A new wrinkle: Age, race and writing Meghan Markle

McLennan, Rachael (2021) A new wrinkle: Age, race and writing Meghan Markle. Women's Studies International Forum, 85. ISSN 0277-5395

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Abstract

This article analyses Vanity Fair's reference to Meghan Markle's biracial identity as a ‘wrinkle’ as part of a broader tendency to discuss that identity in terms of a dynamic of crisis and resolution. The article contrasts Andrew Morton's biography, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess (2018) with two texts by Meghan, a 2015 essay for Elle magazine, and her guest edited issue of British Vogue (2019). All endeavour to manage the ‘wrinkle’ of Meghan's biracial identity, for very different purposes. The Vanity Fair article and Morton's text attempt to ‘smooth out’ her biracial identity by displacing it through discussion of some other aspect of identity (such as age, illustrated by the term ‘wrinkle’), or they preserve the ‘wrinkle’ by maintaining an understanding of her biracial identity as problematic and disruptive. In contrast, Meghan's acts of self-representation refuse to ‘smooth out’ her biracial identity, and also reject an understanding of it as negatively disruptive.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Art, Media and American Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Area Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > American Studies
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	17 Feb 2021 13:04
Last Modified:	26 Mar 2024 09:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/79273
DOI:	10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102454

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