Duchess Meghan’s ‘Archetypes’ podcast deals with the ‘Dragon Lady’ trope

duchess-meghan’s-‘archetypes’-podcast-deals-with-the-‘dragon-lady’-trope

The Duchess of Sussex’s new Archetypes podcast episode has dropped! It’s the fourth episode – “The Demystification of Dragon Lady.” Meghan talks about her childhood in LA, one of the most diverse cities in America and a city with a huge Asian-American population. Meghan talks about her exposure to all kinds of Asian culture throughout her childhood and adulthood. Big surprise, much of her exposure is through food! Here’s the pod:

The big interview is with Margaret Cho and she also speaks to Lisa Ling and sociologist Nancy Wang Yeun. Obviously, Meghan is analyzing the “Dragon Lady” stereotype in film, television and pop culture. While the Dragon Lady “archetype” is incredibly offensive, racist and damaging, there are other Asian stereotypes (and specifically Asian-woman stereotypes) which are also very damaging. I realize, one podcast topic at a time! But I would love if Meghan did expand on this, like the “demure Asian woman,” the geisha, the Asian nerd, etc.

I like that Cho talks about the lack of visibility of Asian women in American culture, because that has always been a real problem. How do you know your place in society if you can’t see anyone like you in the culture? For Cho specifically, she talks about now only being Korean-American, but being a gay Asian-American woman. Anyway, this is a great conversation – Meghan covers the attacks on Asian-Americans during the pandemic, the “masage parlor” shootings and the erasure of Asian-Americans throughout American history.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Spotify.