Meghan Markle’s Modern Monarchy - Optus Hype April 2018
The Royal Family has had more than its fair share of controversies, but its well-oiled PR machine often has the scandals resolved quickly and quietly. (Remember how after Princess Diana died Prince Charles married his ex-girlfriend Camilla and the whole thing blew up in their faces? Neither do I.)
The attitude the family adopts in regard to their own scandals – that is, stay silent – is also used when it comes to any outside issue. But how the monarchy has retained its prominence while staying silent on some of the most scandalous and precarious of situations in history is baffling to those living in an era where fewer than five Instagram posts per day can see you dismissed by your audience. A 2016 study found that British support for the Royal Family was at its highest level in 20 years, but internationally, it’s a different story. In February 2018, Australian support for the monarchy reached a new low, with 52 per cent of people surveyed deeming our country should become a republic.
Cue Meghan Markle. An American-born, Toronto-based biracial actress, feminist, globetrotter and all-round cool chick who loved social media, had a blog and sometimes, her hair was messy. Those qualities alone have garnered renewed interest in the royals, but add to that her no-bullshit stance on all the critical issues and what you have is a breath of fresh air floating through the stuffy halls of Buckingham Palace. It’s called The Markle Effect.
Since she was 11, Meghan has been outspoken about inequality, beginning with advocating for changes to be made to a sexist advertisement. When Donald Trump was running for US President, among other things, Meghan said she would move to Canada if he were elected. She told Marie Claire magazine in 2013, “I wanted more than [being a girl from LA trying to be an actress] … I thought for sure I would still have a career in politics.”
The royals need her for their new millennium image, but protocol also demands she sit down and keep quiet. While the actual rule (“The Queen has to remain strictly neutral with respect to political matters”) only pertains to the Queen, the rest of the family abide by it, too. This is why you never see Kate Middleton taking a stand like the one Meghan did at the Royal Foundation Forum in February when she mentioned the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. (Though this posits the larger question of whether sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace are political issues or human issues; another story for another word count.)
You’d be hard pressed to find an area of Meghan’s life that hasn’t been reported about since the beginning of her relationship with Prince Harry, the irony being that before she was connected to a royal, her life was on an open platter through her Instagram and her blog, The Tig. Now that she’s had to shut up her publicity shop, the public simultaneously can’t get enough of her and can’t find out anything credible about her. Is this the beginning of the silencing of Meghan Markle? Or as The Guardian so eloquently put it, ‘will Britain get a sleeping beauty or our first woke princess?’
On May 19, the world will gain a new princess, one who will never be queen and so has more freedom to push the boundaries of royal protocol. But what will she do with her new platform? Will she turn it into a soapbox or lower the velvet curtain? Only time will tell.
This story originally appeared on Optus Hype in April, 2018.
Main image: Getty Images.