Cats, Femininity, and the Hatred of Both
How the public perception of cats and women has changed throughout the centuries
Picture a “crazy cat lady.” For many, the image might be of an older, single woman whose cozy sweater is covered in cat hair. She probably owns between two and twenty cats, whose pictures hang proudly on the walls of her house, which remain stuck in an 80’s interior designer’s wet dream.
She loves cats, absolutely. But why is the “crazy” part a given? Is it because she has a lot of cats? We don’t call people with several dogs crazy. Is it because she’s older and single? We don’t call older, single men crazy. Is it because she’s a woman? We don’t call men crazy just for being men.
When you really think about it, why does being an older, single woman who likes cats make you crazy, a term meant to describe someone who is clinically mentally deranged?
The answer is simple: women's and cats’ lives have long been intertwined. And to see women as the morally, biologically, and societally inferior gender is to see cats as the same.
But it didn’t used to be this way.
