I Don’t Care if you’re Meghan Markle or Kim from Next Door – Slut Shaming is Never Okay.

Mamamia – we need to talk.

A couple of days ago I was scrolling my Facebook feed and one of your articles popped up, as is often the case. One of my friend’s had commented, “How is this appropriate or necessary?” (or something to that effect). I scrolled down the comments on your post and found all of them reflected my friend’s sentiments. You had made people angry.

So naturally, I grabbed a glass of wine and settled in for a read to see what had the women of Facebook up in arms.

The article in question was titled, “Prince Harry wasn’t the first famous person Meghan Markle had a romance with.”

Who would have thought it? A successful actress has had romances with other famous people.

Shock fucking horror.

Anyway, I digress slightly, as this wasn’t really the reason I was getting increasingly pissed off as I read through Meghan’s black book.

What did piss me off though was the way it was written.

“The royal wedding is just a week away, but why focus on the union of two people in love when you can instead just go deep on Meghan Markle‘s exes for no reason other than… fun?

That’s right.

Fun.”

“FUN”.

Even if this article was written in jest, with tongue firmly in cheek, it still does what so many of us are fighting to stop, ironically yourself included. Mamamia, you’re slut shaming Meghan Markle and I’m not okay with it.

If I call someone a racist name, is it okay if I let them know I’m just doing it for fun first?

No.

If my boss grabs my ass and tells me I look great today and then when I get offended, follows it up with telling me to “relax, it was just a bit of fun”, does that make it okay?

No.

Getting the gist yet?

You are calling out a woman for having relationships prior to her current one and even though you do defend her through the article, you are still calling her out. You are making it a thing for her to have seen other famous people before meeting Prince Harry, like no-one else in the world has ever had an office romance or five. Hell, if that’s the case, then Meghan and I are more similar than I ever thought. I’ve had a few office romances (thankfully I work for a very large organisation so there haven’t been too many awkward run-ins with the ex!). That doesn’t make me a slut, it makes me a normal woman who kissed a few frogs before she found her “prince”.

I don’t care if Meghan’s list has five names on it or 200. It’s 2018 and it’s time to stop making this a thing. Strong, independent women are allowed to have as many bloody relationships as they want and not be made to feel bad about it.

How do I explain to my girls as they get older that men and women are equal when the media continues to have a different set of rules for us both, even if it just in the name of “fun”?

I want my girls to know that it’s their choice to have as many romances as they please, provided they are safe and always feel like they have a voice. They have the right to kiss all of the frogs in the world if they really want to before they find their prince, or princess as the case may be. Just like Meghan Markle did.