Commentator Jeremy Clarkson was once best known as the host of Top Gear. But he’s set to be remembered as the man who can’t sleep due to his hatred of women, and somehow managed to get his misogynistic rants past an editor and published in a national newspaper.
The problem for Clarkson is that he hates the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle so much — “on a cellular level” as he puts it — that he just has to pen his thoughts to paper, and use his access to a massive platform to vomit them out to the world.
Indeed, his hatred goes so far, that he dreams of Markle being “made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.
“At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth… Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way,” he wrote in the column on Sunday.
Clarkson is clearly triggered by Markle. To actually write words dripping with this much misogyny says a lot about the individual holding the pen. But what does it say about the editors who published this, who would give such hatred a platform and risk further normalizing and fueling violence against women?
While a number of UK based domestic and family violence experts have called out Clarkson for his comments, noting the “epidemic” of violence the country is already experiencing, it seems that Clarkson’s own daughter has given the most powerful response.
Emily Clarkson took to social media to slam her father’s piece, noting that “my views are and have always been clear when it comes to misogyny, bullying and the treatment of women by media,” she wrote.
“I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything that my dad wrote about Meghan Markle and I remain standing in support of those that are targeted with online hatred.”
Clarkson’s comments come in response to Harry & Meghan, a six-part documentary series on Netflix that sees the couple sharing their story about the split from the family. The series has generated plenty of negative reactions and commentary, particularly (once again) targeted at Markel. With words like those shared from Clarkson over the weekend, and actually published, you can understand the fears Markle describes in the series, and the fear she must still have following so much hatred shared online and given legitimacy across some of the world’s biggest platforms.