THE CAT ISSUE

the siren

feminist magazine of the university of oregon

the sirens editor-in-chief

ANNA BIRD

visual design

ANNA BIRD

illustration

TAYLOR WILSON ELLEN ROJC

words JESSIE DAHER SARAH WYER GRACE CAROSIO MARIKA THEOFELIS chelsea pfeifer julia riley ERIN MCGLADREY LAURIE PENNY SOPHIA MANTHEAKIS NINA NOLEN AMANDA SIGLER circe bota

photos

CARLI BARNUM LAETITIA BERAUD

publishers

asuo women’s center

office

emu suite 3 university of oregon eugene, oregon 97402

email

sirenwc@gmail.com

phone

541.346.4095

fax

541.346.0620

ONLINE

sirenmag.tumblr.com Twitter @sirenmagazine1 Instagram @sirenmagazine

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

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The Siren is published and produced by the ASUO Women’s Center. We are the only student-led feminist publication on campus. It is our mission to cover contemporary feminist issues and act as an outlet for the creative and intellectual development of women. Our staff consists of an editorial board of Women’s Center staff who solicit contributions from volunteer writers and artists.

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contributors Editor’s Letter neat/hurl news brief cat wisdom OUR BODIES, OUR HEALTH 10,000 cats feminist of the issue Feline Familiarity Power to the pussy THE RED ZONE nine lives of women i was a manic pixie dream girl cats being cats (photos) OK KITTEH racism isn’t cute reviews real talk

04 05 06 07 08 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 20 24 26 28 31

credit where credit is due catitude and gratitude feminism, adventure time, and miley cyrus pussy riot: “hooligan” bad asses what it might mean when your cat poops on the couch animal rights as a feminist concern learning compassion and responsibility with cats Ursula K. Le Guin talks about cats, books, and kids The cross-cultural, historical ties of cat and woman pussy, pussy-cats, vaudeville and more pussy. pussy.

TALKING ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT FOR FALL how college hook up culture focuses on the physical women starring in their own stories sleeping, lounging, gallivanting, loving, cattin’ around OWNERS HELP CATS FIND COMPANIONS cultural appropriation: the biggest buzzkill cat woman, catwings, and how gina gershon found her pussy coming out of your cocoon the siren

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contributors

Sarah Wyer Sarah is studying anthropology, archaeology, and folklore with an emphasis on feminism and identity theory. She has written articles for Ethos Magazine and submitted work to the Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal by invitation after presenting at the University of Oregon’s Undergraduate Research Symposium. An avid traveller, she recently returned to Eugene after an archaeological excavation in northern England, where she lived in a tent for a month and unearthed countless iron nails older than the United States. Sarah is from San Diego, California and sometimes uses an umbrella when it rains.

Grace carosio JESSIE DAHER Jessie Daher is a senior in the Psychology department, working on a minor in English. In her free time, she teaches Vinyasa yoga classes, collects graphic novels and vintage Playboys, and writes.

She is inspired by her cat, her boyfriend, and Margaret Atwood.

Grace is a junior at the U of O and a Womens’ and Gender Studies major who hopes to go on to get her masters in social work and work with middle schoolers and high schoolers around gender issues and healthy sexuality. A native Eugeneian, Grace enjoys backpacking, cross-country skiing, swimming in lakes and pretty much any out door activity the northwest has to offer. She thoroughly enjoys her job working with kids, and also loves to dance, drink lots of coffee and eat yummy vegetarian food.

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editor’s letter

THE CAT’S OUT OF THE BAG PHOTO BY TIFFANY HAN

F

irst things first: I am not what you would call a “cat person.” And since it is my first go as Editor-in-Chief, I don’t want to start off as a fraud. In my defense, I have a long history of horrifying run-ins with cats, and by that I mean when I was four years old one clawed me, and I’ve never been able to get over the traumatic experience. The perpetrator was my beloved Kitty Whiskers. Perhaps it was my allergies, or my tendency to annoy her with my love and attention and tiny hugs that prevented us from creating a lasting bond.

And then we gave Kitty Whiskers to my aunt when I was still very young, and since then I have only ever had dogs. Having always had a close relationship with my dogs, I understand that a connection with animals is at the root of many people’s happiness and comfort. Plus, I like a good cat meme or basket of kittens as much as the next person. It’s just their quick, razor blade claws that I am wary of.

That all being said, producing THE CAT ISSUE was such a fun experience. When somebody proposed the idea over a year ago, I thought it would be a simply funny issue that we could laugh off and throw as many cat puns and cat pictures together as possible and call it good. It would be a cat-tastic gimmick.

But then the story pitches became more insightful, more thought provoking, all across the board, and lo and behold we had all the makings of a truly meow inspiring collection of stories.

I certainly learned a lot about cats while working on this issue. For instance, I never knew there was such a thing as cat pyschics. On page 8 Terri O’Hara, local animal communicator, shares a story of a young woman whose cat chose to poop on her couch persistently in order to express his disagreement with her current romantic relationship. The outcome of her story shows that oftentimes cats know what’s best for their humans, and find creative ways of getting their points across.

Amanda Sigler connects the dots between ecoterrorism, human and animal exploitation, food inequity, racism, and classism with her article on specieism and making animal rights a feminist issue (page 10).

The Women’s Center’s new LGBTQQI Coordinator, Sophia Mantheakis, shares her deeply personal experience connecting with cats at Committed Alliance to Strays in Southern Oregon. She also talks to Ginny Johnson, Cattery Manager at the Greenhill Human Society in Eugene, about her eight years of working with cats and how her identity as a woman has allowed her a unique connection to the critters.

In November, the UO’s Center for the Study of Women in Society is celebrating their 40th Anniversary with a weekend of paying tribute to feminist research, activism, and creativity. The keynote speaker is none other than

Ursula K. Le Guin, famed feminist fantasy fiction writer, poet, and author of the children’s series Catwings, which we happily reviewed for this issue. Melissa Hart, a professor at the UO School of Journalism and Communication, was able to get an interview with Le Guin, in which we get insight into her genius as well as her devotion to black cats (page 12).

With copious amounts of spunky facts, SIREN writers Sarah Wyer and Jessie Daher explore the different meanings and historical contexts of the ties between women and cats, pussies, witchcraft, and vaudeville in “Feline Familiarity” and “Power to the Pussy” (page 14).

After coming across the article “I was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl” on newstatesmen.com, we knew we had to try and reprint it in THE SIREN. Thankfully, after contacting both the writer, Laurie Penny, and Helen Lewis we were able to get permission. As a 20-something this article really spoke to me in talking about the pressures many young women feel to be a sparkling side story in a man’s epic journey. Penny argues that female characters should be written to develop real personalities in place of the “eccentricities, a vaguely-offbeat favourite band, a funky fringe” that so often characterize the MPDG trope. But more broadly, the point of this article that resonated with me was the simple fact that women should be encouraged to be the main characters in their own stories, and not focus their dreams and desires on guest starring in someone else’s.

I feel that being involved with THE SIREN and the Women’s Center is a chance for me to reclaim my story, and provide a space for others to do the same. I am so fortunate to have had so many talented, clever, funny, and smart feminists contribute to this issue, and I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for making my first issue as Editor-in-Chief such a success.

However, the gratitude can’t stop there because I would not be here today if it weren’t for those who came before me. I cannot give enough thanks to my predecessors Jennifer Busby and Kylie Wray. I remember walking into my first SIREN “staff ” meeting and being absolutely terrified, but they took me under their wings and showed me what being a hella cool feminist was all about. I am honored to be where I am today, and with all the Sirens and Women’s Center staff and volunteers to help me, I am so thrilled about the year ahead.

Meow I will let you enjoy THE CAT ISSUE.

ANNA BIRD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF the siren

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neat/hurl

Sometimes we find things happening around us that are neat; sometimes we find things that make us want to hurl.

Most of the time things make us want to hurl.

Welcome to a patriarchal society.

HURL: Miley explores adulthood

WORDS BY KATIE DUNN Hannah Montana is dead. From the ashes rises an unstoppable twerking machine. A HURL: “Adventure Time” explores sexism puberty-induced rebellion that began with the WORDS BY KATIE DUNN shedding of big brunette country locks has NEAT: Feminism “Adventure Time with Finn and Jake” is a now taken shape as a nude blonde exposing WORDS BY ANNA BIRD surprisingly clever children’s television show her tongue and throwing up gang signs. In In my three years of writing for the Siren, I that has earned popularity with folks of all her mansion-house-party turned music video have never written a ‘Neat.’ When this was first ages. I personally count myself as a huge fan Miley shows the world that she likes to party pointed out to me I laughed, but I quickly real- of the show, having watched it so much I am with her black friends. One of her new favorized how sad that is. In my everyday life I am able to recite full scenes on command. Deite pastimes include shaking her ass while her a very positive and happy person. It’s not until spite the fact that the show is headed by two accessory homegirls point and shout “DAMI look at some of the things happening in our male characters, Finn the human and Jake the MMN”. In case we didn’t get the memo about society that I become bitter and angry towards magic dog, I have usually been pleased with Miley’s new image, she made sure to go all a culture seemingly bent on limiting the free“Adventure Time”’s complex and well-round- out at this year’s VMAs. To accent her love doms and expressions of women, people of ed female characters. One day the creators of booty clapping, Miley ornaments the stage color, LGBTQ folks, people with disabilities, of the show decided that they should make a with a wide hipped black woman sporting a and other disenfranchised communities. I can’t special where they write the show with a genthong & leggings. This image harkens back to help but be critical when patriarchy keeps rear- der reversal- “Adventure Time with Fiona and the days of the Hottentot Venus- the South ing it’s ugly head.

