Editor's note: On Monday, 16th January, Jeremy Clarkson released a statement apologising for his comments about Meghan Markle. In an Instagram post, he wrote that he'd emailed Meghan and Price Harry on Christmas Day, saying that his language was “disgraceful” and that he was “profoundly sorry.”
Is it normal to hate someone you've never met on a “cellular level”? Because that's pretty much how I'm feeling about Jeremy Clarkson right now. Although granted, I don't suffer sleepless nights “grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when [he] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain” while people throw “lumps of excrement” at him. Because that all sounds ever-so-slightly extreme, doesn't it?
When it comes to Meghan Markle, however, any reasonable expectation of moderation goes out of the window. And in his latest column for The Sun, Clarkson perfectly demonstrates the utter delirium – and rampant misogyny – fuelling much of the UK media's criticism of Markle. After unabashedly detailing his fantasies of Markle being publicly shamed and sexually humiliated, Clarkson argues that the absolute worst thing about the Duchess is that young girls think she's “pretty cool.”
In the weeks since Netflix released Harry and Meghan – a tell-all docuseries exploring Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's departure from the British Royal Family – Markle has unfairly borne the brunt of the backlash. However, Clarkson's unhinged rant, so poisonous in its honesty, is apparently a step too far and has been condemned by leading political figures and women's rights activists, including Dr Charlotte Proudman, Sadiq Khan, and Marsha de Cordova MP.
The Sun has yet to address publicly or apologise for Clarkson's lurid comments about Markle. And there's no reason why they would (other than attempting to sway public opinion or generate more controversy). Although Clarkson unapologetically laid out a fantasy of enacting violence against an identifiable woman in the public eye, there is little to no legal recourse to hold him accountable: misogyny is not a hate crime.
The vote takes place today.
In February earlier this year, the House of Commons voted against making misogyny a hate crime, rendering blatant acts of misogyny “invisible in current legal and policing responses” (per The Fawcett Society).
Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected calls to class misogyny as a hate crime, saying (via BBC News), “To be perfectly frank, if you simply widen the scope of what you ask the police to do, you’ll just increase the problem.”
In a society where women are feeling increasingly unsafe – following the murders of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, and Zara Aleena – the ex-PM's response felt grossly dismissive of the measures clearly needed to protect women from male violence.
Stella Creasy MP is one of the biggest proponents of making misogyny a hate crime. When asked for comment, she told GLAMOUR, "If Clarkson's comments were about race or sexuality, we would rightly see it as inciting violence against those groups and creating an environment where abuse and harassment are normalised.
“Rather than expecting women to change their behaviour, we should be treating this misogyny as the dangerous hatred that it is. Since we introduced racial hate crime laws, we have seen a massive change in the way we as a society treat racism. There's no free speech when 51% of the population live in fear of being targeted for crimes simply for who they are – challenging that culture is crucial to stopping these crimes.”
“Zara believed that a woman should be able to walk home.”
There's a scene in Game of Thrones when the show's villain-in-chief, Cersei Lannister, is forced to undergo a “walk of shame.” Her hair is shorn, she's stripped of her clothes, and she's paraded through King's Landing while onlookers pelt her with rotten food and call her a ‘whore’. While Cersei is not a sympathetic character, the scene drew criticism for its sexualised depiction of female humiliation and brutalisation – even though it was based on the original text and alluded to a real punishment, historically dolled out to women.
George R.R. Martin, the author behind GoT, describes the walk of shame as a “punishment directed at women to break their pride,” citing Jane Shore, a mistress of King Edward IV of England, as the inspiration behind the controversial scene (via Entertainment Weekly). As punishment for conspiring against the future King Richard III and general ‘harlotry’, Shore was made to walk through London in her undergarments as penance for her transgressions.
Clarkson's comments reveal a bizarre nostalgia for this medieval misogyny – the good ol' days, ey? – as well as a desire to shame women who deviate from the narrow realms of white, feminine respectability. His desire to see Markle publicly shamed aligns with a resurgent cultural hatred towards women; from the backlash to the #MeToo movement, shown through society's treatment of Megan Thee Stallion and Amber Heard; to the extreme curtailing of women's freedom in Afghanistan and Iran.
Dr Charlotte Proudman, the founder of Right to Equality, told GLAMOUR that Clarkson's comments highlight "The normalisation and acceptance of violence against women and girls.
She adds, “It sends out a strong message that it’s permissible to write violent, depraved and sexualised comments about a woman because our society is deeply ingrained with misogyny. In many ways, Clarkson’s comments reflect many people's deeply held beliefs about the hatred of women.”
Our living space should be the place we feel most at ease and protected.
The societal hatred of women won't vanish upon misogny being classed as a hate crime. But it would provide a legal recourse to challenge the kind of hatred spouted by Clarkson.
As Jemima Olchawski, Fawcett Society Chief Executive, tells GLAMOUR, his comments go beyond causing offence: “Clarkson’s misogynistic and racist views have appeared in one of our biggest national newspapers, they will have been seen and sanctioned by experienced journalists before they were published in the Sun. It is this endorsement of these toxic views that is also extremely troubling.”
She continues, “Sexism, racism and misogyny have no place in our society. In the UK, one woman is murdered every three days by a man; women and girls experience violence, hate and harassment at the hands of men – and it's views like Clarkson’s that play a huge part in normalising this.
“We need to see misogyny made a hate crime and those who peddle hate called to account.”
[Jeremey Clarkson has since tweeted, "Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.]
GLAMOUR has reached out to Jeremy Clarkson and The Sun for comment. This page will be kept updated.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
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