it’s “borrowed”. The shot behind them captures the lavish flower arrangements and violins that will accompany the future Duchess to the altar, where Harry awaits, somewhat awkwardly and very much in love. Airing worldwide on May 19, 2018, the timeless but also very modern tale sees another American enter the British royal family with full honors, more than eighty years after love for the estranged Wallis Simpson led Edward VIII to relinquish the crown. An actress, a self-made millionaire, a feminist and multiracial woman with a white father and an African American mother. Traditional songs in the aisles of St. George’s are mixed with the notes of beautiful gospel songs. The world has changed, what can go wrong?
American exile and the accusations of racism
Flashback: May 6, 2023, exactly five years later, another live planetary ceremony. Elizabeth, the queen who seemed immortal, died in September, Charles, the prince who seemed never to become king is crowned with his beloved Camilla in Westminster Abbey. Meghan Markle is not there. Harry is there but is on the sidelines and will be in London in less than 24 hours. His wife, son Archie and little Lilibet Diana are waiting for him in California. The American “exile”, the “Megxit”, begins on January 8, 2020, when, on Instagram – and where else? – The Dukes of Sussex announce their decision to step down as senior members of the British royal family, split their time between Britain and North America and become financially independent. In the middle success of everything. The racism allegations against the royal family in a controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey; a Netflix series that includes a series of grievances against the Windsors, an autobiography, Spare, written by Harry with the Wizard of Autobiographies (sort of the same thing as Agassi’s Open), which recounts arguments between brothers that lead to physical altercations.
The (profound) differences to Diana
Hundreds of covers, backstories, conclusions. At the beginning of the new life overseas, the British tabloids were sometimes even obscenely cruel, the Americans sympathized. The Sussexes didn’t just choose California because of Meghan’s homeland: in the country that separated from the crown at birth, but which perhaps because of this has a unique fascination with the monarchy, they believed they could maintain their celebrity status without the constraints of the role. And Americans idolized Harry’s mother, Lady Diana. Famed feminist writer Camille Paglia, in a 1992 essay that made history, Diana the Huntress, explained the cult of the princess as referencing a range of archetypes in the collective consciousness, from that of Cinderella (Lady D. was an aristocrat, but as a girl she was also a maid and had a “stepmother”) to the Mater Dolore (a modern-day Maria who cries but also loves rock ‘n’ roll). Meghan for failing to make a difference. Its critics say it lacks authenticity: authenticity, the magic word, the holy grail of every American politician (ask Hillary Clinton). Australian feminist Germaine Greer, best known for The Female Eunuch, has publicly questioned whether the actress is faking her love for Harry.
The fate of the ethnically ambiguous
Instead, those who defend it argue that behind the charge of “falseness” lie ingrained prejudices. Questions about Markle’s authenticity are steeped in racist and racist politics, Brooke Erin Duffy of Cornell University’s Department of Gender Studies wrote on Vox. As scholar Lisa Nakamura has argued, public figures who are considered “racially ambiguous” (Markle is multiracial) inspire cyber sleuths to seek the “truth” about their identity. But even black commentators like Alicia Montgomery on Slate call the Duchess’s surprise at discovering institutional racism in the British royal family both worrying and irritating (from the series: Where’s the News?). A bit like back when the “Suits” actress, a grown woman living in today’s world, claimed she didn’t quite know who Harry was when she first met him. It’s true that fairy tales cause disbelief to be undone, but in short. Somewhere between the fifth and sixth hours of the Harry and Meghan series, which suggests there is no one left more in love, more socially conscious and more grieving, my natural compassion for the couple, wrote Joanna Weiss in a controversial article in Politico, began to turn to anger, and I realized that ego has its limits.
Narcissistic like Musk and Trump
Weiss places Meghan among some extremely narcissistic figures – from Elon Musk to Donald Trump – who have used attention as a bargaining chip and ego as fuel, and have now tired public opinion. Also in the 1992 article, Paglia wrote that Diana was able to express her personality without words. His medium is photography and film: he could be the ultimate silent movie star for a reason. Later, of course, the princess would also tell her whole truth in front of the BBC cameras, but maybe Meghan and Harry went overboard with this kind of psychoanalysis session in front of the world. Even the constant reference to her, Lady D, invoking feelings of solidarity with Harry, an orphaned child who into adulthood thought his mother wasn’t actually dead but that she was in hiding and could go back to hug him, sounds a bit over the top at times. As in the episode two months ago in New York, when the police denied a spokesman who wanted to conjure up the Alma tunnel accident in the collective imagination by talking about a near-catastrophic paparazzi chase.
The prince and his wife are naked
Diana used the media who were her allies until they devoured her, the press seems to have had enough of Meghan even in her America. Polls send the Dukes’ popularity into free fall: What will the Sussexes do now after Spotify canceled their multi-million pound contract because the royals have failed to hit productivity benchmarks and a streaming company executive has called them bloody crooks? Now that there’s no idea how they’re going to honor the $100 million deal with Netflix and a lot of brands don’t want to be associated with them? What will they do, but most importantly, who will they blame? Before they could point fingers at the royal family’s villains, but now? According to critics, they are now naked given the lack of real talent. Compassion for Markle trapped in a designer cage only goes so far, Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times. Dowd noted that by the time of the “separation” from London, the Dukes had applied for the Sussex Royal logo to be trademarked on hundreds of items, from socks to hoodies, and Dowd’s magnificent pen sank the blow: (All of this) makes Wallis Simpson’s exile in the Bahamas, spent matching the color of the walls with her face powder, seem like a monastic experience.
The Obamas’ lesson
Early in their marriage, when Meghan traveled to Africa with Harry and danced with the girls who identified with her, or when she cooked with the women of the multi-ethnic association that helped victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, the two seemed able to bring a new patina of modernity to the monarchy. Rather than give up real influence to become an Instagram influencer, Dowd writes, the duchess could have drawn inspiration from the Obamas, who have risen above racist attacks and worked to change things within institutions. From the inside, like Meghan that day with gospel songs in St. George.
July 22, 2023 (change July 22, 2023 | 16:21)
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