Cake”! Now being the AT fan and the gender African woman kidnapped by white folk so When I turn on the TV and see advertisenerd that I am, y’all should understand how that her large buttocks could be displayed as ments that overtly objectify women in order excited I was for this special episode. But then a freak show in Europe. Yes, Miley’s compasto sell deodorant, turn on the radio and hear I watched it and spent the whole time scream- sion for black culture is truly heart warming. lyrics that justify rape culture, walk down the ing at my television in full feminist dismay. On At this point in her career Ms. Cyrus aims to street and get yelled/whistled at, walk home at first glance it is obvious that Fiona’s 13-yearbreak away from her child persona in favor night with mace in one hand and my cell phone old body is sexualized in a way that Finn’s is of a more mature image. She asserts this by in the other already pre-dialed to 911, or hear not. Her voluptuous curves, thigh high socks taking her panties off and riding a phallic ball on the news that another politician in another and mini skirt incite a very different reaction and chain. With her many contributions to state wants to ban another liberty for another than Finn’s unassuming stick figure body. But white patriarchal America today it can be difgroup of people, I get tired. I get really sad, all looks aside- it seems that the writers chose ficult to single out just one of the pop idol’s and really tired. to deviate from Finn’s normal adventures that recent attention-grabbing stunts, but luckily I So this ‘Neat’ is about what keeps me going, include saving the candy kingdom and explor- believe an overarching theme can be drawn. the basis behind this whole magazine: femiing the Land of Ooo in order to give Fiona Miley reminds us that being in a post-racial nism. Thanks to feminists like Jessica Valenti, the adventure of – you might have guessed society means that skinny white girls are now Jaclyn Friedman, Cher, Vandana Shiva, Hillary it- going on a date with Prince Gumdrop. I able to express themselves through the exClinton, Tina Fey, Joan Jett, Amy Poehler, Lena am ashamed to live in a society where having ploitation of a group of people who had their Dunham, Beyoncé, Lisa Ling, Mindy Khaling a female lead means that my favorite show original culture erased by white imperialists (I could thankfully go on forever about all my must sacrifice creative action in exchange for a generations ago. favorite feminists but I won’t), I am able to cheesy dating plot. Shockingly Fiona and Cake keep going knowing that it’s not all bad, and gained so much popularity that they made there are plenty of strong, smart people doing a second special where Fiona is bullied into good things in this sea of misogynist oppresdating bad-boy vampire Marshall Lee against sive bullshit. her wishes. It seems that no matter how many It is feminism that reminds me to keep my episodes we get with Fiona and Cake, the only nose to the grindstone and learn everything I adventures this under-developed girl is going can learn in order to express what I want to to get are unwanted dates with older male express and do the things that I want to do. characters.

Feminism gave me a voice three years ago; it gave me a backbone, and solid ground; it gave me hope, and I think that’s pretty fucking neat.

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NEWS BRIEF

PUSSY RIOTERS STAGE HUNGER STRIKES The punk rock feminists protest intolerable conditions while doing time in Russian prison camps WORDS BY JESSIE DAHER

M

aybe you read about a Pussy Riot concert that took place in a Russian cathedral last year. Maybe you’ve watched the YouTube videos, featuring exuberant female musicians, wearing bright-neon tights and balaclavas, and jamming Riot-grrl style. Maybe you saw the video of Madonna stripping on stage, to reveal “Pussy Riot” scrawled across her back. Still, do you really know who or what Pussy Riot is?

Pussy Riot is a group of feminist activists who try to engage in dialogue through “metaphor and art.” They are a performance-art collective,formed in August 2011, as it was announced Vladamir Putin would return for a third term of presidency. Pussy Riot performances are socio-political, with lyrics such as: “Kill all sexists, kill all conformists, kill all Putinites.”

On February 21, 2012, Pussy Riot members entered Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and performed 30 seconds of an oppositional art piece entitled, “Virgin Mary, Put Putin Away,” before they were forcibly ejected.

In March, three members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, age 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, age 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, age 29, were arrested for this performance and subsequently convicted. Samutsevich was later freed on an appeal. Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova are currently serving two years in prison on a charge of “hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred.” The US, EU and Amnesty International have all condemned the sentences.

Today, Russia is dominated and defined by patriarchy, Putin and the Pope.

There is no place for radical activism or defiant feminism in a land of mail order brides and criminalized sexuality. In fact, most of the horror reported by the Russian Orthodox “victims” of Pussy Riot’s performance, focused on the gender of the offenders, the fact that their shoulders were bare, and their manner of dress. Many accused Pussy Riot of “witchcraft”.

Apparently, the audacity of Pussy Riot is less their actions, and more their physicality. This focus speaks loudly, highlighting a culture of shame, repression and sexism. The sentencing of Pussy Riot begs the question: would two male, Russian, performance artists have been imprisoned for similar actions?

Perhaps if any of the victims had focused on the lyrics, that day in February, they might have heard the message: “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist/Become a feminist, become a feminist.”

Both Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina have staged hunger strikes in their respective prison camps due to intolerable conditions. Alyokhina’s strike was earlier this year, and was successful in that she won concessions. Tolokonnikova began her hunger strike in late September as a protest to the “slave labor” as she describes it in a letter to a news organization in Russia, as well as unsanitary living conditions and violence towards women in the camps. After being hospitalized in early October, she ended her hungry strike and is waiting to see if she will be granted concessions. Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina both have a release det set for March 3, 2014.

CAT WISDOM

How wonderful cats can be and how they can guide us and protect us.

WORDS BY ERIN MCGLADREY

A

woman called Terri in a panic asking for help with her cat who had begun pooping on her couch. In the nine years she had had the cat he had never done anything like this before.

I tuned into the cat. I always do the introductory spiel to the human: this is how it works, blah, blah, blah. Before I could even finish that I heard that cat say: “Ask her about the boyfriend.” I pushed it away thinking I can’t possibly be right on that because I am not even tuned in yet. I finished explaining everything and I heard: “Ask her about the boyfriend.” I thought I can’t do that.

So then I said, “Ok, when did you meet your kitty?” Let me get tuned in. And I heard it again. It was a beaming voice: “ASK HER ABOUT THE BOYFRIEND.” So I let her talk for a little bit. I said, “Okay.”

The woman said, “He is pooping on the couch. It is grossing me out. He can’t do this to me. Why is he doing this to me? Is he pissed at me? What’s going on?”

“I need to say something I am hearing; I can be completely wrong, but if I don’t say it and get it out it won’t stop. I hear the cat saying to ask you about the boyfriend.”

She says, “I knew it! He hates my boyfriend!” I take everything the human says and send it back to the animal just as the human is saying it.

“He hates my boyfriend! He is pissed at me, I knew it! He hates my boyfriend. As a matter of fact he is pooping right where my boyfriend sits. Is he jealous? Is he jealous?”

The cat says: “SHE doesn’t like the boyfriend.”

And I say, “The cat says you don’t like the boyfriend.”

She got really quiet for a while. Then she says, “He is right! I feel terrible about this; he is the sweetest guy in the world and I am not into him. I am only dating him because I am lonely.”

And the cat says: “Mhmm.” The cat was trying to get her to pay attention to HER. The woman says “He is right. Oh, my God, my cat is totally right! It is not fair to the guy. He is the sweetest guy. I’m hanging on to him; I shouldn’t; it’s wrong; that’s not integrity; I’m going to tell him.”

She writes me an email a few days later saying she told the boyfriend they had to stop seeing each other and there has been no more pooping on the couch.

Six months later Terri gets a call from the same client. The cat has returned to pooping on the couch.

And I of course in my head said: ‘And where is the boyfriend?’ But it’s my job to keep my head out of it. As soon as I get on the phone the cat says, “You better ask her about the boyfriend again.”

“Let’s just start. What about the boyfriend?”

The woman says, “Well, I got really lonely. And I knew you were going to say this.”

Wait, wait. Why are you paying me to tell you what your cat is saying when you already know what your cat is going to say?

I say, “You don’t have to do this consult. We should just stop now.” “ No, No, no. I want you to explain to my cat why I am going to marry him,” she says. And the cat’s whole energy got really big and angry. He wasn’t upset about the man. He was upset that she wasn’t happy and she wasn’t in love.

The woman says, “He proposed to me last week. He came back into my life about a month ago and proposed to me. I am tired of being lonely. I am 35 years old.” She had all these logical reasons. I just sat there quietly. I am not a counselor. I don’t understand why you are paying me. She started crying again.

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“Will you apologize to my cat? Will you ask him to like the guy?”

“He likes the guy,” I say. “He just doesn’t like your unhappiness and that you’re not living your integrity.” She cried and cried and cried.

“My cat is right again.” I hung up the phone thinking ‘Why is she doing this?’ She really needed to process what was going on with the help of her kitty.

The woman called back a few days later. “I want to thank you. I want to thank my cat. My boyfriend wants to thanks you because I was finally honest with him. We are going to be dear, dear friends. We both realized something was off. We are not meant to be husband and wife.”

Terri O’Hara sees the world though animals’ eyes literally. As an animal communicator, her animal companions have been her greatest teachers in connecting from the heart to interpret between companion animals and their humans, helping people understand what their pets are thinking and feeling. With the rise of shows like Pet Psychic and Long Island Medium, the work of intuitives like Terri O’Hara is moving into the mainstream. Consulting both in person and via the phone, Terri starts sessions about asking how the person and animal came to be in each other’s lives, accessing the particular animal through this connection. With the animal’s permission, she receives emotions, words and short video clip-like visuals. I sat down with Terri to understand more about opening the pathways between humans and animals.

ERIN MCGLADREY: Why is it important that people understand what their animals are thinking and feeling?

TERRI O’HARA: An example of how I help people with troubling situations is when I helped a cat named Anna. Her human companion, Martha, called me to say that Anna was not eating well all of a sudden. Other than eating changes, everything else seemed fine. She was active, happy, and appearing normal. But as each day passed, she ate less and less food until the day came that she just walked away from her food completely. Of course, she was offered many foods to see if the food was the issue but that wasn’t the case.

When I tuned into Anna and asked what it felt like in her body, she said “fine for the most part, except I have a pain in my belly.” I focused on her abdomen and suddenly felt a cramping, sharp pain in my lower right abdomen.

Then I saw the color green. I wasn’t sure what it all meant but that is not my job as an Animal Communicator. My job is to help be a voice for the animal and describe whatever I receive. Then the person can take that info to the vet. I encourage her to get to the vet ASAP because I strongly felt something serious was going on.

Martha took her kitty to the vet that day. The veterinarian discovered a hardness in her abdomen and did an ultrasound right away. She had an obstruction in her intestines on the lower right side. The vet said it was dangerous and performed an emergency surgery. When the surgery was complete, he told Martha “it’s a good thing you got her in today because she had a severe infection with a lot of green pus that could have been fatal if we didn’t get in there to clean things up.”

Anna began eating right away after surgery, healed quickly, and is a happy kitty.

EM: In your late twenties, when your dog was dying of cancer a friend suggested that you talk with him before he passed. You didn’t know what it meant but, just like many of your clients now, you would do anything for your dog.

That’s how you met world-renowned animal communicator Penelope Smith

and realized that what she was teaching you was something you already knew as a child. So when did you discover this ability?

TO: When I was a child I felt that it was normal. I still think it’s normal. Kids are very telepathic, or intuitive. I tend to use the word intuitive because it has fewer negative connotations. I believe that intuition happens in the heart and not the head. Children live in their heart because their head is not busy with school stuff yet. Especially young children. When you are a young kid you are just connecting with the earth and connecting with animals. You live in your heart. Your head isn’t full. You are climbing trees, You’re playing on the playground. You’re catching frogs. And you’re being in the moment. You are very in the moment. Children are so in the moment. That is where communication happens when you are in the moment and connecting from heart to animal. As a child it is very natural. In our culture, I believe we shut it all down by accident, maybe intentionally in some cases. In school we are taught to go right to our heads, ABC 1+2=3 you are supposed to know all this. You learn to memorize. You learn to be in your head. They take us out of our hearts and put us up into our heads. As a child it is just natural.

EM: You’ve said in your classes that adults tend to get a glimmer of animal communication after three hours but you take kids out to be with the animals and they are having experiences within a half hour. Families, often out of protectiveness, discourage these gifts. How did your family respond to your abilities?

