Arcadia University student Abby Worthington recently published “The History Of The Crazy Cat Lady” in StudyBreaks.com, a popular college-centric online forum.

The article includes ancient Egypt’s usage of cats as symbols of divinity and protection, a 13th century pope that connected cats to witchcraft, and Victorian-era cat-owning “old maids.”

The article goes on to outline the health benefits of the feline-human bond, why cats tend to gravitate toward women, and a debasing of the “crazy cat lady” stereotype.

From the article:

Portraying women as eccentric or lonely because they enjoy spending time with cats only functions as an outdated, misogynistic endeavor to mock their interests. Throughout history, those in power have altered the perception of women and their connection to cats to serve their own agendas. These perceptions are full of contradictions — women and cats are both seductive yet solitary, demonic yet domestic — that demonstrate the inability of those who wield this stereotype to solidify the message they want to project about either cats or women. Embracing cats and women in all of their complexities, as well as enjoying hilariously cute online cat content, is surely the best way forward.

For the full article, you can click here.

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Illustration by Natalia Chow, Sarah Lawrence College