Scrapperdee

Meghan Markle and Harry have repeatedly attributed Meghan’s behaviour to American culture. Meeting William and Catherine for the first time in ripped jeans and barefoot? Meghan described how casual she was and how she quickly realised the formality extended behind closed doors. Hugging them? She was “a hugger” and said she didn’t realise it could be jarring for Brits. Borrowing Catherine’s lip gloss? Harry called it “an American thing.” Curtsying to the Queen? Harry said explaining it was difficult “especially to an American.” Nobody expected her to arrive knowing every royal rule. But when you marry into another family, you make an effort. You observe. You adapt. You show some bloody respect. Ripped jeans and bare feet aren’t some sacred American tradition. Neither is grabbing a near-stranger in a full-body hug. And I highly doubt sharing lip gloss is an American thing. That’s a personal-boundary and hygiene issue, not a cultural tradition. And body-hugging someone you have just met? Girl, please. Even as a woman, if a stranger suddenly wrapped herself around me, I’d probably push her off. That isn’t British versus American. That’s personal boundaries. And curtsying, what exactly was so strange about it? Harry saying explaining it was difficult “especially to an American”, followed by Meghan asking if he was joking. You can be American without being inconsiderate. You can be unfamiliar with British protocol without treating basic respect as some bizarre foreign concept. The problem was never that Meghan was American. It was using “I’m American” as a get-out-of-jail-free card for manners she didn’t feel like learning. Culture explains how you were raised. It does not excuse arriving in someone else’s house and treating their rules as a punchline. That was entitlement looking for a nationality to hide behind.