TO: When I was younger, I had a kitty named Benji. He was my pal and he was my teacher. My family used to worry because he would go out and wander because they didn’t have him nurtured because they didn’t know any better. He would go make black and white kitties around the neighborhood. He would disappear for a while. I would hear my family whispering (I was the baby of the family) that Oh, Terri will be so upset if Benji doesn’t come back. I would just walk in the room and say no he’s coming back Thursday afternoon around two he says he’ll be at the backdoor. And I just had a knowing. I didn’t stop to say where did that knowing come from. I just knew it. Now I understand. I knew it in my heart not my head. Nobody logically told me Benji just called you telepathically.

But I knew it in my heart. He would show up. My family would smile and say ok. Fortunately they didn’t ridicule me. I feel so grateful that my family thought it was charming, there were no worries about what it meant. I believe in other cultures where they are taught meditation, and going within, centering yourself, they can keep it alive more because that is what it takes to tune into your heart. You can’t tune into the mind and find intuition.

EM: Some people worry that animals will reveal embarrassing things about them. It sounds like this isn’t the case. What do animals talk about?

TO: Anything. Sky is the limit. I have some clients whose dog said next year we’re going to have a baby in the family. The husband and wife burst out laughing and said that’s news to us. I said I could be wrong. They called me a few months later and said they were pregnant and we didn’t think we could even get pregnant. I said “Your dog knew you could.” Telling them something is going to happen is not animals predicting the future for their people. They talk about their happiness and joys. Their purpose and their role in the family.

The main thing animals teach us is to live in the moment. They don’t worry about the past and they don’t fret about the future. They live in the moment.

They are here to teach us that. Each and every animal in every person’s life is here to say Relax human. Chill out. Calm your head down. Just get in the moment. Play with me. Cuddle me. Let’s just get in the moment. I believe they are our anchors in many ways. The pets in our lives are our anchors in a time when

consultation. There are animal communicators out there that do readings and what that means is that you send them a photo of your animal and your list of questions. They go off without you on their own, tune into the animal, ask all the questions, record all the answers down and present that. That is a reading.

Whereas a consultation, which is more my preference, is much more of a conversation. The humans that go with the animals and me are all connecting at the same time. So if someone says, “Fluffy is limping lately.” I can say right then and there she tells me you’ve been limping lately and she’s worried about you. I can send the worry and the concern. And she is wondering why you are limping. Can you tell me tell me more about why you are limping? Fluffy may show me running in the backyard and playing and chasing a squirrel and twisting her ankle in a hole. I can say she shows me chasing squirrels in the backyard. I feel like it is a couple of weeks ago. She shows me twisting her left rear ankle and the person will say yeah, it’s her left rear leg that she’s been limping on. So by being able to take the energy of the person and the question and concern and present it to the animal, to me it feels full circle and so I am more like a conduit. I don’t like the sit down, drill them with questions, and record the answers method. It’s not an interview. A lot of times during the consultation within the first 20 minutes the person will say wow you are already answering the questions on my page and we haven’t even gotten to them. And it’s not because I’m psychically readying their page it’s because the conversation has started and the animals knows what the person’s concerned about and so the animal starts bringing things up.

EM: When we look at animal communicators, mediums, intuitives and pet psychics, most of the practitioners are women. What draws women to this work?

TO: Women are more willing to learn it. I’ve been teaching classes for 16 years.

Once upon a time there was never a male, now there are 2-3 in every class. In terms of clients, it used to be 95% women, 5% men and now it’s 80% women, 20% men. I believe that in our culture men are not taught to be in their hearts.

Men are taught to be strong. Men are taught to be brave. And again that is shifting. Intuition comes more from the heart not from the head. It is hard for someone to grasp something if they can’t feel it. So if I am talking to a woman and I’m saying “I’m really sensing that your cat has been sad for the last couple weeks.” The woman gets that. She feels it. Whereas a man’s up here trying to listen with his head “How do you know that?” “What made you get that?” And so they’re coming from their analytical self not their intuitive self. Whereas women listen with their own intuitive self, though we all have it. In our culture we have something called women’s intuition that seems to be acceptable. Like a mom can be at work one day and all the sudden have an intuitive feeling though it might just be called a hunch that her child’s hurting. Sure enough she gets a call from the school that their child fell and hurt themselves on the playground. That’s intuition. And it’s down in the heart not up in the head. In culture we have accepted women’s intuition because it has proved itself over and over and over again. It’s hard to deny something that’s true. We don’t allow it for men but men do it too. So I do believe that men don’t get to be in their hearts so to speak. They are supposed to be strong and stuff and therefore it is harder for them to grasp anything sensitive and tender.

EM: What advice would you give to your 20 year old self ?

TO: I would tell my 20 year old self to quit trying to figure everything out. And to just trust the moment. And to let my heart guide me more. Listen to my heart and not always my head. Because we are on a journey. Our journey is going to unfold no matter what. You can’t fully control it. I believe a lot of people just think, I’m going to go to school. Gonna get this degree and gonna do this and that and I’m gonna have this family and gonna live in the suburbs. Many people perhaps accomplish this and many people don’t. And then they run up against: Whoa, Wait a minute. What am I doing? This isn’t my picture. So I would guide my 20 year old self to go with the flow a little more. That is what the animals have taught me.

EM: Sometimes having your life mapped out can be a way of avoiding talents you are fearful of or think might be undervalued by society or those you love.

What do you think happens if people ignore their gifts?

”

He just doesn’t like your unhappiness and that you’re not living your integrity. we are busy, in our heads and scattered and buzzing. You just can’t help being in your heart. They are here to be our teachers.

EM: While you mainly work with cats, dogs and horses, you can communicate with a wide variety of animals both wild and domestic. So when you say that you communicate with animals, what do you mean by that? How does animal communication work?

TO: There are a couple different styles. One is called a reading and one is a

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OUR BODIES, OUR HEALTH

A NEW BRANCH OF FEMINSIM How the animal rights movement and veganism can

provide a solution to a variety of feminist issues

WORDS BY AMANDA SIGLER

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t its root, feminism is an anti-oppression movement. Sure it began with women’s rights but very quickly the theory surrounding feminism grew to be much more inclusive. We understand that oppression is layered, institutional, and meets at many intersections including race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and the focus of this article, species.

Speciesism is a relatively new word but not a new idea, and is based on the premise that species membership has no moral significance and (most) human animals are afforded protections and rights that non-human animals are not. This is the point in the conversation where it becomes difficult for me to understand why others don’t see the very obvious problem. If we wish, as feminists, to call ourselves an anti-oppression movement then how is it that so many self-identified feminists still contribute to the suffering and slaughter of sentient beings?

To this, many people will respond with myriad of answers as to why it is okay to forcibly impregnate females of various species, steal their babies and milk for food, imprison them all in filthy conditions for the entirety of their

short lives, and then when they are “spent” mercilessly slaughter them. Some will contest that we humans need animal products for health reasons…to this I say, “I am a 190lb vegan athlete, do I look like I need meat, eggs, or dairy?”

Others will want to bring up social and cultural normativity…this is where they really start to hate me because I point out that there are a lot of things that were once socially acceptable, like slavery for example, but that doesn’t mean that they are morally or ethically right.

The animal rights movement isn’t just about nonhuman animals either.

When I first decided to switch to a vegan diet and began learning about the issues surrounding factory farming, for me it was all about the animals. Very quickly though I learned about the far reaching effects of industrial agriculture in all of our lives.

“

Slaughterhouse workers, in comparison to the national average, endure three times more injuries and thirty three times higher cumulative trauma rate. Slaughterhouse workers also are typically undocumented, non-unionized, and have no health insurance. This type of work has been linked to increases rates of alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder.

29 million pounds of antibiotics are fed to livestock in the US each year.

FOR A VEGAN DESSERT RECIPE, GO TO PAGE 27 the siren

The American Public Health Association has urged for a moratorium on factory farms and scientists from the World Health Organization and CDC warn that conditions on factory farms don’t improve, we could face epidemics that do not respond to antibiotics.

It takes approximately double the amount of energy to produce food for a meat based diet as opposed to a vegetarian diet.5 Animal agriculture accounts for more greenhouse gasses than the entire transportation sector combined, as reported in 2006 by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.6The University of Chicago found that consuming no animal products is fifty percent more effective at fighting global warming than switching from a standard car to a hybrid.

Ecoterrorism, human and animal exploitation, food inequity, and overt racism and classism. These are the things that the industrial food complex supports. It is my belief that as feminists, or just as feeling, compassionate people, we need to make animal rights a higher priority because it isn’t a single issue discussion; instead, it incorporates every single issue, into one discussion. I understand that food is complex, it is cultural, spiritual, emotional, and religious. It is grandma’s homemade meatballs on Sunday and mom’s chicken noodle soup when you are sick. I never claimed that it was an easy conversation to have, just that it is the most important one we should be having. At the very least we all deserve the right to know the truth about the food we put into our bodies, including the things we would rather not hear.

There are unlimited resources out there for you to explore this topic yourselves. Some of my favorites are:

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At the very least we all deserve the right to know the truth about the food we put into our bodies, including the things we would rather not hear.

• • •

•

•

”

Manure runoff from factory farms has polluted an estimated 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and in three years has killed 13 million fish, as reported by the EPA.

http://freefromharm.org/ - a great blog that more eloquently breaks down the politics of meat. http://ffacoalition.org/ - a great organization stationed in the Bay area who create free interactive presentations for varying audiences. They are always looking for new volunteer presenters so check them out! http://www.farmsanctuary.org/ - while there are a growing number of farm sanctuaries all over the world, Farm Sanctuary is my number one pick.

They not only rescue animals from the food industry, they are also always creating innovative programs to spread vegan education. http://www.mercyforanimals.org/ - these people do the hardest and dirtiest work and I commend them. They go undercover and do the horrific jobs that society (and the corporations) like to keep out of sight. They work tirelessly to expose the cruelty and exploitation that occurs on a daily basis.

Or if you are into something more local, as most Oregonians are, check out http://www.meetup.com/EugeneVeggies/ where you can connect with vegans and vegetarians in town and learn more direct from the source!

10,000 CATS ONE VOLUNTEER’S EXPERIENCE WORKING

AT A STRAY AND ABANDONED CAT SHELTER And how that experience impacted her as a pet-owner and a feminist

words by SOPHIA MANTHEAKIS **TRIGGER WARNING: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ANIMAL VIOLENCE ’ve seen cats born without eyes, with 7 toes on each foot, and cats with three legs. Cats who were orange, white, black, grey, rust, beige, striped, spotted, and every color and pattern combined. As dynamic and varied in personality and appearance as human beings, I’ve interacted with more feline friends than I could possibly count--thousands, actually. For ten years, I volunteered with and was employed by Committed Alliance to Strays in Medford, OR. Our primary mission was to decrease the stray and abandoned cat population and feline-spread diseases by spaying/neutering, testing for terminal and/or communicable diseases, vaccinating, and adopting cats to loving homes.

