Meghan Markle’s podcast, Archetypes, returned this week for the first time since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, featuring comedian Margaret Cho and journalist Lisa Ling to discuss some of the harmful stereotypes Asian women face.
The Duchess of Sussex began her first episode since the hiatus by recalling the mixing pot of cultures she grew up surrounded by in Los Angeles and how “the multitude of Asian cultures was a huge part of that,” from visiting Little Tokyo on the weekends to enjoying a Korean spa day with her mom. She added, however, that she wasn’t aware until recently of the negative and prejudiced characterizations of Asian women that exist out there. Meghan explained, “Movies like Austin Powers and Kill Bill—they presented these caricatures of women of Asian descent as oversexualized or aggressive.” She noted that these are just two examples of many, adding, “This toxic stereotyping of women of Asian descent…this doesn’t just end once the credits roll.”
The royal then invited Cho on to explain the “Dragon Lady” stereotype, which she cited as originating in the “fantasy of Orientalism.” The comedian continued, “It’s similar to the femme fatale…a woman who is beautiful and deadly. Because we can’t just be beautiful. We have to have, like, 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.’ The mystery and the exoticism of it is part of it. And unfortunately, that trope has really stuck to film, but also to Asian American women or Asian women.” Cho said growing up watching TV and movies she also always felt very frustrated by the lack of inclusion of Asian people onscreen. “I never saw Asian people in them, and so I never felt visible. I never felt seen anywhere,” she said. “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,’” referring to stars of that time like Anna May Wong.
