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BananaGate

Here's why Meghan Markle's message to sex workers has divided opinion

‘I’m in charge of banana messaging’.

ON FRIDAY, THE Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, along with her husband, Prince Harry, visited One25 – an organisation in Bristol which seeks to provide support to women hoping to extricate themselves from street sex-work, addiction and ‘other life-controlling issues’.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit Bristol PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

During the unannounced visit, Meghan helped staff to prepare food parcels which are distributed to the women the organisation help.

Buoyed by an initiative she was familiar with in the United States, the Duchess decided to write a note of affirmation on each banana contained with the parcels.

According to CNN, Meghan elaborated on the program, saying:

I saw this project that someone had started somewhere in the States, this school lunch program, where on each of the bananas she wrote an affirmation or something to make the kids feel really empowered.

“It was this most incredible idea, this really small gesture,” she said.

In an Instagram post shared by Kensington Palace, Meghan declares herself  ‘in charge of banana messaging’.

While helping volunteers pack food parcels for some of Bristol’s street sex-workers, The Duchess asked if she could write empowering messages on the bananas to the women – a simple gesture and a way to incorporate positivity and kindness for those needing a self esteem boost.The messages included ‘you are special’, ‘you are strong’ and ‘you are brave’.

Unfortunately many members of the public took exception to the fact Meghan used a phallic-shaped fruit to write the message, branding the gesture ‘stupid’, ‘offensive’, and ‘patronising’.

Others, however, are struggling to understand the backlash which has been directed at  the Duchess in the wake of the gesture.

Indeed, during a segment devoted to the topic on today’s episode of Good Morning Britain, Telegraph columnist, Rebecca Reid countered Piers Morgan’s assertion that the choice of fruit, alone, was inappropriate.

Sex workers are people like everyone else. They don’t look at things that are phallic, and start crying. Sex workers are just like you or me.

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