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Cat Call: Reclaiming the Feral Feminine (An Untamed History of the Cat Archetype in Myth and Magic)

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"No one writes about the subjects of sexuality, desire, the shadow, and diabolism with such relish, and when I read her words I feel both smarter and less afraid of my own 'tabooed' feelings and thoughts. Like a cat, Kristen sees in the dark, as she guides us gracefully forward with her vision of unapologetic, feminine power." —From the Foreword by Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power

The cat: A sensual shapeshifter. A hearth keeper, aloof, tail aloft, stalking vermin. A satanic accomplice. A beloved familiar. A social media darling. A euphemism for reproductive parts. An epithet for the weak. A knitted—and contested—hat on millions of marchers, fists in the air, pink pointed ears poking skyward. Cats and cat references are ubiquitous in art, pop culture, politics, and the occult, and throughout history, they have most often been coded female.

From the "crazy cat lady" unbowed by patriarchal prescriptions to the coveted sex kitten to the dreadful crone and her yowling compatriot, feminine feline archetypes reveal the ways in which women have been revered and reviled around the world—in Greek and Egyptian mythology, the European witch trials, Japanese folklore, and contemporary film.

By combining historical research, pop culture, art analyses, and original interviews, Cat Call explores the cat and its indivisible connection to femininity and teases out how this connection can help us better understand the relationship between myth, history, magic, womanhood in the digital age, and our beloved, clawed companions.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 5, 2019
      Sollee (Witches, Sluts, Feminists) shows the ways in which transgressive aspects of femininity have always been connected to the feline in her agile, clever study. Sollee begins with the idea of the “shapeshifting epithet” of sluttiness, linking the Twitter hashtag #CatsAreSluts to the history of cat representation, including Aristotle’s fourth-century BCE statement about cats’ lack of virtue and the performances of cross-dressing, kitten-carrying 18th-century Venetian revelers. Particularly enjoyable is Sollee’s chapter on the comics character Catwoman, who evolved into a patriarchy-crushing feline feminist icon. Sollee also explains how shapeshifting, demonology, insanity, kink, and witchcraft are related to the history of humans taking inspiration from cats, arguing that wildness and a “refusal of patriarchal prescriptions” are the core tenets of all cat iconography. Unfortunately, Sollee provides no practical ideas for the “reclaiming” suggested in her title, and often the book feels like an information dump with little narrative cohesion. Despite this, her breezy tone and framework connecting pop culture to feline archetypes combine to create an appealing take.

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  • English

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