Meghan is the most trolled person in the world – but I can’t help but like her
The opprobrium directed towards Meghan Markle feels obscene. Pathological. Racist. People want to silence her. Break her. Disappear her. What exactly is it they cannot stand?
We’re at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Everything I hear/read/absorb that they say in the media space has me cringing; their stance often feeds into a conflagration of hatred. Yet I can’t help liking this person. They’re a cack. They have me giggling despite myself, and what they present on-air is much more extreme than who they are in real life; in that world, they see the bigger picture. I can barely mention to my most earnest, siloed mates that I really, actually, like this commentator.
What I’ve realised is their media stance is a performance, a game. For clicks and cash. A siren lure in terms of attention, satisfying a need in others for like-minded community. Peddling hatred is how they make a living and in our polarised media landscape, they’re buying into the outrage industry. To game it.
But there are real-life consequences for the people at the centre of these media storms. What’s most debilitating for them is the loss of control over the narrative of their life; Others get to tell their story, whether true or not. No matter how many times they try to refute or explain they’re not believed. The impulse is to retreat, to silence your voice, make yourself smaller and quieter.
Which brings me to Meghan Markle, who refuses to be put in the box marked Compliant Woman. She’s presenting something far more interesting, and she’s doing it now through social media. Instagram. Taking control of her narrative. Sending the haters into a frenzy by becoming a woman in control of her story; calling the shots on how she presents herself.
Recently, Meghan released a video of Harry and herself dancing the “Baby Mama Dance” before Lilibet’s birth. It was tapping into a TikTok trend that captured the euphoric joy of the moment. The video was funny, cool, endearingly real – and it broke the internet. Right on cue, out rushed the haters. Viciously. Lucratively. Because for a certain subset of royal watchers, hatred is income.
In 2019 Meghan revealed she was the most trolled person in the world. That the campaign against her had driven her to suicidal thoughts. The opprobrium directed towards her feels obscene. Pathological. Racist. People want to silence her. Break her. Disappear her. What exactly is it they cannot stand? She’s a working mother with a Netflix show and a line of merchandise repeatedly sold out; a woman going beyond traditional forms of media to present her truth, her power.
I’d love a British journalist to have the courage to do a major exposé on the inner workings of the palace. What’s really going on there. The briefings against family members, which Harry has talked about in Spare; the role British tabloids play in tearing down a woman who doesn’t obey the accepted model of royal wifedom; the truth of palace machinations.
I see a black woman of energy, courage and charismatic charm, yet the industry of hate directed against her is a well-oiled machine. There’s a person at the heart of this, facing credible plots against her life, according to security services. Yet despite once saying the abuse was “almost unsurvivable”, Meghan is a woman who refuses to disappear; to be obedient, meek, quiet.
Who are we as a society that allows/needs this gladiatorial arena that tears down those who dare to be different? A vulnerably thoughtful Stan Grant recently spoke of the failure of The Voice, and his public struggles, on ABC TV’s Compass. “I saw that the media was much more interested in creating conflict, in finding the point of conflict, and exacerbating that … I saw in so many ways our media has become the poison in the bloodstream.” With Meghan, too, conflict is created in its cruel game of stoke-the-hatred. But at what cost to the person at the centre?
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