Over the weekend Meghan Markle made yet another seemingly benign fashion choice that turned out to be hugely controversial. During her trip to Nigeria, the Duchess of Sussex sported a diamond cross necklace that once belonged to Princess Diana. The piece was a gift from her husband Prince Harry and you’d think repping his mom would be thought of as an honor.
But not for everyone out there on the internet. No, Meghan is so hated that even when she does something totally inoffensive it’s judged to be mean girl shade or a pledge to her dark lord. Wait, WHAT?!
Related: Harry Brought To ‘Tears’ Over ‘Tremendous Insult’ Of Will’s New Title
Yeah, we’re all fine with questions of shadiness, especially since subtle jabs through accessorizing seem to be one of the royal family’s love languages. But this time commenters went off the deep end suggesting the Suits star was wearing a satanic symbol. OK, so here’s the pic of Meghan wearing Diana’s cross on Saturday…
What’s the problem? We mean… it’s a cross! How is that offensive??
Well, quite a few commenters noted how the cross seemed to be “upside down”:
“It looks like an upside down cross though. And was it really Diana’s?”
“Why is it upside down? I googled and can mean “unworthy” or anti-Christian. Interesting”
“The satanic cross no less! Did Diana actually own that?”
A whole reddit thread opened up about it almost immediately, opened by an OP presenting the argument as a question:
“Anyone notice MM wearing the Petrine Cross in the image on Hello’s website? It is an inverted Latin cross traditionally used as a Christian symbol, but in recent times, it has also been used as an anti-Christian and Satanic symbol. What do you think: Is she showing her Christian faith? Or wearing the inverted cross as a satanic symbol? Or she is clueless and wearing it as a meaningless fashion statement?”
The Petrine Cross, named for Saint Peter who was crucified upside down, has indeed become an anti-Christian symbol in recent years. Like the idea of the anti-Christ, the upside-down cross is just seen as the opposite of a cross. You’ve probably seen it used a lot in heavy metal music and horror movies.
There were plenty of responses with takes about why Meghan was really wearing the symbol, whether it was intentional, blah blah. But we’re just going to cut to the chase here: that isn’t an upside-down cross.
Yeah, it’s just a plain old cross, with all the sides the same length. What folks are seeing is the link attached to the top that connects it to the gold chain. If you look close, that’s not part of the “cross” at all. So there’s no point in asking if Meghan meant to send a satanic message, the whole thing is based on a flimsy misread of a photo. And without thinking about it for more than a few moments, in maybe the biggest stretch we’ve seen in some time — quite literally — these naysayers jumped to thinking Meghan was all-caps EVIL.
Frankly this kind of crap says more about the observers than the observed. These people only make such a nonsensical leap because they already are buying into these conspiracy theories about California Democrats are all secretly in league with the devil. They should all be ashamed of themselves, quite frankly. But shame went out the window for these folks hot on the heels of common sense, so don’t expect it.
[Image via Netflix/Warner Bros/YouTube.]
