Movie cats: a feminist critique of zoomorphism on film Cover Image
  • Price 5.00 €

Filmske mačke: feministička kritika zoomorfizma na filmu
Movie cats: a feminist critique of zoomorphism on film

Author(s): Petra Belc Krnjaić
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Sociology of Art
Published by: Durieux
Keywords: cats on fi lm; women and animals; sexism; witches; Catwoman;
Summary/Abstract: Throughout the history of patriarchal culture women were often equated with animals, closely associated with nature and naturalized by applying animal names, among which cats hold a high position. During the Middle Ages in accordance with patriarchal tendencies of the Catholic Church, women’s sexuality was related to bestiality and cats as one of their intimate partners and witch helpers were demonized. In the context of film history the presence of cat imagery on film is as long as the gender asymmetry and patriarchal ideas of relating women to animals. Even the first cats recorded with a movie camera bore clearly delimited traditional gender roles. Cats on film are often used to accentuate character traits of the protagonists, but while they generally soften and ennoble male characters, they are used to accentuate female unpredictability, emotional instability and independence, and give women supernatural powers. This paper brings a brief historical overview of movie cats and women as seen through a feminist lens. It also aims at locating the points of continuity of these patriarchal mythic structures in contemporary film culture which help to shape popular beliefs and continue to perpetuate the myth of the special connection between cats and women.

  • Page Range: 341-369
  • Page Count: 29
  • Publication Year: 2020
  • Language: Croatian