Meghan Markle hits out at Scrubs for unfair portrayal of 'crazy or hysterical' women
Meghan Markle has taken aim at TV shows Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother for contributing to stereotypes about 'crazy women' during the latest episode of her podcast Archetypes
Meghan Markle has slammed Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother for their unfair portrayal of women.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, said the hit TV shows contribute to stereotypes about "crazy" women and said the label is "thrown around so casually".
Meghan admitted to being called "crazy or hysterical" herself and said it was done in an attempt to "minimise" her problems and experiences.
"Raise your hand if you've ever been called crazy or hysterical or what about nuts? Insane, out of your mind, completely irrational, okay? You get the point," Meghan said in the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast.
READ MORE: William and Kate's Radio 1 takeover - Cruel joke, outtakes, Diana admission and pressing questionShe added: "Now, if we were all in the same room and could see each other, I think it would be pretty easy to see just how many of us have our hands up? By the way, me too.
"And it's no wonder when you consider just how prevalent these labels are in our culture."
Meghan - who starred in US legal drama Suits - then played a series of clips to demonstrate "how prevalent" the label is in popular culture.
In one clip from How I Met Your Mother, Neil Patrick Harris' character Barney claimed: "A girl is allowed to be crazy, as long as she is equally hot."
Another clip comes from Sarah Chalke's Scrubs character doctor Elliot Reid in which she said: "I can't take it, Carla! I cannot hide the crazy a minute longer!
"I'm just this big mountain of coocoo is about to erupt and spew molten crazy, all over him and he's gonna die like this."
Meghan also played a third clip from right-wing psychologist Jordan Peterson in which he said: "I don't think that men can control crazy women."
The former actress was joined on her podcast by Jenny Slate, Deepika Padukone and Constance Wu. The group also discussed the word "hysteria", with Meghan revealing where the word comes from.
"I just learned this when we were doing this episode that the word hysterical comes from hysteria, which is - wait for it - the Greek word for womb," she said.
"Plato himself was actually amongst the Greek philosophers, who believed that the womb would travel around the body adding pressure to other organs, which would then lead to erratic and unreliable behaviour," she said.
The former actress added: "Calling someone crazy or hysterical completely dismisses their experience and minimises what they're feeling.
"It keeps going to the point where anyone who's been labelled it enough times can be gas-lit into thinking that they're actually unwell or sometimes worse, to the point where real issues of all kinds get ignored.
"Well, that's not happening today."
Meghan said stereotypes about "hysterical" women prevail due to popular culture as well as society.
"The use of these labels has been drilled into us from movies and TV, from friends and family, and even from random strangers. And the fact is, no one wants this label."
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct 0207 29 33033.
READ MORE: John Cleese lands GB News show as he says BBC would 'cancel' him within minutesREAD MORE: Prue Leith says 13-year affair with late husband was 'painful' but 'never regretted it'READ MORE: Meghan Markle hits out at 'toxic Asian stereotypes' shown in Kill Bill and Austin PowersREAD MORE: Embarrassed Meghan Markle says walking around naked at spa was 'humbling'READ MORE: Scarlett Johansson admits she felt 'objectified' early on in her acting career