Many individuals will claim they do not like cats because they are mean, but in reality, cats require more trust to be earned than dogs.
This ability to protect boundaries is admirable and is a quality many women today find themselves seeking. In a world where consent has not always been considered required from women, the cat embodies an empowered individual who takes "no" seriously. Even the sheer fact that the majority of cats today are restricted to the home is reminiscent of the traditional gender roles of women being required to be homemakers.
In this episode of the Green Goddess Society podcast, I discuss the historical context of cats within the spiritual world as well as their connection to female empowerment.
Sources:
Adaway, Kristen. “How The ‘Cat Lady’ Trope Came To Be.” HuffPost, 19 July 2018, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-cat-lady-trope-came-to-be_n_5b366690e4b08c3a8f69fe8f.
Adewunmi, Bim. “Confused Cats Against Feminism: Feline Views on Gender Equality.” The Guardian, 28 July 2014. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2014/jul/28/confused-cats-against-feminism.
Blakemore, Erin. “Why Suffragists Wore White, and More Feminist Symbols Interpreted.” National Geographic, 18 Mar. 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2021/03/why-suffragists-wore-white-and-more-feminist-symbols-interpreted.
Csorba, Mária. “Feminization of Agatha Christie´s Character Hercule Poirot through His Appearance, Personality, Age and Cat Symbolism.” International Journal of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Oct. 2021, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355225629_Feminization_of_Agatha_Christies_Character_Hercule_Poirot_through_His_Appearance_Personality_Age_and_Cat_Symbolism
Gökarıksel, Banu, and Sara Smith. “Intersectional Feminism Beyond U.S. Flag Hijab and Pussy Hats in Trump’s America.” Gender, Place & Culture, vol. 24, no. 5, May 2017, pp. 628–44, https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1343284.
Nathan Heflick. “Sexual Objectification Increases Perceptions of Women as Animals.” Psychology Today, 22 Jan. 2010, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-big-questions/201001/sexual-objectification-increases-perceptions-women-animals.
Honda, Kim. "A Witch, a Cat, a Woman: Cat Woman's Patriarchal Roots." Trivia: Voices of Feminism.
https://www.triviavoices.com/a-witch-a-cat-woman-cat-womans-patriarchal-roots.html.
Jouët, Josiane. “Digital Feminism: Questioning the Renewal of Activism.” Journal of Research in Gender Studies, vol. 8, Apr. 2018. ResearchGate, https://doi.org/10.22381/JRGS8120187.
Lecker, Michael. “Treacherous, Deviant, and Submissive: Female Sexuality Represented in the Character Catwoman.” 2007. Bowling Green State University, Master's Thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1174668318.
Williams, Harold. Why Cats Were Important In Ancient Egypt? Divine Protection! 10 Aug. 2023, https://historyrise.com/why-cats-were-important-in-ancient-egypt/.
Wrenn, Corey. “Woman-as-Cat in Anti-Suffrage Propaganda - Sociological Images.” The Society Pages, 4 Dec. 2013, https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/12/04/the-feminization-of-the-cat-in-anti-suffrage-propaganda/.
Buzzfeed. “The History of Black Cats.” Buzzfeed, 12 March 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntRSa1Mcn5U
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