Meghan Markle's podcast Archetypes has returned for its fourth episode after a hiatus during the royal mourning period following the Queen's death on 8 September. In the latest instalment, titled The Demystification of Dragon Lady, Meghan speaks with comedian Margaret Cho and journalist Lisa Ling about the unfair stereotypes East Asian women often face.
Unlike in previous episodes of Archetypes with Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, and Mindy Kaling, Meghan keeps discussion of her own life to a minimum. However, she does offer some interesting insights into her upbringing in Los Angeles.
The Duchess of Sussex revealed it was a 'humbling experience' to visit a Korean spa with her mother Doria Ragland when she was a teenager. '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,' she said. 'All I wanted was a bathing suit. Once I was over that adolescent embarrassment, my mom and I, we would go upstairs [and] we would sit in a room and we would have a steaming bowl of the most delicious noodles,' she continued.
But although Meghan was immersed in East Asian culture in her youth, she admitted she wasn't aware of the reoccurring stigmas faced by Asian women until much later in her life. 'The dragon lady, the East Asian temptress whose mysterious foreign allure is scripted as both tantalising and deadly,' she said. 'This has seeped into a lot of our entertainment, but this toxic stereotyping of women of East Asian descent doesn't just end once the credits roll.'
Comedian Margaret Cho explained that, via the 'dragon lady' stereotype, Hollywood has presented East Asian woman as an 'evil exotic force' in numerous films, including Austin Powers and Kill Bill. 'It's actually a character that's similar to the femme fatale,' she said. 'In that a woman who is beautiful and deadly because we can't just be beautiful, it has to come with a cost.'
Cho explained this harmful stereotype adds to the false narrative that East Asian people are a 'threat'. 'It's kind of like evil queen adjacent but it's also pinned to this idea that Asian-ness is an inherent threat,' she said. 'That our foreignness is somehow going to get you.'
Rounding off the episode, Meghan offered some advice to listeners: 'If you want to be weird or be sponge-like, be silly or fierce, be curious, or even self-doubting or unsure some days and strong and brave on others. Whatever it is. That's up to you. Just be yourself no matter what any societal framework or archetype or loud voice coming from a small place that tells you what you should be. Be yourself. Your full, complete, whole layered, sometimes weird, sometimes awesome, but always best and true self. Just be you. You're so much greater than any archetype.'
Listen to the full episode on Spotify at open.spotify.com.