Now that the royal mourning period for Queen Elizabeth has officially ended, Meghan Markle's Archetypes podcast is back with a new episode. And this time, the duchess is doing a deep dive into the harmful effects of Asian stereotypes.
On the latest episode, Markle was joined by comedian Margaret Cho and journalist Lisa Ling as she broke down the "dragon lady" trope—a shallow stereotype of Asian and Asian-American women that's quite common in Hollywood.
Cho explained, "It's similar to the femme fatale…a woman who is beautiful and deadly. Because we can't just be beautiful. It has to come at a cost and it's kind of like, evil queen adjacent. But it's also so pinned to this idea that Asianness is an inherent threat. That our foreignness is somehow 'gonna getcha.'"
In the episode, both Cho and Ling also addressed the lack of Asian representation on screen. In fact, it's what inspired Ling to get into journalism. She said, "To be honest with you, the reason why I pursued broadcast journalism at all was because growing up, it's the only path that I thought was available to me."
She continued, "The television was always on in my home. It was like my favorite babysitter. And I used to have these fantasies of being part of it somehow, because I thought, if I can get on TV, maybe I will have a better life one day. But no one looked remotely like me on TV except for Connie Chung."
Cho added, "I never saw Asian people in [TV shows and movies], and so I never felt visible. I never felt seen anywhere."
"And then later, I guess, I started to go into silent films, and I started to realize, 'Oh, this is actually like an archetype, this archetype of the Dragon Lady,' " she said, referring to her impression after watching stars like Anna May Wong.
This marks the fourth episode of the Archetypes podcast, after Markle sat down for candid conversations with Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Mindy Kaling about false stereotypes. Unlike the previous three episodes, which aired prior to the queen's passing, Markle didn't tease who her next guest would be. But judging by her line-up so far, something tells us the next big reveal won't disappoint.
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