AN anecdote Meghan Markle loves to wheel out is that as an 11 year old she wrote to P&G, complaining about their advert suggesting only women do the washing-up.
Suitably chastised, the sexist pigs at P&G duly changed their lazy stereotype of a campaign.
Meghan comes across as the perfect #tradwife in her new Netflix show[/caption]
For a woman who prides herself in modernity, why is the Duchess ticking every 1950s housewife box?[/caption]
Harry and Meg in With Love, Meghan[/caption]
Thirty-two years on, then, how is our feminist hero getting on?
Ball-breaking and tearing down the patriarchy brick by brick, perhaps?
Or, er, slaving over a designer stove, in the sort of designer neutrals a Stepford Wife could only dream of, drizzling home-ish grown honey over a baked feta frittata, and tending to her rose bushes.
Before doing the washing-up. (Presumably)
Because, after much fanfare and a cleverly orchestrated advertising campaign – the likes of which P&G execs circa 1992 would be drooling over – the Duchess’s Netflix show With Love, Meghan kicked off today at 8am.
She is, by all accounts, perfect throughout.
Beautiful, funny, elegant, smart and cutesy: the perfect #tradwife.
[#tradwife being the weird cult meme doing the rounds on TikTok showing females taking womenkind back 50 years and living life vicariously for their menfolk… all to gain followers, of course].In another PR move over the weekend, she shared a rare video of daughter Lilibet with Serena Williams.
Young Lilibet was dressed head to toe in baby pink.
(Although, tbf, imagine the stick she’d have got for raising Lil gender neutral).
Over the course of the next eight episodes, we’ll see Meghan, impeccably dressed and gorgeously made-up at all times, cooking, hosting, flower arranging, and decorating. Just what the Suffrage ordered.
So yes, it all just seems a bit… backwards.
For a woman who prides herself on modernity, on effecting change, why is she ticking every 1950s housewife box?
Although, to be fair, no 1950s housewife in literary lore ever cashed-in a cool 15million quid for their efforts.
Perhaps the biggest problem beautiful Meghan faces is that she’s not hugely relatable – who, after all, lives in an £11million Californian mansion and quite literally marries their fairytale prince?
(However, scenes in the show featuring her beloved late dog Guy, a rescue beagle, are genuinely touching and unquestionably authentic, as Meg might say. Similarly, her recent, emotional Instagram post paying tribute to Guy – with a montage of touching videos and photos – shows a different, wholly human side to her; this is something millions of animal lovers will relate to and makes her more achingly fallible than any heavy-duty PR campaign).
Meg’s ambition
Meghan can do precisely what she wants, when she wants.
Perhaps true feminism is doing what makes you happy, for a pretty penny.
In which case, the Duchess has smashed it.
(I mean, why should she make a Netflix series which shows her slogging down a coal mine, or playing American football?)
But Meghan Markle – who yesterday gave an interview justifying her continued use of the Duchess of Sussex title – isn’t a representative of the royal family any more.
She’s an influencer, and a businesswoman, plain and simple. (Although unlike most influencers, poor Meghan has wisely disabled the public comments on Instagram, so much does she wind-up a certain proportion of the British population).
Like hundreds of thousands of young men and women, the mum of two is trying to make a living.
Meghan, like her multi-tiered raspberry Victoria sponge cake – another nod to that pesky, allegedly-racist Royal family – is crammed full of delicate ambition.
AND THAT IS A WONDERFUL, LAUDABLE THING.
But why-oh-why can’t she just own it?? Now that would be progressive.
Meghan plays a personalised Candy Land board game with Lilibet and Serena Williams[/caption]
Meghan posted the video to her Instagram page[/caption]
JOLLY HOOD SHOW
Harry Styles secured a seriously rapid time of 3 hours 24 in the Tokyo marathon[/caption]
AS any vaguely serious runner knows, a marathon time of less than 3hrs 30mins is the gold standard.
It means you’re seriously fit and seriously dedicated.
So huge congrats to unlikely speed demon Harry Styles, who was casually snapped pacing along like a gazelle in the Tokyo marathon.
He secured a seriously rapid time of 3 hrs 24 mins.
I scraped 3.46 and genuinely cannot imagine the extra discipline, effort and hours of training it would have taken to shave off a further 22 minutes.
But what’s even more impressive is that Harry appeared to run the entire thing in a baggy, sweaty, cumbersome hoodie.
“GRUMBLES at the Groucho” ran the headline in the society page of the Mail on Sunday.
There’s outrage at London’s £1,000-a-year celebrity favourite private members’ club, The Groucho, because it’s just installed cameras in the loos.
The latest move comes after the snooty club was forced to shut last November following rape allegations.
Why, per chance, could Class A-snorting showbiz types be so offended by security cameras in the toilets…?
MALE ORDER
AHEAD of International Women’s Day on Saturday, not one single woman has made it into the list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes.
Ronaldo topped the list, raking in a reported £204.5million last year (the mind doesn’t so much boggle as not even compute), while Tyson Fury did it for the Brits, coming in third with earnings of £115.6million.
Why is this?
Because women are innately rubbish at sport and uncoordinated? (Clue: no).
Or perhaps because for years, agencies, TV networks and, crucially, sports’ governing bodies have been run by, yep, men.
HEAT’S NOT ON CHEAT
Maura Higgins snogged McFly’s Danny Jones at the Brits[/caption]
The Love Island star got the blame for her drunken kiss with married Danny[/caption]
AH, how predictable.
Married-man-with-child snogs young, free and single woman… and the woman gets the blame.
Shame on all you TikTok/Instagram trolls – thankfully, not Sun readers – who flooded social media to have a pop at Maura Higgins in the wake of her apparent drunken snog with McFly’s Danny Jones.
“Trailer trash, find your own man “you’re a home wrecker”, “unfollowed, not as classy as I thought”, “used to respect you, not any more”, “I mean what’s new, Maura the red flag”, and “the way you kissed him isn’t funny! Danny had no chance getting away from you”, etc etc, being just a few of the hundreds of comments.
Sure, snogging a married man isn’t a good look – no matter how much alcohol had been consumed.
But ultimately, and this applies to any situation, the person at fault is the one with a ring on their finger.
End of.
Driven mad
LAST week, I took my car to the garage to get its oil replaced.
Conveniently, upon picking up the stupid thing, the garage managed to find a host of other faults to add to my bill. Yay.
One such extra was a £5.95 “environmental charge”.
No idea, either.
But clearly I have “mug” written across my forehead.
RECOGNISE new Gladiator, Hammer?
Rylan certainly thought he looked familiar…
TWO POSH BRITS NEED MORE COCKER GRIT
Congrats to Brit winner Charli XCX, who attended Bishop’s Stortford College, for highlighting just how egalitarian the arts are[/caption]
CONGRATS to Brit winners Charli XCX (Bishop’s Stortford College, £38k per annum), AG Cook (King Alfred School, £28,000), The Last Dinner Party (lead singer, Bedales School, £52,000) who highlight just how egalitarian the arts truly are.
Where’s Jarvis Cocker mooning and singing about the Common People when you need him eh?
Where’s Jarvis singing about the Common People when you need him?[/caption]
