Are dogs feminist? Let’s not answer that question, not now at least. Instead, let’s wonder if Meghan Markle’s beagle, Guy, is a feminist?
According to one Brighton-based illustrator, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's beagle is very much a feminist, an intersectional one at that. Henry James Garrett, who draws dogs and posts them online under the Twitter handle @drawingsofdogs, was asked by the Survivors Network to make a gift for Meghan and Harry for their visit to the rape crisis centre. T
The result was a framed drawing of Meghan’s dog Guy (not Bogart, who was too old to make the move with Meghan to the UK when she began her proper courtship with Prince Harry). A speech bubble at the top of the picture reads: ‘Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?’
And Guy’s response reads: ‘A boy who makes every effort to dismantle the patriarchy (whilst keeping in mind intersections with other forms of oppression)’.
The royal couple, who were in town as part of a whistle-stop tour to Sussex, their namesake county, sat together to receive the gift. Meghan was pictured grinning while looking at the drawing, but Harry seemed a little less convinced. Whether Guy can live up to the woke ideals placed onto him, considering he is an actual dog, and everybody knows that cats, with their independence and elegance are far likely candidates for pet’s feminist hall of fame, is still to be seen.
What’s for sure, though, is that Harry, the ex-Army ex-Etonian who definitely used to love banter more than those gap year wristbands he wears, has vaguely partnered up with feminism, presumably in part thanks to his wife.
Earlier this year, when on their first official visit to Wales, a fan complimented Meghan on her proud feminism, Meghan gestured towards Harry and said ‘he’s a feminist too.’ And later, Harry told an assorted bunch of boys at a south London radio studio ‘As males we have to do our part or it's not going to work.’
As far as feminist manifestos go, it’s a ruff outline (sorry), but a sign of how far things have come. Fifteen, even ten years ago, wouldn’t have caught any other royal accepting such a gift, would you?