I saw over 10,000 cats come through our doors.

Hundreds of joyous moments occurred in our shelter as humans and cats found their companions, and it was inspiring to witness them all. Tragedy was also a part of my day-to-day experience. Due to county law, any animal within our care who bit a volunteer/employee or that we couldn’t handle safely had to be euthanized. Heartbreaking, yes, but (in my experience and opinion) humane.

A partner veterinarian would humanely euthanize these cats as one of my supervisors or a technician stood by and held their paw. This was a far better fate than many of the circumstances of countless others I interacted with.

Dozens were hit by cars, poisoned, beaten, lit on fire, shot, neglected, or tortured. Their stories reaffirmed my belief that the most dangerous thing an animal can face is not the wild, starvation, dehydration, or other animal predators--it’s humans. Providing a space of love and safety for these cats became a reason why I loved my job.

From a feminist and social justice perspective, I appreciated working with an underrepresented group, suffering from the oppression and neglect of the Southern Oregon community. “It’s just a cat” was a pejorative and trivializing statement we heard everyday that reinforced social perceptions of animals as inferior and unimportant, and I valued my role in challenging those stigmas.

Additionally, working in an office that primarily consisted of women in influential and significant roles within our community was an incredible experience and opportunity. But, mostly, I related to my job as a survivor, and I found solace in an experience that I could, to a certain degree, empathize with.

For about seven years during my childhood and adolescence, the spouse of a family member stalked, harassed, and abused my family in ways that affected us emotionally, mentally, and physically. It was a situation where I felt I couldn’t protect myself, I had no control over my happiness or my family’s well being, and where I felt no one was advocating for my family’s safety. Hopeless and numb were two feelings I carried with me for a long time, and I connected with the animals I worked with through an understanding of the fear of being harmed and unprotected.

On the other side, I know what it’s like to lose an animal companion due to violence, as well. Having lost my family’s long-time dog companion during this time because of poisoning, I was also very grateful for and supportive of our program for those fleeing domestic violence situations. Our shelter would offer services for cats of clients in a local domestic violence organization by letting them live in our shelter indefinitely until the individual or family could find a safe residence. Almost half of those suffering domestic violence won’t leave due to fear of violence toward their animal companion in their absence (Animal Legal Defense Fund), making partnerships like this essential in offering comprehensive and effective services for those accessing supportive programs.

I

All of these reasons and countless more contributed to my admiration and love of animal rescue organizations. But, this is my singular experience. How do others in this field experience and relate to their work? As another perspective, Ginny Johnson, Cattery Manager of the Greenhill Humane Society, was gracious enough to lend her thoughts on her 8 years of work at the cattery.

Greenhill Cattery provides shelter for guardian-surrendered cats, as well as counseling and service referrals for those considering surrendering their companions. Johnson’s role involves overseeing 4 staff members and numerous volunteers in the basic care, medical attention, socialization, and adoption of their feline residents to lasting homes. Greenhill’s cattery also partners with Womenspace and the Domestic Violence Assistance Program, allowing individuals to board their companions for a period of time as they seek safe housing.

SOPHIA MANTHEAKIS: What is the best part of your job?

GINNY JOHNSON: Probably being surrounded by cats and kittens all day (sic).

I find them to be fascinating and, even after all this time, I learn something new from them or about them almost every day. The second best part of my job is working with such dedicated and hard working people who always put the animals’ welfare above all else.

SM: What is the most challenging part of your job?

GJ: Every one of these cats deserve a home of their own where they will be loved unconditionally. They had that at one time. They have no idea why they are in the shelter and why they will never see their home or family again. We take good care of them and love them, but we can’t tell them what the future holds for them. This is the most challenging part of my job.

SM: If you identity as a woman, how has your identity influenced your work with the stray and/or abandoned cats of Eugene?

GJ: This is a very good question. I think as a woman, there are times when our society has tried to make us feel as though we don’t count unless we look, think, or act a certain way. If a woman decides to go against the “norms” that our society expects of her, she may feel separated or distanced from society.

I’m sure all women have felt, at one time or another, as though they were being treated as a second-class citizen, or as something worthless or disposable.

Our society also, to a certain degree, treats animals this way as well. This may explain why the majority of people drawn to animal shelter or animal rescue work, tend to be female. I have been a vegan and an animal rights activist for almost 25 years now and I have personally experienced discrimination based on my sex, and prejudice because of my diet and lifestyle choices, so it does reverberate with me when I see animals abandoned, neglected, abused, or unloved.

Of course I do hope to see, in my lifetime, a society that values all living beings regardless of their sex or species.

To learn more about the services of the Greenhill Cattery and their work to provide support to the almost 40,000 stray/abandoned and feral cats in Lane County, visit their website, www.green-hill.org. Information about volunteering can also be accessed through the website, as well as an online donation program. Many thanks to Ginny Johnson for her contributions for this piece.

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feminist of the issue

CATS, KIDS, AND COLOR A CONVERSATION WITH URSULA K. LE GUIN WORDS AND INTERVIEW BY MELISSA HART

U

rsua Le Guin asked me for a photo of my cat.

After our interview, I considered the request from the awardwinning author of 58 books which range from the Earthsea series to a translation of the Tao Te Ching to Catwings (reviewed in this issue). Was it a polite formality inspired by our mutual laughter over my pet’s name (Alger Hiss, borrowed from the American lawyer accused of being a Soviet spy)? I thought not. For Le Guin believes, with French filmmaker Jean Cocteau, that a cat is the visible soul of a home. She has a cat, always, and nurtures a fondness for the black ones because “they’re unpopular and always the last cats to be adopted.”

Alger Hiss is long-haired, gorgeous, the color of a starless midnight sky. I e-mail her a photo. “He is the cat version,” she writes back, “of [actor] Alan Rickman’s voice.”

Le Guin turns 84 this month. “I’m pre-TV, for God’s sake,” she reminds me when I ask if she maintains a Facebook page. “I grew up without computers. I don’t find virtual communication as good as faceto-face.”

On Friday, November 8th, participants in the symposium “Women’s Stories, Women’s Lives”--sponsored by the ASUO Women’s Center and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, the Center for the Study of Women in Society—have the privilege of meeting Le Guin face-to-face as she reads from and discusses her work in the UO’s Erb Memorial Union ballroom. I spoke with the Portland-based author by phone in early October.

MELISSA HART: This issue of The Siren focuses thematically on cats. I’ve been reading your blog posts from last year, in which you describe losing your beloved Zorro, then going to the Portland Humane Society in search of a new cat who would, ideally, choose you. What is it about cats that appeals to you?

URSULA K. LE GUIN: I like to be around all animals. When I was a child, we weren’t allowed to have pets until I was twelve or thirteen, and I found a kitten in a tree. I brought it home, and I was allowed to keep it. I got used to having a cat in my life. My first was a gray tabby; I’ve had marvelous tabby cats. I’ve had beautiful black cats. Pard [Le Guin’s most recent cat] is only black on top.

His markings are splendid . . . but I think any kind of cat is beautiful.

MH: I’ve read your Catwings series many times to my six-year old daughter; it’s one of those books that appeals to readers across generations. I’m particularly interested in Mrs. Jane Tabby’s insistence that her children go out and seek a better world while she remains in the dangerous city shacking up with a tomcat.

UKL: I had an argument with my wonderful editor over that. He said, “This is going to distress children who don’t like the idea of sending a child away.” I told him, “These are just cats.” He told me I’d better make that clear. Now, I receive letters from children who say they hate Mama Cat who kicked out her own children. It’s unnerving for kids to think a mother could do that—even 12

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Copyright © by Marian Wood Kolisch a mother cat. My editor was right, and I was wrong. I should have explained that cats have to do it this way.

MH: What other reader feedback have you received on the Catwings series?

UKL: Jane on Her Own is the most popular book for young female readers.

Girls like her independence and her feistiness , how she flies around singing her own song. And of course, I’m secretly delighted that I made Jane black.

I’m very conscious of color when I write for children. In my fantasy books there aren’t many white people, white people are marginal. Most of the main characters are people of color. I did that quite consciously to counteract the tremendous tendency in science fiction to portray everybody as white. That just isn’t right. I have had letters from people who write that my books were the first fantasy novels they could read. American Black readers complained that there was nothing in fantasy about them, unless they were villains. It’s something that struck me as so obviously wrong, and so obviously made right with a little thought and goodwill. As for Catwings, inner city schools use the book; kids have an affinity for these cats who are born in a Dumpster. Teachers do wonderful things—they get the kids to draw pictures and write stories and send them to me. I try to respond to them all.

MH: I’d like to shift topics to focus on what you’ll be discussing at the Symposium—the role that speculative fiction has played in helping readers think about a more optimistic future.

UKL: My books are not optimistic. They do not hold out the promise of a better future. They simply offer alternative ways to do things and be. I think one reason kids love science fiction and fantasy is that they offer alternatives.

They say that it doesn’t have to be the way it is right now. Many times, young readers have told me that’s why they like imaginative fiction. I try not to put in preaching or teaching. I say, “Look, you’ve got a lot of choices, and the more choices you have, the more responsibility you have.”

ursula k. le guin MH: Have you received fan mail from readers who go on to become writers themselves?

UKL: I hear from writers who tell me, “I read your stuff from age ten, and it had a big influence on me.” I cross my fingers and hope it was a good influence. All artists stand on other artists’ shoulders. We all work from the people who went before us. I was enormously influenced by dozens and hundreds of writers. I couldn’t have been a writer without reading all those people and learning how to do it. But I didn’t think much about the authors until I became a teenager. It was the book that was important. I didn’t real Tolkien until my late twenties. I’m sorry I didn’t write him and say, “Oh, Mr. Tolkien, You are the best. You rock.”

MH: Many Siren readers and contributors are emerging writers hoping to effect social and political change through their work. Will you share advice for new writers hoping to open new worlds for their readers?

UKL: Publishing is in a very curious condition. It’s hard to get published, much harder than when I started. Big corporations control the publishers. My advice is to remember alternative publishing. Look around for alternative ways to publish online and in print. There are small publishers, such as the cooperative Book View Cafe—a venture for women who write genre fiction. We don’t have a big reputation, but it’s easier to make a reputation as a publisher than as a single writer self-publishing. It’s hard to be a writer now . . . but then, it was always hard.

Melissa Hart is the author of the memoir, Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2009) and the upcoming Beloved on the Earth: A Romance, an Adoption, and a Snowy Owl (Lyons, 2014). She teaches at the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon.

