no.46 - Siamese Cat

Perhaps, like me, you recall that feeling of being in a darkened theater, watching Lady and the Tramp, when suddenly, to the borderline racist sound of a gong, two evil Siamese Cat's appear.

It gave me an awful, slow, sinking feeling, telegraphed by the none too subtle evil eyes and house full of shadows. Those cats were going to be awful. I would not travel to Siam!

I had seen far worse in films - shootings, exploding cars, vampires with crooked teeth, but even at four or five years old I was able to surmise two creepy cats seemed much more like something I might run across than Christopher Lee.

My father always had a distinct dislike of cats and these cartoon twins seemed to reveal that there might be more to it than itchy eyes. (Some of us wondered if those allergies were even real.)

"We are Siamese if you don't please."

That's confidence. Those two cats don't care. Watch them closely and you will see they lack all empathy. They are sociopaths, prepared to ruin Lady's life because it is fun and it serves them.

In the years since I first saw Lady and the Tramp I have met many cats with many different types of mental illnesses. (Though all of them seem to me to be at least a little mentally ill.) But Disney has left me with a subtle but distinct prejudice against this sleek little breed.

I know this is a trifle. It hardly matters. How often does one come across a Siamese cat? But it does give me pause, wondering what effect other portrayals might have had, not only on myself, but on others. There are far worse prejudices than those against a sleek cat and there have been portrayals both subtle and not that may be working back there to poison us. Like the flavor of a bad mango they do not go easily away.