A Birthday Celebration of A Different Sort
On August 4th, 2021, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex reached a milestone 40th birthday. Understanding that with her platform she can “lift up” or “tear down” she chose to “lift up” in typical Meghan style. With the help of her friend, Melissa McCarthy, Meghan asked people the world over to help her celebrate by donating 40 minutes of their time to help mentor women around the world who left the workforce during the pandemic. She dubbed the campaign “40x40”. Many people responded. Some are well-known but many more were unknown. Many women reaped the benefits of this initiative spearheaded by the Duchess. In many cases, it gave women access to mentorship and other services they did not previously have access to because of barriers such as cost and location. The initiative also highlighted the disproportionate cost women bore as a result of the pandemic. Inspired by her generosity, supporters of the Duchess celebrated with additional acts of kindness. Many in the Sussex Squad (as some supporters of the Duchess call themselves) raised just under $60,000 for MynaMahila — an organization aimed at empowering women in Mumbai’s slums through access to employment and menstrual hygiene products.
This week, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge celebrated her milestone 40th birthday. The difference in the public activities surrounding this birthday as compared to that of the Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, could not be starker. No, there were no organic fundraising or other philanthropic efforts from Duchess of Cambridge’s fans to celebrate (at least none I could find). Neither did she publicly announce any initiatives or themes for her birthday. However, if you happen to read the British tabloids and some of their newspapers you could be convinced that the theme was “how to tear down women, specifically Meghan Markle”.
Instead of ways to uplift others what we got was a masterclass in the “tear down”. Numerous articles were written, supposedly in celebration of the Duchess of Cambridge reaching this milestone. Normally, when someone writes such a piece, it would cover the subject’s origin story, commentary on their work, and their many accomplishments as well as highlights from their personal life. Instead, what was offered this week as a celebration was an editorial lynching of Meghan Markle. Articles that were supposed to uplift the Duchess of Cambridge turned out to be exhaustive lamentations of “how we hate Meghan Markle and why you should too (one article from Harper’s Bazaar did not take this tone)”.
Anecdotes from “friends” and testimony from a former employee were presented in such a way as to serve as a bludgeon for the Duchess of Sussex. So crass was some of the criticism and so hyperbolic was some of the praise offered to the celebrant that it seemed a mockery of the intended subject. One writer seemed so intoxicated by hate that it was not enough to just tear down Meghan. Queen Letizia of Spain and Princess Charlene of Monaco (who has been battling an illness for a while now) did not come out unscathed in that piece.
Each attempt to reveal or highlight something praiseworthy about the subject seemed incapable of standing on its own. I have no other explanation as to why so much of their claims needed to be buttressed overwhelmingly by something negative about Meghan. I reckon the writers feel that they somehow did the birthday lady a favour and I guess even a poke in the eye can be a favour to someone. However, imagine if they had used their reach and platform to celebrate the Duchess of Cambridge by doing something uplifting, something positive and impactful. Then imagine their readers and followers paying that forward by imitating that in their communities! Wouldn’t that be a more fitting celebration of someone who spends their working hours supporting philanthropic causes?