CHOOSING A CAT ANNALS OF PARD AN EXCERPT FROM LE GUIN’S BLOG WORDS BY URSULA K. LE GUIN

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have never chosen a cat before. I have been chosen by the cat, or by people who offered us a cat. Or a kitten was weeping up in a tree on Euclid Avenue and needed to be rescued and grew up into a fourteen-pound grey tiger tom who populated our neighborhood in Berkeley for blocks around with grey tiger kittens. Or pretty golden Mrs Tabby, probably after an affair with her handsome golden brother, presented us with several golden kittens, and we kept Laurel and Hardy. Or when Willie died, we asked Dr Morgan to let us know if anybody left a kitten at the veterinary door the way people do, and she said it wasn’t likely because it was long past kitten season, but next morning there was a six-month-old in a tuxedo on her doorstep, and she called us up, and so Zorro came home with us for thirteen years.

After Zorro died, last spring, there had to be the emptiness.

Finally it began to be time that the house had a soul again (some Frenchman said that the cat is the soul of the house, and we agree). But no cat had chosen us or been offered to us or appeared weeping in a tree. So I asked my daughter if she’d come to the Humane Society with me and help me choose a cat.

A middle-aged, sedate, homebody cat, suitable for owners in their eighties. Male, for no reason but that the cats I have loved most dearly were males.

Black, I hoped, as I like black cats and had read that they are the least popular

choice for adoption.

But I wasn’t particular about details. I was nervous about going. I dreaded it in fact.

How can you choose a cat? And what about the ones I couldn’t choose?

Spiral The Humane Society’s Portland office is an amazing place. It is immense, and I saw only the lobby and the cat wing — rooms and rooms and rooms of cats. There’s always somebody, staff and volunteers, at hand if you want them.

Everything is organised with such simple efficiency that it all seems easygoing and friendly — low-stress. When you are one of the huge number of people coming daily to bring in or adopt animals, when you see the endless incoming and outgoing of animals and glimpse the tremendous, endless work involved in receiving and treating and keeping them, the achievement of that easy-going atmosphere seems almost incredible and totally admirable.

The human-animal interface is a very troubled one these days, and in one sense the Humane Society shows that trouble at its most acute. Yet in everything I saw there, I also saw the best of what human beings can do when they put their heart and mind to it.

Well, so, we found our way in to the cat wing, and looked about a bit, and it turned out that at the moment there were very few middle-aged cats for adoption. The ones that were there mostly came from one place, which I’d read about recently in the newspaper: a woman with ninety cats who was sure she loved them all and was looking after them and they were all fine and… you know the story, a sad one. The Humane Society had taken about sixty of them.

The nice aide whom we began to follow around told us that they weren’t in as bad shape as most animals in those situations, and were fairly well socialised, but they weren’t in very good shape either, and would need special care for quite a while to come. That sounded a bit beyond me.

Aside from them, most of the cats there were kittens. Kittening was very late this year, she said. Just like tomatoing, I thought.

In one room of six or eight kittens, Caroline noticed an agitated nylon playtube which seemed to contain at least two active animals, one black and one white. Eventually one small cat emerged, very black-and-white and pleased with himself. Our guide told us he was older than most of them — a year old. So we asked to see him. We went to the interview room and she came in with the little fellow in the tuxedo.

He seemed very small for a year old; seven pounds, she said. His tail stood straight up in the air, and he purred most amazingly, and talked a good deal in a rather high voice, and often fell over in a playful/appeasement position. He was clearly, and naturally, anxious. He clung a little to the aide, till she left us alone with him. He wasn’t really shy, didn’t mind being picked up and handled and petted, though he wouldn’t settle on a lap. His eyes were bright, his coat sleek and soft, the black tail stood straight up, and the black spot on his left hind leg was terminally cute.

The aide came back, and I said, “O.K.” She and my daughter were both a little surprised. Maybe I was too.

“You don’t want to look at any others?” she asked.

No, I didn’t. Send him back, look at other cats, make a choice of one, maybe not him? I couldn’t. Fate or the Lord of the Animals or whatever had presented me with a cat, again. O.K. His previous owner had conscientiously filled out the Humane Society questionnaire. Her answers were useful and heart-breaking. Reading between some of the lines, I learned that he lived his first year with his mother and one sibling in a household where there were children under three, children from three to nine, and children from nine through fourteen, but no men.

The reason why all three cats were given up for adoption was stark: “Could not afford to keep.”

He had been only four days at the Humane Society. They had neutered him right away and he was recovering fast; he was in excellent health, had been well fed, well treated, a sociable, friendly, playful, cheerful little pet. I do not like to think of the tears in that family.

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FELINE FAMILIARITY From witchcraft to the ancient Greco-Roman goddesses, cats and women have been linked together throughout history and across cultures.

WORDS BY SARAH WYER

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have always wondered if warlocks have cats. Not just in video games or the occasional magic themed fantasy novel, but in folklore and superstition. While cats were taken as a sign of witchcraft—as a familiar (a folkloric spiritual figure believed to be assistants to witches)—they were usually associated with women. The association between women and cats is broad and as culturally relevant now as it was centuries ago. History has consistently linked cats and women together, and popular culture dances between the celebration and discrimination of this connection. It has seeped into our culture, in the very words and idioms we use in day-to-day speech. A woman who makes snide comments is called “catty.” Being “cattish” means that one is of “sly or spiteful character.” A “catcall,” though originally a mimicry of the nocturnal cry of a cat used in theatres to express audience impatience, has morphed in meaning.

1600s. Another popular image of the trickster cat is the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. Both these cat characters are portrayed as male, which is at odds with the initial icons of Bast and Hecate.

The trickster is a consistent character throughout mythology. Often depicted as male, the trickster operates with the same liminality associated with goddesses like Bast and Artemis. For some reason this transition from the feminine to masculine trickster characters takes place and we see characters like Odysseus and Hermes emerge. Lewis Hyde, author of Trickster Makes the World, describes the trickster as, “the adept who can move between heaven and earth, and between the living and the dead…” When women are tricksters they tend to be viewed as treacherous and their tricks result in tragedy. Male tricksters appear as charming, roguish characters. This observation is mainly tailored to

IN WITCH-HUNTS CATS HAVE HISTORICALLY BEEN BURNED ALONGSIDE THEIR MISTRESSES. IF A WOMAN WERE SUSPECTED OF WITCHCRAFT, OWNING A CAT WOULD PLACE EVEN MORE SUSPICION ON HER. “Catwalks” are narrow platforms where models slash the air with fashion. A woman known for being glamorous is referred to as a “glamour puss.”

These words are commonplace in our language and their utterance summons certain images in our minds. How often is the term “catcalling” placed in a sentence with the noun “cat”? It has become disassociated with its initial inspiration and takes on a completely different group of affiliates. Women speak of being catcalled by strangers, a call of attraction often undesired and evoking fear.

The feline association between women and cats is old and certainly not limited to language.

In ancient Egypt the goddess Bast (Bastet/Ailuros) ruled over cats, women, and secrets. Her power was also connected to the sun and then the moon after contact between Egypt and Greece, linking her to the Greco-Roman goddess Artemis (Diana). In ancient Egyptian iconography Bast is portrayed as a woman with a cat’s head, but she also existed in the form of a domesticated cat. As the value of cats grew, so did the worship of Bast. Presiding over both women and cats doubtless drew a connection between them, but an important link between Bast and women is liminality.

Many mythological gods and goddesses were liminal, meaning that they walked the line between life and death. Women, ancient and modern and always, have liminality when they give birth. This might suggest an ancient connection between the worship of Bast and the belief in early Europe that owning a cat could bring fertility to a young married couple. The cat would be placed in a cradle and a fertility ritual would be performed, leading later to the popular children’s string game of “cat’s cradle.”

Bast, Artemis and Hecate were linked together as similar goddesses. Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft, was known to have a cat familiar.

This strengthened her connection with Bast. Both Bast and Hecate as trickster liminal goddesses put the feminine in a powerful position. The relationship between cats and witches could easily have something to do with Hecate and her cat familiar. Sadly, in witch-hunts cats have historically been burned alongside their mistresses. If a woman were suspected of witchcraft, owning a cat would place even more suspicion on her.

The image of a trickster seems to have passed from goddesses like Bast and Hecate to cats. Probably the greatest example of a trickster cat is the fairy tale character Puss-in-Boots, who was written up by Charles Perrault in the late 14

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Greco-Roman mythology, but think of Theseus’ wife Phaedra, who desired her stepson Hippolytus. The young man rejected her advances and she angrily tricked Theseus into believing that his son had assaulted her. In response, Theseus killed his son as punishment. In one version of this legend, Phaedra kills herself, driven by grief and guilt. The trickster woman arrives at an unenviable end. Odysseus, on the other hand, is venerated and rewarded for the tricks he pulls on Cyclops and Circe. We could even count Zeus as a trickster. He turns into animals and strange forms (golden rain for Danae’s tower) with the ultimate goal of raping mortal women. These events always turn out well for Zeus.

Not so much for the women.

The reason for men supplanting women in the trickster role is not something I have been able to find a concrete answer to. It is clear that the characters of cats, tricksters, and women are interwoven in mythology. Why the feline evokes the feminine is possibly connected to the debris of myths surrounding characters like Bast and Artemis, goddesses who chose cats and other wild animals to represent themselves. A famous anthropologist, Sherry Ortner, reevaluated gender differences in terms of nature versus culture. Men have been portrayed over time as the conquerors of nature, the spear-headers of culture and civilization. Think of Prometheus and his act of bringing fire to the uncivilized.

Women are cast in the nature role, mingling with the wild and dabbling in the natural order of the world (giving birth, for example.) This is the distinction that Ortner presents us with.

Cats and women have a strong connection in myth and in history. Their affiliation is no surprise, and perhaps the negative connotation sometimes ascribed to the cat-woman relationship might spring from the transference of the trickster role from women to men. There is, as always, more to read and further to delve. With the alteration of religion and the introduction of monotheism, I must wonder if women have lost something innately valuable when Bast made her exit into mythology.

POWER TO THE PUSSY Why should we be afraid or uncomfortable with the word ‘pussy’?

Why is female anatomy thrown about as an insult? Where is the respect?

WORDS BY JESSIE DAHER

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s a writer, linguistics and etymology have long fascinated me. Language is powerful, evoking powers to create, build, reinforce or deconstruct.

Whether it’s in 140 characters online, or in our everyday vernacular, words are the innocuous framework upon which a society hangs.

It makes sense then, that many movements have focused on changing the words people use in order to reframe a social issue. I try to use language in a conscientious way, to use words which convey cultural and gender respect. As a feminist, I think it’s important to take back words, words such as “bitch” and “cunt”, to explore their origins and to vanquish their power. And then, there’s “pussy”.

When I first heard this innocuous term, sometime around middle school, I thought it was a cute and funny word, referring to “pussy cats”, and I giggled at it’s use. It was my 9th grade boyfriend, who noted my lack of slang savvy and undertook to clarify my miscomprehension. Pussy is another word for vagina, of course, and, subsequently, shouldn’t be flung at your male friends, unless you intended to start a fight. I was baffled.

