Let’s not allow people to turn this thread toxic because it will then be taken down. I think it’s good for us to have a platform where we can challenge the moral interpretations of public phenomena so we can grow as a society.
I don’t care for the royal family.. but I do care about this because it’s exposed an underlying issue in our society that affects the ordinary people much more than it would a royal person who might have the resources to defend themselves.
At least we need to address the issues that might affect those who remain voiceless but are indeed affected by similar society ethics that need a bit of shaking and scrutinising.
Whatever it is, racism/ misogyny or not.. the debate needs to happen because dehumanising a person for no moral fault of their own is usually the first step to cruelty. And if it’s normalised for a royal on the public eye then it would have its ripple effect in the general population..
The power dynamic is slightly more exaggerated when it’s a world class royal vs a commoner who just joined the family. And coupled with underlying racial superiority/insecurity issues it could easily be a tool used to further misogyny. And the combination of power, misogyny and covert racism is just toxic.
I have zero interest in how she fits in or represents the royal family and her role . I probably should care but I don’t. Because I generally am a republican.
And I acknowledge that part of the motive behind the scrutiny might be her lack of ability to fit the role or whatever. I haven’t investigated it to form an opinion. And quite frankly whether that’s true or not has no significance to society in general aside from the very few royalists who are having their fantasy destroyed.
However it is shameful to now realise whichever side of the argument you are, that an element of racism and misogyny was used as a tool to propagate dislike of Meghan.. whether the dislike is motivated by something legitimate or not with regards to her role it’s not a matter of major significance when compared to the effect of normalising sexism and racism on the masses who are following up her story.
So I’m not a royalist but I am a humanist and I would like to think that many of us are.. so any debates on the royal role and title doesn’t interest me but when I see a phenomena of normalising something ethically regressive to our society I take interest.
And royalists, if they’re unable to seperate their fascination with royalty from their duty towards their actual country in filtering out all the toxic racism and misogyny, then it’s a bit ironic. And strikes of very low moral integrity.
It shouldn’t be mutually exclusive to criticise Meghan’s breaches of royal protocol (if such ) while still criticising -if not more loudly so- the racial/misogynist abuse that she received in the name of the royal family by tabloids.
The fact that many royal fans are defending the honour of the royal family by turning a blind eye on those that dehumanising Meghan through all those isms, is quite telling. Disheartening too.
When you have such a loud voice, obvious from the extreme opinionated outspokenness about how she should or should not act as a royal... yet you seem to park all opinions and speach when she is obviously publically faced with something that if we normalise would damage our society... then I think that’s really really telling about priorities.
Royal protocol doesnt trump humanism. And the voices should reflect as much. That’s what it boils down to.