I dedicate this post to Charlotte – a loyal follower
of “Fall in Love with History”.
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| Widget - looking utterly adorable |
Regular readers of "Fall in Love with History" (like Charlotte!) will
have twigged the two things that interest me most are history and cats; so it’s
high time for another post melding both together. As part of my ongoing research into
all things feline, let's look at how cats were perceived in the
past.
Old Maid
No I’m not talking about myself, (my ambition is to
become a mad-cat-lady in later life, rather than an old maid). But when it
comes to cat ownership in the 18th century, the image consistently linked
to cat ownership is the older single woman, usually portrayed with warts and a
burgeoning moustache i.e. the “old maid”.
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| Old Maids Attend a Cat's Funeral. Courtesy of Wellcome Images |
Face Value?
This is why history is so fascinating, because you can
take things at face value: ugly older women kept cats…although this seems
rather harsh. But in reality, this stereotype was another example of how the ruling
male class kept women in check.
In the 18th century, success to a woman
wasn’t about a career, but marrying well, being a good wife, and raising
children. Anything that detracted from a woman devoting her life to making men happy
was perceived as a threat to the very fabric of society.
Society Crumbles
Where might it end, if women no longer looked to their
husband’s for affection, but sought comfort from pets instead? This bowel-churning
prospect for the Georgian male was something that needed stamping out – and what
better way to do this than ridicule. Or rather, by making a connection between
ugliness and pet cats, by linking loneliness and isolation to pet keeping, so that
the young and beautiful were not be tempted to follow the same path.
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| [The eagle eyed will spot the pet clutched to the lady's breast is a small dog, not a cat.] |
Bad Press
At this time cats had a bad press anyway, after
previous links to witchcraft and devil worship (largely a result of
manipulation of feline reputation by the Catholic Church). Cats were considered
a pet of the poor, rather than a luxury. Indeed, their very character was portrayed
as treacherous, self-interested, and vicious – not something any young lady in
search of a husband wanted to be linked with. The subliminal message was that spending your
affection unwisely, i.e. not dedicated to men, led to a lonely, unfulfilled
life.
All in all, if you were an older woman in the 18th
century who loved cats, society was going to take the mickey. Not enough time
had passed from cat’s being vilified as the devil’s familiar, and the
prevailing view that woman were there to serve men could not cope with a women
spending her affection elsewhere.
Just as well I’m a 21st century gal ….
Wow, who knew? A friend of mine in Spain, another 21st century gal who is happily married, happens to have 13 feral cats she's befriended. Three centuries ago she probably would have been burned at the stake. Meanwhile, what about all those old paintings of squires and such with their faithful dogs at the fireside hearth. Why did they get to have pets? Hmmm. Double standard here.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how this mythology persists! And how men who love cats are not seen as masculine, even today. I have to tell you, though, there is nothing more fierce than a lovely housecat who feel threatened! They are also very protective of us.
ReplyDeleteHere, in California, people dress up their dogs, carry them in purses, parade them around in strollers, and sit with them in their laps at restaurants. I have yet to meet a cat owner who is that crazy!
This is really interesting and I'd love to read more about how the Catholic Church vilified cats...