Meghan, Duchess of Sussex spotted out and about

[queentim]

Recently spotted at a TSwift (allegedly), Barbie movie for her birthday, a restaurant, and then hanging out with friends in an Instagram selfie. She looks phenomenal in this photo!

Glad to see she's enjoying her life back home with her family.

Meghan summer selfie

And Meghan gets criticised for a doormat even though she is still married lol

To be fair, Sarah's medieval garb is presumably meant to be light-hearted, whereas the doormat is almost farcical in its pomposity.

Frankly, I look at both those things and cringe hard 😀

OK. Let me get this right. They had a monogrammed doormat.

SF was very serious in her acting as a redhead Lady Somebody pretending to be her so she could flog her book. Do go and google it if your eyes will take it.
I think there have been three lots of this tripe, all filmed in the Windsor Estate. This is a divorced woman of 30 years using a royal estate.

But the doormat is worse... okeydoke!!!!!

Oh god I had forgotten about the toe sucking thing

Frankly, I look at both those things and cringe hard

hm

I couldn't two hoots about this stuff.

SF has had quite a difficult life. Her mother left the family and went to live in S America and then was decapitated in a car crash. Her DF was involved in sorts of scandal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Barrantes
Fergie may be a bit of a grifter but when she gets knocked down she gets back up again carries of. And this blooming book you keep quoting about men in grey suits. It completely passed me. Very thin gruel.

It makes it look like some posters feel the only way to win is to tilt the playing field so they can always claim the high ground.

We won't agree @derxa
I wish Meghan wasn't held up to such high standards and you could spare some of that kindness for her

@TallerSally what a post from you. So agree
M&H are treated as non human, just fodder for the media and posters on here to scapegoat and criticise endlessly (even when they're quiet). I remember Meghan barely being seen or heard of for nearly six months. It didn't stop.
I can only imagine it gives posters some sort of self satisfaction and makes them feel better.
God alone knows how but there you go

The common thread is a total lack of humanity when it comes to M&H. They are no longer human beings, who by definition are imperfect, they have been reduced to bogeymen, whose every misstep is thrown back at their faces and presented on boards such as this as evidence of their craven nature.

such a good post @TallerSally all of it. You’ve summed up what has developed really well. They have been dehumanised.

And they have been cast as ‘evil’ many times, it’s a common part of the narrative. whether people admit it or not. The people criticising them endlessly may not use the word ‘evil’, but Harry and Meghan have been cast into the ‘evil’ role. So
much of the criticism has no bearing in reality.

I have sympathy with Meghan over her pre-partum depression. It must have been very difficult being pregnant in a foreign country and feeling trapped and isolated. She doesn't bother me at all now. She seems to be living her best life now and good luck to her. But I will never find her likeable. You can't make me. 😂

@TallerSally you’ve put it so well - people literally treat them like pantomime villains.

It’s how in the one moment one royal’s naffness is kitsch and tongue in cheek and H&M’s is “farcical in its pomposity”.

It’s how one royal has traded extensively on their royal name but that’s ok because they’re self deprecating and look like a good laugh, but H&M doing the same is somehow worse because it’s only ok when non working royals do it. Even though they are. It’s somehow different.🫠

It’s how in the one moment one royal’s naffness is kitsch and tongue in cheek

Yep, that Dining with the Duchess book was a right laugh! Apparently I can make everyday dining 'a royal experience'!

I must get DH to stick a sprig of parsley on our cheese on toast next time we have it!

Now that my earlier post has been inexplicably deleted, I can see what PPs mean by the uneven moderation here on Mumsnet.

What?
I wish I'd copy and pasted it to read again. It was excellent and not a PA or anything like that
bizarre

Absolutely no reason for that post to be deleted

Yup, the inconsistent deletions here are unhelpful.

Sadly I didn't think of copy-pasting my post, but the gist of it was that:

There is an unacceptable double-standard when it comes to any missteps by M&H, which clearly is not applied to other members of the RF and other public figures.

M&H are pilloried for sometimes the most ridiculous things, held as evidence that as they are not perfect, they must be deserving of the treatment they are getting at the hands of the tabloid press/RF/Murdoch media and some of the British public.

At the centre of it is a total lack of humanity - M&H have been reduced to bogeymen, evil caricature figures as opposed to human beings that are by definition imperfect.

No-one here can imagine what it must be like to face the torrent of hate, abuse and threats to their lives that M&H face on a daily basis, and have been facing for years. It would be super-human for their every word or action in response to be perfect and uncriticisable. Yet people hold up every little mistake they make as validation that they are awful (perfect example of confirmation bias), while conveniently ignoring that they are making a valid contribution to discourse about fundamental issues in British society.

The points H&M are raising, and that H raised in Spare (rated 4/5 after being read by literally millions of people worldwide), about misogyny, racism, classicism and the role of the British Royal Fam are perfectly valid points. The fact that H&M aren't perfect does not in my view in any way invalidate the points they raise.

(I'm saving this one; if Mumsnet doesn't tolerate this level of discourse I'll post it elsewhere)

I agree about @TallerSally ‘s post. There was no reason to delete it. I intended to go back for a second read. It was a well written, thoughtful post. I can’t work out the reasoning either. Are posts just automatically deleted when there’s a report?

Are posts just automatically deleted when there’s a report?

Totally not. I report occasionally, PAs and blatant goading just about always removed. Not so anything else

I have no idea why Sally's original post was removed. Thx for giving the gist of it again

I did not recommend it.

I referred to a running theme they have about Kate copying Meghan's outfits.

Just as I referred to the Daily Mail about Kate wanting to "see off Meghan" with her "new look", complete with the headline "Suits You Kate".

It's up to you to decide whether to read either. Recommendations they are most definitely not.

Nor did I say I "avidly read and enjoy it". I said it's a riot, because it often is. And I enjoy the pop cultural references, especially to African American culture.

I read Celebitchy the way I read the Daily Mail. To see the current commentary from one particular demographic. And to marvel at the narrow mind of Middle England, to understand UK politics and voting issues.

As for Kate's coverage on Celebitchy:

When you unleash your minions to write headlines like MEGHAN MADE KATE CRY, and fail to correct that, even as you know the truth, and even as you have in the past corrected stories about how you wear hair extensions and have had "baby Botox:, then sorry, you don't get to deploy white tears when you have unleashed an ugly stereotype about the violent and aggressive black woman who made the delicate white princess cry.

Particularly when it is your husband who is in fact physically manhandling the husband of the woman you accused of aggression.

No. Just no.

What was that that some of the posts upthread were talking about again - treating people like pantomime villains and dehumanising them, reducing them to evil caricature figures? And apparently that was a terrible thing to do?

I’m sure I read those posts.

Indeed you did.

Now that you see how awful it is when it happens to Kate, I hope you can have an understanding of how awful it is when it happens to Meghan.

And why the aggressive black woman stereotype will never play well in places that have known this stereotype from slavery and colonialism, and with women who experience it in their daily work lives.

There's a reason "white tears' is a thing. Because some, not most, white people have more capacity to feel for people who look like them, than for those who do not. Hence the sympathy on here for the white Markles. Thomas's tears are considered more important than all the shit he has thrown at his daughter.

The thing iis, MrsMaxDeWinter, is that I do and have pushed back against this for Meghan - correcting incorrect assumptions that people have posted, defending her against numerous petty smears. I know very well you and others will say I don’t but you are wrong. Remembering there is a human being behind these debates is something I strive to do for all of them, not just the ones I like.