A pussy sounds sound nice, sweet, warm and loving. Why would one not want to be called a pussy? A pussy sounds like it gets stroked, petted, vetted and cooed over all day long. A pussy lounges in the sun and takes luxurious baths. I didn’t exactly understand, even if it did refer to my lady-stuff, why this would be an insulting term to throw at another man. That was the first time it began to dawn on me that men sort of despised lady parts, or at least, that’s how I interpreted this ambivalent and disturbing conversation. If my boyfriend could be so enraged over being called a pussy, and if a pussy was also slang for the equipment I owned…Well, wasn’t he then enraged by what I owned? These were the weird thoughts I harbored as a teenage girl.

ture, the opportunity for saucy entedre was ripe for the picking for the Barrison sisters, or, the vaudeville show that made “pussy” popular.

The Barrison sisters were a risqué vaudeville show composed of five sisters from Denmark. They performed in the United States and in Europe between 1891 and 1900, and it’s possible that we have them to thank for the prolific use of “pussy” in our modern day porno. The Barrison sisters had one act that drove the audience wild. In it, all five sisters would dance on stage, titillating the audience, with skirts raised over the knee, and calling out “Would you like to see my pussy?” By the time the audience had reached a hysterical climax, the sisters would pull their skirts all the way up to reveal…a live, mewing kitten secured over their bloomers. Get it? Pussy=pussy.

In the end, this article has been a gift to me. Because really, you can only type that word so many times before it begins to look as non-sensical as it really is. From a bewildered youth, to a tough, trying-too-hard adolescent, to now, I see that I’ve actually been able to make peace with the pussy. When I really think about it, I think “pussy” is an absurd name for a strong, evocative image.

Female genitals are exciting, expanding-contracting vortexes that bring new beings into the world, and induce mind-shattering physical pleasure. I don’t see pussies as powerless, weak, insubstantial, receptive vessels. Pussies are powerful.

The end.

A pussy sounds like it gets stroked, petted, vetted and cooed over all day long. A pussy lounges in the sun and takes luxurious baths.

”

Later, I took to hanging out with groups of guy friends, and I found myself using the word pussy in jest without a thought. A pussy to me now meant something weak, detestable and cowardly. We dared each other in drinking games and video games, in taking people to bed, and in driving recklessly. You were a pussy if you didn’t keep up, if you didn’t show bravado and group-think.

I wasn’t thinking anymore about pussy’s association with my gender, I just knew it was a great word to use when I wanted to push a guy friend into doing something.

These days, I don’t normally think about, or use, the word “pussy” too often.

It’s a difficult one for me to pull off in any saucy bedroom talk with sincerity, and it’s not a term a mature, twenty-something uses in any other way, in my opinion. In reality, the term still makes me wince just a little, as do most other slang terms for the vagina. It just feels silly to nickname body parts anything other than what they are, to me. Still, if part of empowerment lies in taking possession of that which has been used despairingly, well then I have decided to “get some pussy” back. Here is what I learned through my furtive, coffee shop Google searches and chai latte drinking: Experts believe that the slang term “pussy”, as used in reference to female genatalia, made it’s way to America via the wave of Germanic immigrants to Wisconsin in the 1800s. In Low German, “puse”, (pronounced puss-E), means “vulva”. Meanwhile, the English slang term “pussy”, in reference to soft and furry things like cats, rabbits and affectionate women, was already in use in the American vernacular. What kismet! Within our heterogeneous American cul-

Fun facts about pussy (-cats and otherwise) : •

A group of cats is called a clowder.

•

The plural for vagina is vaginae or vaginas.

•

Adult cats possess 30 teeth. Approximately 40,000 people are bitten by cats in the US annually.

•

Despite the prevalent myth of vagina dentata, (as portrayed by the 2007 comedy-horror movie Teeth), there is no known case of a vagina capable of biting people. (Though vagina detata is a rare occurrence, it’s nothing like it sounds.)

•

Both cats and vaginas are really excellent at self-cleaning.

•

Each vagina has it’s own unique smell, reflecting the PH environment of it’s owner. The same can be said of cats. A cat’s scent is essentially it’s “nametag” to other cats in the area.

•

A cat is made up of 244 bones.

•

Vaginas do not have any bones.

•

The clitoris is composed of 8,000 nerve endings, and is arguably the most sensitive area on the human body.

•

A cat’s whiskers are made up of a large network of nerve endings, making them highly- sensitive, instruments as well!

•

Cats make about 100 different sounds.

•

Vaginas, themselves, do not make distinct noises. (This doesn’t mean however that vagina’s are silent all the time!)

•

There are approximately 73 million cats in the United States.

•

There are approximately 157 million vaginas in the United States.

•

The first cat sent into space was a French cat named Felicette in 1963.

•

The first vagina sent into outer space was also in 1963, and it belonged to a Russian woman named Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova.

FALL TERM: THE RED ZONE The annual Red Zone Campaign brings awareness and discussion surrounding sexual assault to campus, reminding us all the most important safety tip of all: DON’T RAPE WORDS BY GRACE CAROSIO

A

h, the beginning of fall quarter - leaves are turning beautiful shades of yellow, red and orange, the fresh Oregon air turns crisp once again and campus becomes alive with returning students and freshman embarking on their college experiences. As jolly friends reunite and new students set out in search of what college is about, there is often an increase of partying that occurs. Although this can be one of the most exciting times of the year, it can also be dangerous, especially for incoming freshman. The first six weeks of fall term is known as the Red Zone, the time when students are most likely to be sexually assaulted on college campuses. This is due to many different factors such as increased drug and alcohol use, or the fact that students are away from home for the first time and do not have a support system intact. As a preventative measure, the Women’s Center sponsors the Red Zone campaign to raise awareness about the number of sexual assaults that take place on campus each year and to educate students about prevention and safety. Colleges throughout the US promote the Red Zone campaign with speakers, red flags, discussions and various other activities to help educate students and to take a stand against sexual assault as a community.

Most students don’t realize how prevalent sexual assault is on campus, or even what sexual assault looks like in the first place. Based on national statistics, 1 in 4 students are assaulted each year. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that it wasn’t sexual assault because it didn’t happen with a stranger or in a dark alley way when in reality 79 percent of sexual assaults against students are committed by someone the students knows. People also justify sexual assault by blaming it on alcohol. However, legally you can’t consent when you are under the influence of alcohol. Studies show that 55-74 percent of sexual assaults on campuses had alcohol and drugs involved. This year, to raise awareness, the Women’s Center will be placing 2,870 red flags in the memorial quad in front of the Knight Library between October 14th – 18th. Each Flag represents a sexual assault that will take place on campus this year. There will also be posters posted throughout University Housing discussing sexual assault. On October

21st, at the Living Learning Center, Virginia Martin, social justice trainer and feminist sex educator, will be giving a talk about healthy consent starting at 7:00 p.m.

During the school year, it is important to remember safety but also to remember that it is never your fault for being in a sticky situation, or just having fun without always thinking about safety. Our culture likes to make women think that a sexual assault is our fault for neglecting to use the buddy system, drinking others drinks, or dressing “inappropriately.” This is victim blaming and perpetuates rape culture, teaching women not to get raped, instead of teaching people not to rape. So, in hopes of creating a safer campus culture, here are a few things you should always try to practice. Do not invade another’s physical or emotional boundaries. Always listen to what your partner wants during sexual activities, and practice consent even in your relationship. Don’t use violence or power tactics to get what you want. Try to assist your friends when they are intoxicated, and help them get home safely, without taking advantage of them.

And, most importantly, do not sexually assault another person. Also always remembering that Safe Ride is here to help you get home late at night. Their number is (541) 346-7433 (put it in your phone!), and their fall term hours are: Sunday-Thursday 6pm-12 am, and Friday-Saturday 6pm to 2 am.

COASTERS DESIGNED BY PACE TAYLOR

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NINE LIVES NINE LIVES

NINE LIVES NINE LIVES NINE LIVES NINE LIVES NINE LIVES NINE LIVES NINE LIVES WORDS BY MARIKA THEOFELIS

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College hook up culture through the eyes of a UO senior

hile I may not be a cat person, I have found as a young adult that we in fact share a few characteristics-I seem to always land on my feet, and I too have nine figurative lives. I am a young multi-faceted woman who feels societal pressure to keep up successfully with all aspects of my person. I am a daughter, sister, friend, dancer, student, roommate, employee, an independent, and a love interest. I have all these different personas that require different impressions to make and all these different sides of me that are equally important to my person as a whole, yet I find that so often in my life most partners my age are only interested in one of them--my love life.

More specifically, my sex life. So often I find that those who show interest in my family life, dance life, friend life, are really just pretending to care in order to become part of my sexual life.

In college hook-up culture, there is a trend of dismissing eight of a person’s lives in order to exploit the one sexual life for the purpose of non-committal, casual sex. It started as being uncool to want more than sex with a partner, and now has evolved into an actual fear of commitment for most young people, and in my experience, especially most young men. While on the prowl for their next partner, many seem to be only looking for a sex partner and usually one that lasts as long as a weekend at best.

For me personally, I would rather someone take time to get invested in my first eight lives and really work to be in my ninth life, but when guys find out it takes more than a few whiskey and cokes they usually run like I am a black cat crossing their path. I worry that more people, including myself, feel degraded by the emphasis of their sexuality and lack of attention on their person as a whole, but they don’t know how to change it, so they feed into the culture of casual sex and only perpetuate the pattern that much more.

My hope is that by standing strong and fighting for all nine of a person’s life, we can begin to alter the cultural expectation of casual sex and start making these dogs bark a little longer before catching us kitties. If we trust that we always will land on our feet, there is no reason why we can’t begin to encourage

a new social habit of investing in people as a whole and all the lives they have to offer, and not just their sexual life.

I myself have enjoyed many casual hook ups; they’re a big part of being young, and owning and exploring your sexuality. However, I worry that hit-it-and-quit-its have taken precedence over other ways of dating in college hook-up culture.

Even more worrisome is the idea that this fear of commitment is instilled in young men by a culture that has created very limiting ideas of what it means to be a masculine identifying person.

Even more concerning to me as a young person, is that this fear of commitment so many of us share is actually instilled in us by a culture that values independence over building deep relationships. We seem to define success for masculinity as how many women he can shag, but for women it is defined by the one man she can be perfect enough for in order to settle him down. This is not only ridiculous but I know for me, has been an expectation that I have gotten locked into that has lead me to a dead end in many relationships. In order to deal with escaping these expectations, it seems to be the most popular and easiest way to just keep things casual and therefore not deal with any of it. However the problem with this tactic, is purely that things catch up to you eventually and after picking guys that can’t seem to settle down, in order to play into your cultural role, you find yourself crying over too many bad boys that aren’t ready to give up their ways. There comes a time when we need to really look at our cultural expectation and begin to stand up against the social norm.

We need to make it okay to play a different dating game and if a casual hook up is what you need that night, making that okay and great but not the only option for every night or every partner.

