Comfort feminism and the cruelty of a ‘post-racial’ monarchy in Britain

Abstract

This paper explores the entanglements of love and cruelty in the publicity of the 2018 wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. We suggest that the wedding failed to inch closer toward a ‘post-racialized’ society. Rather, the wedding and public (but superficial) embracing of Markle promoted a ‘comfort feminism’ which obscured the mundane white supremacy and sexism of modern Britain. The paper concludes with a brief afterward which discusses the legacy of the royal wedding in the context of the social, political, and cultural challenges wrought by the intersections of the global pandemic and structural racism.

Keywords:

• Comfort feminism
• cruelty
• Meghan Markle
• The Royal Family
• white supremacy

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following individuals for their thoughtful comments and support throughout the writing of this manuscript: Margaret Walton-Roberts, LaToya Eaves, Banu Gökariksel, Mike Hawkins, Chris Neubert, and Sara Smith. We are especially grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their critical interventions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lorraine Dowler

Lorraine Dowler’s scholarship is rooted in feminist approaches to geopolitics that enable more fluid conceptualizations of compassion, identity, and individuality as related to understanding everyday life, private spaces, and the lives of women and other vulnerable groups.

Ann E. Bartos

Ann E. Bartos is a feminist political geographer who studies political agency, embodiment, and relationality. Her current research focuses on critically exploring geographies and ethics of care primarily through archival research, surveys and interviews.