In her first Archetypes podcast after a four-week break following the passing of the Queen, Meghan Markle took aim at Hollywood for promoting “Asian stereotypes.” She criticized Mike Myers’ Austin Powers and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill for “caricaturing” Asian women as “over-sexualized or aggressive.” Markle’s comments came as part of her first Archetypes podcast since the passing of the Queen.
The Duchess of Sussex, a former actress on the legal drama Suits, called out two movies that are now 20 years old for “presenting caricatures of women of Asian descent” in a new episode that explored the “Dragon Lady” stereotype with journalist Lisa Ling and comedian Margaret Cho. The episode was hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
The Japanese characters Fook Mi and Fook Yu appeared in the film Austin Powers: Goldmember, which was released in 2002. Fook Mi was portrayed by Diane Mizota, and Fook Yu was portrayed by Carrie Ann Inaba. The characters have been accused of “sexually tokenizing” Asian women. In one scene, Powers, a comedy spy who is portrayed as constantly on the hunt for sexual conquests, is seen with a list that reads “threesome with Japanese twins.” This has led to criticism of the characters.
In the meantime, Lucy Liu portrayed O-Ren Ishii, the ruthless leader of the Yakuza, in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic film Kill Bill, which was released in 2003. The author India Roby gave the character the description of a typical Dragon Lady, saying that she “uses her sexuality as a powerful tool of manipulation, but is often emotionally and sexually cold and threatens masculinity.”
Last year, in response to the criticism, Liu wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post in which she argued that it is illogical to refer to O-Ren as a Dragon Lady because the movie also “features three other female professional killers in addition to Ishii.” Liu’s piece was published in response to the criticism.
At the beginning of today’s podcast, Meghan talked about her childhood in Los Angeles, which she described as being “full of culture that you could see, feel, hear, and taste on a daily basis.” She also mentioned that she had a “real love” of learning about the traditions and customs of other people.
She claimed that she did not become aware of the stereotypes that women of Asian descent face until a significant amount of time had passed.
As an illustration of Meghan’s point, some brief clips from the movies Austin Powers and Kill Bill were played. After removing the head of the Japanese crime boss Tanaka with a samurai sword, the character O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill is heard saying, ‘The price you pay for either bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is: I collect your f****** head.’
In the meantime, Austin Powers can be heard responding to Fook Mi’s request for his autograph. He responded with the following when she told him her name: ‘Oh behave baby.’
‘Movies like Austin Powers and Kill Bill presented these characters of Asian women as oftentimes over sexualized or aggressive,’ Meghan says. ‘And it’s not just those two examples, there’s so many more.’
In a later segment of the podcast, the duchess elaborated on the idea by telling Cho the following: ‘The Dragon Lady, the East Asian temptress whose mysterious foreign allure is scripted as both tantalising and deadly,’ she told Cho. This has seeped into a lot of our entertainment. But this toxic stereotyping of women of Asian descent, it doesn’t just end once the credits roll.’
In the introduction to today’s episode, Meghan mentioned that when she was younger, she frequently accompanied her mother to a Korean spa. She continued by saying: ‘It’s a very humbling experience for a girl going through puberty because 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.
‘All I wanted was a bathing suit. Once I was over that adolescent embarrassment, my mom and I, we would go upstairs we would sit in a room and we would have a steaming bowl of the most delicious noodles.’
At one point, Ling shared with Meghan the story of how, back when she worked as a broadcaster at Channel One, she was recognized on Rolling Stone’s Hot List as a hot reporter. ‘Someone at my place of work cut out that article, drew slanted eyes over the eyes and wrote ‘yeah, right’ and then put it back in my mailbox,’ Ling said.
She said: ‘It was like every kernel of excitement that I possessed just withered away. It was so devastating that someone that I would see every day in my place of work where we’re supposed to feel comfortable, just harboured those feelings about me and had the nerve to make it racial.’
Margaret Cho, who is of Korean and American descent, is a comedian. In another exchange, she discussed living life to the fullest, saying: ‘I think it’s growing old and understanding the brevity of life that you have to really enjoy the time you have because it’s, it’s not very long, you know, it goes by very fast.’ Meghan replied: ‘Yeah….it’s so true.’
They also complimented each other, with Meghan telling Cho that she loved Cho’s new film Fire Island and that it had been a “huge success.” The pair also exchanged compliments. Cho revealed to Meghan that during the filming of the movie, she expressed her admiration for the Duchess of Sussex by saying: ‘Thank you…I loved that movie. I mean, I love Joel (actor Joel Kim Booster) … we actually talked a lot about you on set. We were just admiring you, just so much.’
Meghan replied: ‘Oh, really?… I really appreciate that.’ The duchess added: ‘Honestly, I’m thrilled. When I came downstairs, I was ‘I’m talking to Margaret Cho this morning’.’ Meghan urged her podcast listeners to be their ‘best and true self.’
‘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,’ she said at the end of the episode. ‘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 tells you that 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.’
It comes as a result of the sources reporting that Meghan has employed a fact checker for her podcast, which was commissioned by Spotify in December of 2020.
Nicole Pasulka is a young writer from the United States who possesses a great deal of talent. Meghan chose her as a recruit because her interests are very similar to those of Nicole Pasulka.
‘I write about criminal justice, activism, race, music, business, queer culture, and gender,’ Pasulka alerts visitors to her website, which mentions that she is ‘currently writing a book’.
In point of fact, her book with the following title was released this summer: How You Get Famous – ‘a deep dive into New York city’s underground drag scene’.
