Meghan says calling women "difficult" is a "convenient" way to keep them in their place. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan says calling women "difficult" is a "convenient" way to keep them in their place. Photo / Getty Images
Labelling women as bitches just means they have “really awesome qualities”, the Duchess of Sussex has said.
The Duchess said calling a woman “the B-word” or “difficult” is simply a deflection from her “persistence, strength or strong opinion”.
Describing it as an attempt to dismiss an “assertive woman in a position of power”, she argued it was a “very convenient way” to keep women in their place.
The Duchess made her case in the latest episode of her podcast, Archetypes, in which she admitted the old adage of “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” was a “flat-out lie”.
“Of course names hurt,” she said. “But what happens when we use that pain to fuel purpose?”
She went on to share advice from an unnamed friend, who told her: “There’s a certain point when you come to terms with the fact that not everyone is going to like you.
“The goal can’t be for everyone to like you but the goal can be for them to respect you.”
It is the latest in a series in which the Duchess contemplates the meaning of negative “archetypes” that affect women.
She herself has been criticised for alleged behaviour while in the Royal family, having once been called “Duchess Difficult” and being subject to a bullying complaint which she denies.
During an episode entitled “To B or Not To B”, in which the Duchess discussed the word “bitch” without using it herself, she said: “Perhaps the truth is that labelling a woman as the B-word or as difficult is often a deflection.
“A way to hide some of her really awesome qualities: her persistence or strength or perseverance, her strong opinion, maybe even her resilience.”
Meghan spoke about negative labels used to describe women on her new podcast episode. Photo / Getty Images
She added it is “often a way to insult and dismiss”, saying a “good girlfriend” had recently told her: “Well, isn’t that a convenient villain, an assertive woman in a position of power being called the B-word?”
“How very convenient,” Meghan said of the unnamed woman. “But that’s what happens when we label someone - a woman especially - one of these words.
“It becomes a way to take their power away. Keep them in their place.
“A lot of times it’s tied to the very women who have power and agency, as my friend was suggesting, who aren’t comfortable being silent, like businesswomen and entrepreneurs.”
In her customary conclusion to the episode, in which she sums up her discussion with guests each week, Meghan described “When the B-word is shouted with one intent, but you’re able to let it go and to remind yourself of all the other words with a B that better describe you.
“Beautiful, blessed, brilliant, beguiling, blissful, bedazzling. Take your pick. Be that person.”
The episode also featured the Duchess discussing her childhood devotion to television game show Jeopardy which turned her into a “word nerd”.
On hearing from podcast guest Mellody Hobson, a businesswoman, about her tough childhood in which she took responsibility for financial planning to get her own braces and friends’ birthday presents, Meghan joked: “I have to rethink my parenting style because if that is, if that’s what yields you, I’ve really gotta up my game with our kids being self-sufficient.”
