Meghan Markle's latest episode form her Archetypes podcast explores the discourse of women's sexuality. Photo / Spotify
Meghan Markle has expressed her thoughts on gender inequality, saying women are “vilified” for exploring their sexuality while men are often “celebrated”, according to New York Post.
“I don’t understand what it is about the stigma surrounding women and their sexuality and the exploration of their sexuality that is so much more vilified than for a man,” said the Duchess of Sussex in her most recent episode of her Spotify podcast, Archetypes.
Markle, 41, commented on her observations regarding the double standard that is so often set for women.
“As you’re getting older, you’re exploring and starting to understand your sensuality, your feminine divine. Your sexuality, oftentimes, it can be very much used against you,” said the Duchess.
The Suits actress continued to state that men are more often than not praised for exploring their sex lives and can flaunt it with no consequence, while women are scorned if their sexual sides show.
“A man, if he is a player, out having fun or whatever he’s doing, it’s often celebrated. Even heralded,” she said. “But for a woman, I don’t care if she’s perhaps the most successful woman in finance in her mid-50s, I promise you, someone will still go, ‘But she was such a sl*t in college.’”
Meghan expressed that the idea of a woman’s sexual journey will “stick with her” like glue.
What’s more, the former TV star, who tied the knot with Prince Harry in 2018, recently received backlash over a statement she made regarding her time as a briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal, saying she was reduced to a “bimbo”.
“I ended up quitting the show. I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage,” she said on her podcast in October. “I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance, and that’s how it felt for me at the time being reduced to this specific archetype: the word ‘bimbo.’”
Additionally, she said, “I was grateful for the job, but not about how it made me feel, which was not smart. By the way, I was surrounded by smart women … but that wasn’t the focus.”
However, social media users have been quick to call Meghan a “hypocrite”, especially considering she took a job on the hit teen series 90210 years later as a character who was caught performing oral sex on a man in a car.
“YEARS after you left Deal or No Deal for ‘being treated like a bimbo’, you took on roles giving men BJ’s in cars in 90210, taking your top off to grill burgers in Men’s Health, had a ton of sex scenes in Suits. You’ve objectified YOURSELF,” one person tweeted, adding, “You’re not a victim girl.”
Whoopi Goldberg also weighed in on the Duchess’s comments, saying Meghan should think twice before judging those trying to make it in the industry.
“When you’re a performer, you take the gig,” the View co-host said. “Sometimes, you’re in a Bozo suit, sometimes you got a big nose, and this is just the way it is.”