Warning: long post.
I was thinking today, what is it that irritates me about Meghan Markle? So here is my essay on some of the things, but all essentially around her “showing-offness”. She’s a show off. It is a long post, I warn you, so please indulge me if you can; I enjoyed writing it and it feels good to get my thoughts on it off my chest.:-)
So, here goes, where she continually shows off on so many things:
- Her looks obviously. Harry apparently called her good looks “heartstopping”. She is always drawing attention to her looks eg. her hair, and her arms. Never misses an opportunity to display bare arms and back even at the most formal and conservative engagements, including when visiting Nigeria (the President’s wife wasn’t impressed) and at a funeral. She can’t help being attractive (well with some help: plastic surgery, veneers and hair extensions etc) and I don’t think beautiful people should hide their light under a bushel, but she seems to need to somehow stick it forcefully into people’s faces all the time. Though of course she’s rich and hitched now so she doesn’t have to bother so much with the sexy look and can even afford to look rather unglamerous. By comparison Kate is also very attractive but she doesn’t go round forcing it on people, IYKWIM. PS. I’m not a royalist particularly but my goodness didn’t Kate look absolutely stunning in that red outfit yesterday?
- Her actress role in Suits. A minor part where she basically played herself, as always, but you’d think she was Judy Garland or Meryl Streep. Most of the time before that she was pretty much unemployed as an actress and this was also pre the Tig. People never comment on that. What did she do with her days
- Clothes. Showing off in terms of fashion and clothes. There’s nothing wrong in wearing beautiful clothes, but again it’s the sense that you get that she’s showing off, not just wearing beautiful clothes for their own sake. I actually think she does wear some stylish clothes on occasion, but many other times she shows no sense of fashion whatsoever. I know I keep going on about that beige two-piece beige jumper twin set that she wore on her latest series - but to me they were truly hideous, I can’t get over it! 😂 Clothes can be a way of showing off money and status and looks, and for MM I think it’s been pretty much that way since the Tig (though more pencil skirts, stilettos then). I think narcissists generally dress for status, rather than any inherent style or beauty.
- Caring, sharing. Again this all feels done for show, showing off again eg. turning up at the Californian fires and the Billy T-shirt business. Most kind people tend to just get on with it without constantly looking for acknowledgement and credit and special treatment and attention. A previous poster on here made the point that Californians can be rather gushing and OTT, but I can’t think of any American celebrity who goes on about themselves to this extent in public. Could be I am missing the cultural nuances here, and it’s more socially acceptable in the states to “brag”. If she had even stuck to one caring issue and truly tried to make a difference there, you could take her more seriously.
- Her relationships with family and friends. Again always gushing and bragging about how great all her friends are, how great Harry is, how great family life is, how great it is being a “mamma”, how she “ brings the boys to the yard“, ick. Yada yada. Why does she assume revealing these personal matters would be of interest to people ? Though I do agree with her stance of keeping her children out of the public eye.
- Money and wealth and status. Even at the most trivial level of making sure she gets her expensive jewellery in any photo shot. Her financial and other demands around her wedding were telling; one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, in royal history.
- Cooking ability. Apparently, she is a great cook and hostess. Because she is good at everything of course. But another time she said she never really cooked in Canada, just ate chicken salads and stuff like that. Love it that her cooking show is full of things like doughnuts, biscuit mixes, cakes, focaccia bread, pasta: what are the odds that she eats any of this kind of food, ever?! Still there’s always a bit of fruit or a salad ladybird 🐞 in the fridge if it gets too much. No wonder Harry makes himself a bacon sandwich in desperation now and again…
- Her title. “I’m a Sussex now don’t you know, and I’d appreciate that if you remembered my new title when addressing me” - to her “friend”. Haha.
- Feminism and activism. There’s that letter she wrote to Proctor and Gamble, never forget. What an examplary revolutionary she is - though that’s been dropped more or less as she failed in her Democratic political ambitions and instead embraced “rich Californian wife with a side hustle” identity. Pre-Harry she was some kind of minor representative for UN feminism. Hence that was the time when she was constantly banging on about increased female “political representation” in a Third World country where so many of the male population had been killed in a war. How dim, and how desperately insensitive to those people. Anyway, according to Tom Bowles she did most of this to raise her profile, following the example of other actresses at the time. She also allegedly angrily bowed out when she wasn’t then promoted in the UN hierarchy as she felt she should (a regular theme here?).
- Animal rights activist. Something about chickens, I vaguely remember, though it’s a bit of a blur. That said, the only truly positive story I remember reading about her in Tom Bowles’ book was her alleged fury at seeing a parrot in a cage in a windowless hotel corridor and demanding to move to a different (expensive) hotel as a result. Kudos to her, if that story is true.
Journalist Camilla Tominey once wrote an article in The Times about her which was truly brilliant. It was just after Covid when Meghan Markle released a video from her California mansion throne encouraging women to get back to work (!). The gist of the article was that Meghan Markle had got where she was simply through her ability as a seductress to snag a rich man - a story as old as the hills. And what she should do about it is shut up and keep quiet about her good fortune, rather than lecturing and patronising 99.9999999999 % of the female population (who are not in a position to marry a rich prince) with her out of touch (make friends with your local bee keeper!) advice and various bragging and hectorings on what to do, what to think, and how to live their lives.
Maybe one day MM will mature; after all people’s identities can change throughout their lives (maiden, mother, crone). Look at Germaine Greer’s various reincarnations since the 60s. However, there is usually a thread of consistency with most people in terms of who they are deep down. But I think MM’s life has been so focused on the fake, the superficial and all that glitters, it’s so shored up with protecting her status and image, it’s probably unlikely and we will never see her authentic self, despite her constant assertions.