DON’T BURN YOUR BRA! WRITE/ILLUSTRATE/ PHOTOGRAPH/DESIGN

FOR THE SIREN. EMAIL SIRENWC@GMAIL.COM

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I WAS A MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL

SORRY! THIS ARTICLE WAS REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION, BUT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR OUR ONLINE ISSUE. TO READ LAURIE PENNY’S ARTICLE ON THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL TROPE, GO TO NEWSTATESMAN.COM

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CATS , Felines, K ITTIES , Mousers, PUSSIES , Friends.

PICTURES OF CATS,

BY CARLI BARNUM AND LAETITIA BERAUD. A special thanks to: Bucket, Lentil, Gibson Les Paul Barnum, and Heart ‘Mama Kitty’ Barnum 20

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RIGHT: PHOTO BY CARLI BARNUM BOTTOM: PHOTO BY LAETITIA BERAUD

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PHOTOS BY LAETITIA BERAUD

“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”

-Hippolyte Taine

PHOTOS BY CARLI BARNUM

OkKitteh

WHERE CATS GO TO FIND LOVE AND OTHER THINGS

Whether they’re looking for love or mere companionship, these humans want their kitties getting out and about, sharing their moxie with the world.

WORDS BY CASEY DROBNICK

ISIS, 1 YEAR OLD

This young lady cat caught the eye of her owner with her constant tail wagging and beautiful striped coat. She is frequently caught acting out the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet with the tom cats of the neighborhood, who pace beneath her window.

Isis likes to keep those around her on their toes, by bopping other cats on the rear when they are unaware, or attacking the feet of her owner (that’s me!) from under the bed. Her weekends entail being danced around the kitchen and smothered with love by her owners.

PHOTO BY SHIRA EINSTEIN

BLUEBERRY, 19 YEARS OLD

This silver fox loves to kick back with catnip while playing chess with his owner, Bianca. When asked if he was looking for a mate, Blueberry responded simply with an affirmative “Meow.” (Disclaimer: Blueberry is neutered, but his owner asks that you not to talk to him about it, as it is a sore subject.) While conversing about the meaning of life with his owner, Blueberry often drools to make his point more potent. This kitteh is a Russian Blue, and although some of his human friends playfully refer to him as “Greyberry,” his beautiful fur is indeed a bit blue.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY BIANCA BISSON

KEIMEOW, 3 MONTHS OLD

This little one often acts much like a puppy, rather than a kitten.

She loves to play fetch, sometimes even ends panting and licking the face of her owner, Faith. The blonde tabby cat has lovingly gained the nickname “Chunky Lemon” and recently ate her first fly. Chunky Lemon loves to pass her days sitting on warm laundry piles and attacking clothes while they are being folded. She also attacks the faces of other cats, and for that reason doesn’t seem to be looking for a mate currently, not to mention her protective owner-mamas won’t allow it.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY FAITH GERHART

EINSTEIN, 5 YEARS OLD

This male kitteh will be moving from California in December, and wants to meet new friends in Eugene to snuggle with during movie nights. Although his owner, Shona, does not want him to date as she likes to keep spend her free time with him. Einstein can be described having a “charming personality,” although he does have a mischievous side when he wakes up Shona by swatting her in the forehead. Einstein is afraid of the great outdoors, but he does enjoy expelling his energy while on a leash tied to the lawn sprinkler. Although, sometimes running up and down the stairs at high speeds will suffice.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY SHONA KERRICK

“

She is frequently caught acting out the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet with the tom cats of the neighborhood. the siren

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RACISM ISN’T CUTE

This Halloween, let’s keep Cultural Appropriation out of the conversation, and focus more on who has the best stocking cap masks to resemble Pussy Riot or the best Hillary Clinton pant suit. Or better yet, be like this cat, and put on a pumpkin costume.

WORDS BY CHELSEA PFEIFER

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h, Halloween. This is a time for many (including myself) to get really drunk and dress in clever albeit ridiculous ways. To quote a movie of great relevance and importance, “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” (Mean Girls 2004)That being said, I’m sure we’ll see our fair share of sexy kittens/bunnies/mice as well as classic occupations like nurses and police officers. Of course, there’s something wonderfully freeing about dressing any sort of way for Halloween, though unfortunately it seems (and I might be wrong) that feminine-presenting folks are under different pressures to look good in costumes, and don’t always get away with the goofy, no-effort approach that masculine-presenting people can.

That isn’t to say we won’t see some of our avidly feminist friends pull off Rosie the Riveter or an obscure tough female TV character, or even catch a glimpse of some popular meme references, super heroes/heroines, and video game characters. Halloween is a time to either engage in political and social commentary, or completely disregard it.

Unfortunately, the latter means we’ll be seeing a whole lot of white people wearing sombreros and feathers on their heads.

Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than walking into a Halloween party filled with “Indians”, “gypsies”, and a 50’s house-wife with a black eye (true story- Oct 2012). Needless to say, none of the attendees at this particular party appeared to be referencing their own lineage nor seemed to notice what could possibly be wrong with dressing the part of a Native American, Gypsy or survivor of domestic violence.

For those of us who have had the blissful privilege of not recognizing how upsetting this is, perhaps we should read up on Cultural Appropriation.

According to Jessica Metcalfe’s definition in The Guardian, Cultural Appropriation is “a place where one culture (most often one that has an historical record of oppressing other cultures) engages in the unauthorized taking of some aspects of another (most often a minority) culture.” Ripping off other cultures’ traditional clothing and general physical presentation is damaging because 26

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it exaggerates stereotypes and perpetuates a power dynamic that places one cultural/racial identity over another. So for example, when a non-Arab goes out dressed as an Arab Muslim Terrorist, it’s not only offensive but replicates the notion that all Arab Muslims are dangerous, anti-American and inferior to white Americans.

This is true for people who dress in any sort of way that indicates they are making a cultural identity into a costume. While some identities seem to be more off-limits than others (i.e. black face), it still does happen and people still don’t think about the statement they’re making by co-opting such presentation.

I feel like this phenomenon is especially true on college campuses, and often at the expense of First Nation/American Indian cultures. This is incredibly frustrating seeing as these cultures are consistently historicized as people who only lived hundreds of years ago, and often still appropriated as sports team mascots.

Although perhaps seemingly benign, Halloween costume choices are important and speak a lot to where we are politically as a society. The presence of appropriated costumes is evidence of engrained racism, and proof that we are in no way a “post-racial” nation.

In addition, the Halloween marketing of sexy costumes almost exclusively to female-presenting people is evidence of a patriarchal society that prioritizes a straight male gaze. We should all feel free to dress however we want without inhibiting or exhibiting ourselves for the sake of expectations.

So on this probably rainy October Eve, I encourage you to dress however the hell you want as long as it’s not as another race, ethnicity, survivor of abuse, or because you feel pressured to look sexy (unless you want to try on that kitten costume- then you absolutely should). There are so many creative things you can be for Halloween, and “ignorant asshole” is getting a little old.

ANIMAL FRIENDLY

FROZEN COCOA HEARTS RECIPE WORDS AND RECIPE BY CIRCE BOTA

The choice to live an animal cruelty free lifestyle is relevant to ones awareness around anti-oppression because animals are one of the least represented and oppressed groups. Viewing animals as inherently created for the benefit of another specie is Specieism (discussed further in “ANOTHER BRANCH OF FEMINISM” on page 10); it is similar to discrimination such as racism, ableism, or heterosexism. Veganism and feminism tie together in a very direct way, as feminism is the advocacy for all women not solely limited to humans. Recognizing the link between different underrepresented communities as they connect and relate to each other is called intersectionality. It’s a helpful tool to allow perspective, growth and change, especially towards animals as they cannot advocate for themselves. Below is the recipe for a sweet simple ice cream bar.

Soak 3-4 Medjool dates in warm water for a few

minutes. Remove pit. Roughly chop.

In your high speed blender, add 1 cup of raw cashews

Add in 1/4 cup of warm water, and blend (depending on your blender,

you may need to add more warm water).

Add in your dates, 3 tbsp of raw cocoa powder, (or any unsweetened cocoa powder will do),

Finish it off with 20 drops of Vanilla NuNaturals NuStevia After combining all the items above in the blender, blend until a thick paste. Scoop into heart shaped pan or

ice cube tray and allow it to sit for 1-2 hours in the freezer. Pop them out with a knife and enjoy.

STEP 1 2 3

4 5 6

CAT WISDOM, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 TO: By going with the flow you will follow your path a little bit better and then you can honor what you are about. If you are somebody who is intuitive, it doesn’t mean you have to be a psychic for a living. You surely can be a better mother as an intuitive person, you can be a better husband as an intuitive person, you can be a better neighbor as an intuitive person. Somebody who listens from the heart is simply someone who is just more present and loving and conscious. To ignore your gifts can really be to shut your heart down. And there are many people that consciously shut their gifts down because they scare them, whether they quite realize what their gifts are. They feel different like myself as a teenager. I decided I was a freak. Nobody else was talking about hearing their dog and cats and birds in the sky. I heard so much stuff that I had to shut it down.

EM: What did you do when you couldn’t handle your gift?

TO: I consciously shut it down with alcohol and drugs. And it worked. You can numb yourself out. There are so many people are numbing themselves out.

That doesn’t mean that they are just numbing themselves out from intuitive abilities but they’re numbing themselves out because they don’t truly know how to really be on their path and follow their journey and honor their heart. My guidance would be to honor your heart. Whatever you believe in God, or Buddha, or the angels or the universe or the Goddess to me it’s all the same power and it lives within all of us. They aren’t going to let us go astray. They are going to guide us -- whoever they is.

Ignoring your gifts often means poor self-care. Pushing it away with nonloving things such as alcohol, drugs and self-hatred . Honoring our gifts is so much more whole. And our animals know if we not loving ourselves. Our animals are here to help us love ourselves more. They want us to honor our gifts more. A lot of my clients become students not because they want to be animal communicators but because they want to honor their animals by saying I will listen to my heart more. And so the animals are the teachers. They help open people up and then they go out and become better doctors and dentists, librarians and school teachers because they are in their hearts more -- not because they are supposed to become psychics.

EM: Where do you see a need for this work the most?

TO: My vision for the future is that someday all medical facilities for animals will include some form of animal communication. Ideally I would love to see

animal communicators on staff or have the staff trained. In just over the past 20 years since I have been doing this I have had veterinarians take my classes, I have a lot of groomers and vet assistants, a lot of people who are helping with and working with animals already are now realizing if I could understand the animals a little differently and have them understand that I’m not going to hurt them and I’m going to help them then every vet experience could go so much better. No because the animal communicators are supposed to stand next to the doctors and diagnose, but if they could help the animal understand why the doctor needs to poke them and prod them or why mom is standing there crying when she just got the news they have cancer. It means the animals can be included in the conversation instead of trying to grasp something no one is talking to you about directly. It’s like being a kid in a room of adults and you kind of know what they are talking about. And you are trying to figure it out a little bit. You can tell somebody over there is upset or somebody over there is really happy but you feel lost because you don’t know what it all means and you can’t put it all together. I feel like that’s what the animals often feel. So the role of the animal communicator is to keep them included and to help them understand what is going on and then to be a voice for them so they can help empower people and bring their talents and gifts forward.

