It’s the season of peace and joy. And so there is nothing I’d like to do less than talk about Jeremy Clarkson.
But talk about him we must, because he is out of control.
In a column for The Sun last week, Clarkson gave us a glimpse into his psyche. And what we saw wasn’t pretty.
He was writing about Meghan Markle and how much he loathes her.
Of course he was.
Hating Meghan Markle has become a pastime for certain middle-aged media men who have run out of hateful adjectives to describe immigrants and low-income families.
In his column, Jeremy Clarkson said he hates Megan Markle even more than he hates Nicola Sturgeon and Rose West.
And just in case anybody was in any doubt about his strength of feeling, he goes on to reveal that at night he goes to sleep dreaming of the day Meghan Markle is “made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain, while the crowds chant ‘shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.’’
There is no doubt that Clarkson’s choice of language was designed to provoke shock and outrage.
That is was deliberate makes it more grotesque, not less.
Misogyny behind Jeremy Clarkson comments about Meghan Markle
You don’t have to be a fan of the Royals or even Meghan herself to feel queasy when you read something like that in a national newspaper in 2022.
This isn’t a case of columnist hyperbole, or pushing the limits of good taste.
Literally gobsmacked at the utterly vile and disgusting comments written about Meghan Markle by Jeremy Clarkson in the Sun. What an utter piece of trash he is…what is it with these type of men that triggers them so? pic.twitter.com/iLpzIilTlm
— Dom Joly (@domjoly) December 18, 2022
And no, this isn’t an example of free speech that must be defended despite its unpalatability, either.
What it is – in its purest, clearest form – is misogyny.
It’s a continuation of the vile treatment that Meghan Markle has experienced from the British media.
That treatment includes racism, both overt and veiled, and an onslaught of hatred and disrespect totally disproportionate to anything her critics can ever use to try to justify it.
Violence against women isn’t an unfortunate memory of a bygone era.
A woman is killed every three days in the UK by a partner or ex-partner.
The level of reported sexual crime in Scotland has risen by 96% over the last ten years.
Police Scotland recorded more than 65,000 incidents of domestic abuse in the year 2021-22.
So no, we don’t live in a society where fantasising about forcing a woman to undress so people can assault her can ever be viewed as a funny quip.
Clarkson comments suggest a troubled mind
Meghan Markle has been open about having suicidal thoughts and how her treatment by the British media has impacted her mental health.
Yet men like Jeremy Clarkson seem to use these disclosures as evidence that, for daring to complain, she deserves everything they throw at her.
She doesn’t.
If Jeremy Clarkson hadn’t just written a violent fantasy about a woman he doesn’t know, you could almost feel sorry for him.
Jeremy Clarkson.His wonderful daughter Emily has just put out a statement on her instagram account. "I stand against everything that my Dad wrote about Meghan Markle". FYI Emily has spoken many times about how she suffered very badly from online abuse when she was younger. 💪🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/pcVUgvlQQ0
— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) December 18, 2022
He is an irrelevance with nothing new or interesting to say beyond repetition of the same bile and bad-faith commentary that his shock-jock colleagues have been spouting for years.
If the last thing he thinks about at night is how much he despises Meghan Markle then God help him.
That’s a darkness that he should probably work on eliminating from his consciousness.
In the meantime, he shouldn’t inflict it on the public.
There’s enough misery in the world without having to read the misogynist ramblings of a thoroughly mediocre man.
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