Sunday, 24 Nov 2024

Meghan Markle discusses 'toxic Asian stereotypes' in delayed new podcast episode

Meghan Markle has resumed her podcast on Spotify after a four-week break following the Queen’s death.

After Her Majesty’s passing on September 8, the Duchess of Sussex delayed the upcoming episodes during the official ‘mourning period’.

The fourth episode of Archetypes was released this morning to the delight of fans curious to hear if she mentions her stay in London with King Charles and other members of the Royal Family.

But the 41-year-old seems to have avoided discussing the monarchy altogether.

Instead, she explores the ‘toxic’ stereotypes with journalist Lisa Ling and comedian Margaret Cho.

Opening the episode, the duchess talks about her experience of growing up in Los Angeles, which was ‘full of culture that you could see, feel, hear and taste on a daily basis’.

‘Weekends were spent in Little Tokyo or having ice teas, and Thai, Town are sitting with my friend, Kristina Wong, and her parents at a Chinese restaurant,’ she said.

As part of her ‘love of getting to know other cultures’, Meghan recalls going to a Korean spa with her mum as a teenager.

She said: ‘It’s a humbling experience for a girl going through puberty because you enter a room with women from ages nine to maybe 90, all walking around naked and waiting to get a body scrub on one of these tables that are all lined up in a row.

‘All I wanted was a bathing suit, which you are not allowed by the way.

‘Once I was over that adolescent embarrassment, my mom and I would go upstairs, we would sit in a room and we would have a steaming bowl of the most delicious noodles.


‘Now, that was part of the Asian-American culture I knew.

‘I had not known all this stigmas, and archetypes that so many women of Asian descent, specifically had faced until many many years later.’

Specifically, Meghan pointed at films like Austin Powers and Kill Bill for ‘presenting caricatures of women of Asian descent’, which she said are often ‘over-sexualised or aggressive’.

Adding to these ‘toxic’ archetypes, she stressed that labels like ‘bimbo’, ‘diva’ and ‘slut’ only hold women back.

Journalist Lisa Ling told her host how, when she was a broadcaster at Channel One, she was named hot reporter in the Rolling Stone’s Hot List.

‘Someone at my place of work cut out that article, drew slanted eyes over the eyes and wrote ‘yeah, right’ and then put it back in my mailbox,’ Ms Ling said.

She added: ‘It was like every kernel of excitement that I possessed just withered away. It was so devastating that someone that I would see every day in my place of work where we’re supposed to feel comfortable, just harboured those feelings about me and had the nerve to make it racial.’

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