Our summer guest essay series continues this week, and I’m handing the reins to Samantha Lord, owner and writer of The Royal Tea Report. I recommended her Substack in this space last month by remarking, “We love when the media sphere is considered a player, not just a passive observer, in royal history.” Samantha seems to have built her platform on that premise, applying a methodical, well-reasoned lens to the royal family and to the coverage surrounding them.
This week, she’s turned that lens on a thought experiment: what might the last decade of Meghan Markle coverage look like if her and Prince Harry’s genders were reversed? In other words, do the hypercritical commentaries of the Duchess of Sussex’s work, platforms, and projects actually hold up… or is something else at play here?
Take it away, Samantha.
I’m Samantha Lord, the owner and writer of The Royal Tea Report. I live in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. (Yes, it’s really called Windsor.) I’m Canadian but come from a British family.
I used to idealize the UK (mainly as an escape from what I was going through at the time). One good thing that has come out of that, however, is that I’m exceptionally knowledgeable about British culture. I’ve had a unique and quite difficult life, but I think its experiences and the knowledge I’ve gained from them allow me to see through and behind appearances and veneers. I also have a sharp and often satirical eye.
That’s why I created The Royal Tea Report. It’s an insightful and well-researched newsletter presenting my clear-eyed (and sometimes wry) commentary on the British royal family (and astute media critique).
I hope you’ll subscribe and become part of The Royal Tea Report community.
If Harry had been a woman and Meghan a man, the stories being told in the media right now would be entirely different.
Let’s imagine ourselves back in 2016. One of Queen Elizabeth II’s grandchildren has met the person they will eventually marry.
But in this alternate universe, this grandchild isn’t Harry. Instead, QE2 has a granddaughter called Princess Henrietta.
This princess has met an American actor called Matthew Markle. He has all the same characteristics as Meghan, except (of course) he is a man.
What do you think the response would be? Yes, I imagine there still would have been gossip and vitriol, at least initially, but I just cannot imagine it would have been anywhere close to as vicious as what has been directed towards Meghan.
Certainly, there wouldn’t have been all the misogynistic stereotypes and dogwhistles we constantly hear from the vast and disturbing Meghan Markle Hatred Industrial Complex.
And let’s fast-forward to Princess Henrietta and Matthew’s wedding, and to life after the marriage. If Matthew had behaved exactly the same way to Henrietta as Meghan behaved towards Harry, would there have been the accusations that have been directed towards Meghan?
I don’t think so. Let’s consider the case of Edo and Beatrice.
In my opinion, Edo has a very questionable background. Reportedly, he was still in a relationship with the mother of his child, Wolfie, when he decided to get together with Beatrice.
Since Beatrice married Edo, she has changed quite significantly in her appearance. She has lost a lot of weight, and she has changed her style of dressing.
Can you imagine if Harry had lost a lot of weight and changed his style of dressing after marrying Meghan? Can you imagine what the accusations would be?
But instead of criticism of Edo, we’ve heard very little but praise of how much Beatrice’s appearance has supposedly improved. I don’t think I’ve read or heard anyone ask whether Edo could have pressured Beatrice into losing too much weight or is controlling what she wears.
And apparently, the earnings and reach of Edo’s business, Banda, have skyrocketed since his marriage to Beatrice. His royal marriage has given him priceless publicity, such as this feature in Vanity Fair from 2020, the same year as his wedding (that didn’t take long).
Can you imagine if Edo had been a woman and married a prince, and this had happened? Let’s take a look at one of the many headlines accusing Meghan of exploiting her royal status.
Meghan is besieged with hardly anything but criticism and sexist accusations about her business, As Ever.
One of the most infuriating parts of following coverage of Meghan and Harry on social media is witnessing the misogyny implicit in so much of the criticism.
And to make matters worse, many of the participants in the social media pile-on against Meghan and Harry are women, many of whom are completely unaware they are displaying their intense internalized misogyny for the entire world to see.
In fact, I think one day a historian will be able to examine this phenomenon as one of the most significant proofs of misogyny and internalized misogyny in our age. I mean, just take a look at some of the tropes you see other women (and men, of course) hurling at Meghan and Harry.
It goes without saying that if a Princess Henrietta had married a Matthew Markle, he wouldn’t be the target of the misogynistic vitriol we’ve constantly seen over the last 10 (and especially the last seven) years.
Thank you so much, Amanda, for letting me write this piece for The Fascinator. And thank you, Amanda’s readers, for reading this article.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Substack newsletter, The Royal Tea Report! Here are links to some of my pieces there, to give you a taste of what you can expect:
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source mattaoffact.substack.com ’
