Cats and Femininity
Written & Photography By Madison Guetzkow
Modeled By Kaitlyn Patton, Abby Woodfin, Annabella Diaz, & Vyda Frisby
A Special Thanks to Cat Models George & Ritalin
Throughout history, cats have consistently been portrayed as a representation of femininity. In Ancient Egypt, cats were displayed as gods and put on a pedestal. During the 16th-century witch craze, cats were feared, and seen as a symbol of evil and witchcraft — they were worshiped and mistreated all in the same breath. Both of these perceptions built the modern portrayal seen today.
Like most displays of female empowerment, there was a patriarchal attack that acted to counter it. During the women's suffrage movement in the early 1900s, cats were used in political cartoons by the opposition, the anti-suffrage movement. This imagery was meant to portray women as incompetent or silly. One of these titled “I Want My Vote” shows a small kitten screaming. This infantilizes women while also showing the belief that they were a nuisance. This was also a time when the phrase “catty” was popularized. It was yet another term that was made to demean women playing off the 16th-century correlation between witchcraft and cats. The anti-suffrage agenda termed it to convey women as devious or spiteful. Suffragettes took over this imagery in a popularized cartoon titled “I Am a Suffer Yet.” This play on words combated women's disenfranchisement, helping them vouch for their rights.
Moving into the 70s and 80s, there was a resurgence in expressions of femininity that would break the norms. Nowadays, it’s a widely known cliche that queer people love cats. This wasn’t always the case and it actually originated from the early queer movement. The 70s began right after the Stonewall riots giving the limelight to the gay liberation movement. This was seen as a danger to the way of life by the people in power. Even going as far as the National Organization for Women (NOW) stating that lesbians were a threat to the feminist movement. This all accumulated to groups against the queer movement using cats as reinforced negative female stereotypes. They employ the term “The Crazy Cat Lady” or a mean, unmarried woman, when referring to lesbians. Although this was meant to be a scare tactic to push towards more heteronormative ideals–it didn’t work. This led to the creation of an ingroup support system, the “Lavender Menace,” to add queer women into second-wave feminism. The term was made as a demeaning remark against lesbians which is now coined as a term of endearment. In turn, cats were adopted by the movement as somewhat of a mascot. Their unwillingness to accept defeat has continued through the decades with cats becoming a positive and welcomed symbol amongst queer people.
In the contemporary landscape, the symbolism has shifted yet again to a more sexualized take. The Catwoman movies and certain Batman movies use clear intentions of cats and femininity. When the comics and movies were first released, there was a stigma around women embracing their sexuality, often being called “sex kittens.” The creation of Catwoman was intrinsically sexualized and constructed to display that women are unreliable and unreadable. She was a sex symbol, a portrayal of female sexuality made to deem the concept as inherently negative. The character was given a backstory as a prostitute giving way to her acting in a much more promiscuous manner when compared to her male counterparts. Even though character development moved away from helplessness, the sexualized nature is still ever so prevalent.
The aspiration for freedom and independence that both cats and women share has led to a chronic comparison of the two. Initially exercising the want for conformity and creating an us versus them mentality. But every time this comparison is drawn out as a negative there is always a group of women who embrace cats as their allies. At the end of the day, as a woman, I do understand the cat's affinity to laying in the sun and sleeping for hours.