Team Meghan Markle vs Team Kate Middleton: Toxic 'stan culture' dictates love for favorite duchess stay exclusive
Meghan Markle and Harry have opened the Pandora's box about the 'The Firm' aka the British monarchy and their many trials as "senior royal members." The reportage with a racist subtext about Meghan has also come into debate after their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. Among the many things Markle talked about on March 7 was the issue of toxic fandoms aka the animosity between fans of Meghan vs those who adored Kate.
She had said in the interview, "So much of what I have seen play out is this idea of polarity." She then added, "If you love me, you don’t have to hate her. And if you love her, you don’t need to hate me.”
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This polarization and the continued media reportage that pits the Duchess of Cambrige Kate against the Duchess of Sussex Meghan is a noticeable phenomenon. It is something that Susan E Kelley, the founder of style blog 'What Kate Wore' (dedicated to Kate's fashion choices), recently commented on. She said to Vogue, "The polarization really is analogous to what we’ve seen in politics. None of us knows anybody who is neutral about Donald Trump," and added, "I see a lot of that with the Meghan and Kate worlds.”
In fact, just like 'What Kate Wore', there is another style blog called 'What Meghan Wore'. In the past, these two blogs used to be sister sites. However, when Harry and Meghan decided to step down as senior royal members, Kelley and editor Susan Courter decided to split the sites. One of the biggest reasons being the toxic tension and ugliness between Meghan and Kate fans.
Kelley claimed that curating their Facebook page had become extremely tiring. She explained, "There were a couple of times we were on the phone with each other in tears because we were so exhausted." E.Kelly and Courter contiue to be close, and speaking of other incidents Kelly recalled a time when she mistakenly posted a Kate story from the Meghan handle and said, "a simple human error, but people treated it as the most cataclysmic, diabolical thing that could have happened."
Courter, on the other hand, had reportedly felt that she couldn't even wish Kate a Happy Birthday, “because I’m going to get destroyed and I’m going to lose followers.” Omid Scobie, royal correspondent and co-author of 'Finding Freedom', the 2020 book about "Megxit" explained that the growing chasm between Kate and Meghan fans speaks to the "stan culture" which dictates that the love for their favorite duchess remain exclusive.
He said, “You’re either team Nikki or Cardi. You cannot be both.” Scobie is a reporter who specializes on writing about Meghan and yet he is nervous when it comes to mentioning Kate and explains, "because then I feel like there’ll be a sea of voices that don’t like the fact that I focused on her," and added, "if I write about Meghan, you can guarantee that half the profile pictures in comments underneath are Cambridge photos, all with very negative comments.”
Speaking about Team Sussex's fans, Scobie said “There are a lot of people who feel that if they’re not sticking up for the Sussexes, then no one else is, because the [British] media isn’t, and the royal family isn’t.” He also claimed that because he switched from reporting about Kate and Prince William to Meghan and Prince Harry, the royal palace got in touch. “It was only last year that someone at the palace told me that I picked my corner and now I have to stay in it.”
He also spoke about the dramatized writing of the British media and said, “The bottom line of the Murdochs and the other white men who own these newspapers: There is money in drama.” He added, “Even if that drama isn’t real. Especially if that drama isn’t real.”