EM: You have probably talked with numerous cats over the years. Based on your experience, do you have any general recommendations for cat owners out there about improving their relationships with their cat, keeping their cat happy, and understanding their cat?

TO: One of the things that animals wish their people would do more often is they wish they would take better care of themselves and quit worrying so much about the animals. So one question they might like a person to ask is “What can I (the human) do more for me (the human) that will help you as my animal companion?” We are over-giving a lot of the time. Many people are busy caring for their animals, being good to their animals. They live for the animals and they are not taking equal care of themselves and the animals can feel that.

And that’s out of balance and it hard for them to receive the love and the care if they are not seeing the humans duplicate that for themselves. So they often wish the humans were asking “What would I do more for myself that would make you happy as my cat?” the siren

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CAT WOMAN

SEXUAL OBJECT OR SEXY ICON?

How the superhero’s image has changed over the years, and what that means for her influence with future generations WORDS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY ELLEN ROJC

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o feminist cat issue would be complete without addressing the infamous feline icon that is Catwoman. Since her first appearance in a 1940 edition of the original Batman comic to her most recent appearance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, Catwoman has continued to use her feminine wiles to induce people, primarily men, to get what she wants. This brings us to the question: Does her sexual power give her agency, or is she merely a sexual object created for the male gaze? The answer probably lies somewhere in the gray area between these two arguments. Over the past 70 years visual artists, film directors, costume designers and writers have striven to represent different ideas of femininity that have morphed the character of Catwoman.

Catwoman, also known by her real identity Selina Kyle, has appeared in comic book series, animated television shows and live-action films alongside her nemesis and sometimes lover, Batman. While Catwoman is primarily portrayed as a morally ambiguous burglar and jewelry thief, canonically, she never commits crimes to the extent of her fellow Batman universe villains, like the Joker. Possibly in an effort to keep her character available as a love interest to Batman, writers have dulled Catwoman’s villainy.

In 1993, after a brief mini series in 1989, Catwoman was finally given her first ongoing comic book series. Perhaps this marked the transition of Catwoman in readers’ eyes from the enemy/love interest of Batman to an independent protagonist. Catwoman has gained a cult following from female and male viewers alike, serving as both a sex symbol and a sexy inspiration. However, like most female characters in mainstream media, Catwoman has appeared frequently as a slim yet well-endowed woman in accordance with media’s standard for the ideal female figure.

On a positive note, one triumph Catwoman has to her credit is her portrayal by actresses of color: Eartha Kitt in the 1968 live-action Batman TV series and Halle Berry in the 2004 Catwoman film. Pitof Comar directed the only film to date in which Catwoman is the titular character. I was partially impressed by Comar’s gender reversal of the traditional male centric superhero plotline. Catwoman begins as a timid young woman, an artist who does seem to have much agency in her own life. A series of events leads up to her literally being dropped into a vat of toxic waste, after which she is revived as a ‘Catwoman’ by a group of supernatural street cats. The costume department created a very revealing skintight black suit for her to create a dominatrix appeal, but Berry’s Catwoman remained the agent of her sexual expression throughout the movie.

However, the common consensus of the audience for this film was negative. The film only has a 9/100 rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 3.7/10 rating on imdb.com. I would attribute this low rating to the inability of a large number of today’s audience to accept a female superhero figure as the main character in a film. Off the top of my head I cannot even name another superhero film whose protagonist is a female. Female action heroes like Zoe Saldana in Colombiana (2011) and Angelina Jolie in Salt (2011) do appear occasionally on the silver screen, but women of action and agency rarely make appearances in the recent chain of superhero films that have been released in the last decade.

More common in films of the 2010’s seems to be the presence of a supporting action female role such as Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow in The Avengers (2012). Black Widow’s presence is peripheral to the main plot. In Christopher Nolan’s 2012 The Dark Knight Rises Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman serves as a similar peripheral female role. She is neither the main villain nor the only love interest of Batman. However, her morality is ambiguous and her fighting skills are substantial, creating a dynamic element to her character. Yet, Catwoman only seems to appear when Nolan needs some sexy humor, or someone to help Batman out of sticky situations. Batman is on his own mission independent of Catwoman and in the end; Marion Cotillard’s character Talia A-Guild steals the show as the unpredictable woman villain

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CAT WOMAN, CONTINUED of the film, leaving Catwoman to heal Batman’s confusion. Hathaway is powerful, but marginalized in this most recent rendition of Catwoman’s character. She is less sexualized than her 20th century renditions, but she remains bound by male direction. I have confidence that Catwoman has the capacity to emerge as a fully empowered and

representative female figure. Hopefully, if talks about the Catwoman spin-off film starring Anne Hathaway are successful, the next generation will have an empowered female superhero to look up to. Unless of

CATWINGS WORDS BY JESSIE DAHER

“What if kittens could fly?”

This is the question Ursula K Le Guin ponders in her children’s series, Catwings. Catwings #1, published in 1988, features a litter of four wingedkittens, (Harriet, James, Roger, and Thelma. (These flying felines are born in the “bad” city to a Mrs. Jane Tabby, Overwhelmed by the dangers around her, oMrs. Tabby commands her precious progeny to fly away.

The little kittens head for the countryside. Unfortunately, our tunaeating protagonists invoke distrust and suspicion from all the creatures they encounter, climaxing with a paranoid Mother Owl attacking James, and stalking the kitten nest. Luckily, Harriet makes friends with a human child, Susan, and the kittens are soon taken in to live in Susan’s barn. The End. Allegedly, this is a simple, sweet story for kiddos, comprised of subtle prose and vivid feline imagery. And sure, it’s possible that that’s all this series is about.

Yet when I read Catwings, I can’t help but hear undertones of abandonment, insecurity and rescuing. The author writes of existential uncertainty and universal fears, “They knew they had come to a much better place than the alley. But

they also knew every place was dangerous, whether you are a fish, or a cat, or a cat with wings.” Perhaps I’m too familiar with Le Guin’s writing in the genre of science fiction, and so I was eerily waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for the familiar and blasé to turn unfamiliar and haunted. Perhaps this story simply hit too close to home for a girl who was herself raised in a “bad” city, (known as Detroit), before being abruptly moved to the Midwest countryside. Whatever my biases, I can’t help but think that Catwings hints at a deeper life truth, one that Le Guin believes children should be aware of from the start. Even if that truth is just that life is hard for a mother and her kittens in the big, bad city.

IN SEARCH OF CLEO

The story of Gina Gerson’s crazy, hilarious, and deeply emotional search for her beloved cat

WORDS BY ANNA

T

he first thing that drew me to this book was the title. I think it’s one of the most perfect, attention grabbing titles I’ve seen, and I automatically had mad respect for Gina Gershon even though

I didn’t know exactly who she was.

Even more perfect is the fact that the title conveys the story to a T. Gershon loses her cat in the first couple pages, and *SPOILER ALERT* she ends up finding him 150 pages later, but in the process she really does lose her mind. In the funniest and strangest string of events.

To start, I noticed right off that this book would be a lot like “Bossy Pants” by Tina Fey in the same train-of-thought, casual relationship between author and reader style. As soon as she loses her cat, Cleo, she begins this obsessive mission to find him. It’s quickly apparent that she will do anything to find her beloved Cleo, and aside from murder

or robbing a bank, she basically does. She starts off with the ordinary “Missing Cat” posters around her neighborhood, but that wasn’t enough. She wanders about her portion of Los Angeles every morning at 4 am, does radio announcements, and fits a snippet about Cleo into her TV appearances. She and her friends made shirts, and pretty soon it becomes like a “Find Cleo Campaign 2012.”

As the story progresses and her search takes intricate and almost unbelievable avenues, she also tells a lot of her own history—her dreams, her childhood, her past loves (both men and cats), and her trips to the dentist’s office (both physically and mentally). She meets some truly interesting characters, each as colorful as the next, tries to find the answer to Cleo’s whereabouts through spirituality, and contacts a pet psychic who was referred to her by Ellen DeGeneres.

It’s a really simple read, and sometimes a confusing trail of stories, but you could assume this to be intentional because that’s what this experience was for Gershon—extremely confusing. There were times I laughed out loud and in disbelief, and in the end I was completely touched. As many crazy stories as she tells along the way, one thing is certain every step—Gina Gershon loves her pussy. the siren

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CAT TAILS WORDS BY JULIA RILEY

There once was a cat so happy and fat it ate with a palpable joy. But the kittens did tease til she felt ill at ease.

Now what do you think of that?

There’s a sleek Siamese, who does as she please her favorite is chasing good string.

But the Tabbies would say: “Only Tabbies can play!”

Now what do you think of these?

There’s a quite fluffy kitten, who’s friendly and smitten she follows a tom cat all day.

But he hisses and sneers, cause she doesn’t use sheers.

What say you to what I have written?

She has beautiful fur, love to prance and to purr but her sister cats call her a strumpet.

But she refuses to hide, and flicks her tail with pride.

Now what do you think of her?

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COME OUT, COME OUT, WHENEVER YOU’RE READY WORDS BY NINA NOLEN

T

here is nothing more confusing than coming out. There is rarely a way to predict how it will disturb the waters of your microcosm. And Dan Savage will tell you, “Come out, come out wherever you are! You’ll feel so much better when you tell everyone that you’re not heterosexual! Once they know a gay person they will be nicer to gay people everywhere!”

Let’s make one thing crystal goddamn clear: you do not owe your sexuality or your gender to anyone. Not your mother, brother, boss, professor, or the barista down the street. You do not need to come out to teach them to be better people. Once you come out the world will demand to be educated by you every day.

Today is not that day, caterpillar. You’re still in your cocoon; the membranes of the wings of your sexuality and gender expression are still tenderly forming. Soon, you will break out of the shell of heterosexuality and/or your assigned gender and amaze the world with the identity so carefully crafted.

There will be small cracks in the shell at first; Laying drunk in bed with your masculine partner, his arms wrapped around you as you face the wall. Your voice will catch in your throat, “I think I’m also into girls.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

And then bigger ones: Sitting in class, a classmate turns to you and says smiling, “It’s so nice to not be the only queer person in this room.”

Sometimes it will be painful, Eating lunch with your best friend, “Um, I think I’m queer.” “...No, you’re not.”

“What?”

“You’ve only dated men. You’re just looking for attention.”

And sometimes, my dear, you will have to shrink back in to your shell to survive because the world isn’t ready for your greatness, At a party to celebrate your graduation, “You didn’t win that award because you’re straight, right?”

“I guess so, Dad.” One day, my darling, you will be safe and you will be loved. Your queerness will be celebrated, honored, and so essential to your life that you can’t even imagine how the pretending worked. Don’t compare your journey to anyone else’s; you have done your best within your own struggle.

No matter where you are, I’m proud of you. the siren

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