Meghan Markle Dancing During Labor Really Has Nothing To Do With You

No matter how much knowledge you have of the royal family, chances are you have an opinion on Meghan Markle. I like to think that most of the world is indifferent to her — after all, she’s just a person who married a high-profile guy and then they decided to build a life of their own — but every time this woman even dares to breathe publicly, I’m reminded of how much everybody not only dislikes her, but straight up loathes her.

For basically no reason.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have kept their family lives close to the chest, sharing snippets and videos every once in a while to their public Instagram pages. In the most recent post, to celebrate daughter Lilibet’s fourth birthday, Meghan shared a video of her dancing during her labor in the hospital room. Harry joins in, both of them smiling at the camera and each other, swinging their hips and generally being silly and — yes, extremely cringe — as they wait to welcome their daughter into the world.

And people had thoughts.

Not just thoughts, really. But vitriol. Hatred. Pure anger at a woman and her husband being joyful and silly in the moments before giving birth. And despite all of the insistence that people can dislike whoever they want, there’s something really alarming about how many people hate Meghan Markle — especially the ones who claim they “don’t know why, I just do.” Mhm.

A quick search for “dancing during labor” on TikTok will pull up tons of videos. In some of them, women dance by themselves in the hospital room, hoping the movement will spur on contractions. In others, they dance with their partners or even with their doctors. It’s meant to be silly and fun, and in the comments, people are either cheering the women and families on, writing that they hope their own nurses will encourage them to dance, sharing that they think this is such a joyful thing to do before their baby arrives.

And yet.

When Meghan Markle does it, it’s cringe. It’s ridiculous. It’s too private of a moment to share. She thinks she’s soooo relatable and she thinks she’s soooo normal and she’s trying sooooo hard to be likable. Right?

But what’s the difference?

Forget baseball, the real American pastime is hating women — especially women of color. Being irritated at Meghan Markle dancing during labor? It’s the same thing as being irritated at Kamala Harris for having a loud laugh. Meghan Markle is allowed to be a woman who finds joy in things, even if you think it’s ridiculous, and she’s allowed to share that with the world.

You don’t get to dictate what someone else’s boundaries are, and you sure as hell don’t get to mock them for creating those boundaries.

You don’t hate Meghan Markle because she dances during labor or because she calls her husband “H” or because she has a Netflix show — and no, you don’t hate it her for “ruining” the royal family. (She didn’t.) While Princess Diana is often seen as a hero, someone who went against the status quo and fought to be the mother she wanted to be, escaping an archaic family system that kept her boxed in, people see Meghan as a villain. People argue that she doesn’t have the same class or glamour as Diana; that while Diana was relatable, Meghan is fake and trying too hard; that Diana really cared about her family, and Meghan’s just all about herself.

But when you really look at it, these two women are incredibly similar: They both changed the rules to have the life they wanted; they both went against grandstanding traditions and outdated rituals to be the moms and women they wanted to be.

So maybe, just maybe, it’s not that you just hate Meghan Markle for no reason — it’s your deeply set, hard-to-get-rid-of-unless-you-do-the-work misogyny and racial bias doing the heavy-lifting here.

When Meghan shared that video, some of the comments even clapped back at statements the couple have made about wanting privacy. “I’m so glad they got the privacy they wanted” some wrote and girl. What? They did get their privacy. They literally left the royal family so they could live their lives how they wanted — that is the privacy. And if they want to share family photos or videos on their own terms and platforms and time? That’s still their privacy. Much like asking grandparents not to share photos of your baby on social media, but you can post the photos you feel safe about, is honoring your own version of privacy. You don’t get to dictate what someone else’s boundaries are, and you sure as hell don’t get to mock them for creating those boundaries.

Do you get to mock her for dancing during labor? Sure, I guess. If that’s something that really adds value to your life and you feel it’s worth leaving a comment about, go off. You’re right, she did publicly share that, so you’re publicly allowed to act like an asshole about it too, aren’t you?

Now who’s the cringe one?