During the talk, Meghan addressed online bullying and how it can be toxic, pointing out that, in her experience, it was mostly perpetuated by women.
Maclaran added: “She said she couldn’t understand why this would happen, that women would attack each other so much. I think the reason is that in a patriarchal society, women see each other as competition!”
While Meghan, who is a graduate of Northwestern University, stopped short of explaining why women may be more prone to take part in online bullying, she didn’t expand on the reasoning, with Maclaran explaining why that may have been.
Maclaran says of the occurrence: “I think she spoke well and we wouldn’t have expected her to suddenly introduce some of the deeper, more academic feminist arguments about patriarchy.”
Meghan pursued women’s studies while at university, and its presumed she would have an understanding of the topic, but held back, keeping in mind her surroundings, suggests Maclaran.
“This would likely have alienated the audience as well so I thought she handled it adequately. Importantly her emotional delivery about her own experiences of online abuse helps highlight this issue and the need for change.”
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Meghan was joined by TV presenter Katie Couric and actress Brooke Shields, with all three women fielding questions from moderator Errin Haines, editor at large at The 19th.
Maclaran shares her thoughts on the discussion: “All the panellists talked to a certain extent about their own personal experiences and I didn’t feel Meghan did this more than the others.”
“There is a famous feminist mantra, ‘the personal is political’ so talking about their own experiences and then looking at the bigger picture within which these took place was, in my view, very relevant.”
