Stereotypes

When anthropomorphising an animal there are stereotypical traits which commonly tend to be associated with particular species. Often these are simply exaggerations of real aspects or behaviors of the creature in question, while other times the stereotype is taken from mythology and replaces any observation-based judgment of that animal's behavior. Some are popularized or solidified by a single particularly notable appearance in media. For example, Disney's 1942 film Bambi portrays the titular deer as an innocent, fragile animal. In any case, once they have entered the culture as widely recognized stereotypes of animals, they tend to be used both in conversation and media as a kind of shorthand for expressing particular qualities.

While some authors make use of these animal stereotypes "as is", others undermine reader expectations by reversing them, developing the animal character in contrasting ways to foil expectations or create amusement, like a fastidious pig or a cowardly lion.

Some modern stereotypes of animals have a long tradition dating back to Aesop's Fables, which draw upon sources that include ancient Egyptian animal tales. Aesop's stereotypes were so deeply ingrained by the time of Apollonius of Tyana that they were accepted as representative of the various types of animals' "true" natures.

And there is another charm about him, namely, that he puts animals in a pleasing light and makes them interesting to mankind. For after being brought up from childhood with these stories, and after being as it were nursed by them from babyhood, we acquire certain opinions of the several animals and think of some of them as royal animals, of others as silly, of others as witty, and others as innocent. Many animal stereotypes reflect anthropomorphic notions unrelated to animals' true behaviors. Carnivores, for instance, will be viewed as antagonists and their prey as the underdogs. Thus, while a shark feeds as nature intends, in folklore the shark tends to be stereotyped as "cruel", implying a conscious choice to inflict pain. Some stereotypes are based on mistaken or grossly oversimplified impressions; spotted hyenas, for example, commonly portrayed as cowardly scavengers, are efficient pack hunters with complex social structures.

Many misconceptions about animals were born out of ignorance. Due to a lack of biological research people were scared of certain species of whom they knew very little, apart from urban legends or occasional attacks that led to human deaths. Others were considered to be dangerous, merely because of their frightening appearance. This has led some animals to be portrayed as monsters, such as spiders, snakes, crocodiles, wolves, bats, rhinoceroses, gorillas, lions, tigers, bears, eagles, hawks, vultures, piranhas, sharks, whales, scorpions, etc.

The depiction of them as "monsters" is another example of oversimplification. Animals just follow their natural instincts and are not out to attack people, unless they happen to feel threatened and are in a position where they can't easily get away. Even predators will only possibly attack when hungry or to protect their offspring. In most cases animals are far more scared of people than the other way around and will likely run away.

In the opposite direction several animals who have a non-threatening appearance and actually look cute, cuddly, graceful and playful are often portrayed as adorable: rabbits, dogs, mice, kittens, sheep, seals, dolphins, chipmunks, monkeys, ladybugs, butterflies. Various pet owners tend to treat their pets almost as if they are toys or cute little babies. Once again, this is a serious oversimplification. Monkeys, for instance, may appear to be harmless, but like all animals can return to their natural instincts when people least suspect it and bite.

Despite these considerations, the use of animal stereotypes (the same goes to stereotypes of machinery in real life and fiction) are generally much less problematic than it is for human stereotypes.

This is what my brother Scotty used in his animation project, I don’t remember what it was called, but I do remember being weirded out by it and it gave me this…this, unescapable dread and malice. Keep in mind, this is Lost Episode related, most notably a college project in animation.

We graduated from high school and came to The Art Institute of Hollywood, California, a campus of Argosy University, and a nonprofit institution with programs in design, fashion, media arts, and culinary. Me and Scotty were good at film and production and became famous for our quote-on-quote, “Works of Art”. But on a Friday evening, I can hear Scotty and some friends of his work on his new project, he couldn’t tell me what it is, saying that it’s a surprise. When it’s time to show our finished projects to the class, I came to show my animation project on an old folktale (that being TailyPo), then it was Scotty’s turn. I was going to get a chance to see his project and felt excitement, and confidence for my brother as the film started on a projector, and it flashed on a screen.

When the film started, I noticed the animation. It resembled the same exact CGI animation as the Disney movie Bolt, but (like I described above) it featured anthropomorphic animals wearing human clothing. It’s kind of like the game Night in the Woods, but strangely enough, the characters behaved like real people. And when I say, ‘behaved like real people’, I mean like when they walk down the street or drive in vehicles, their faces were blank and would turn their heads to the side or something, like you and I would occasionally do.

I was impressed.

It starred a slender, sly and clever black cat named Derek, a vicious and muscular Doberman named Bill, a quiet and small white mouse named Jeremy, and a joyful, beautiful, elegant bird named Melody. Derek was seen walking down the city sidewalk and looked… a bit morbid. Whenever he sees small critters, he would quickly look away and told himself to ‘just keep walking’ and ‘remember his karma’. He looked as if he didn’t want to kill and eat them, knowing that, that would be cannibalism or something. And no matter where Derek went, there would be scenes where they think Derek would kill infants by sucking their breath, which is impossible as cats cannot fully close their lips. However, unlucky black cats are mostly a superstition found in Catholic countries. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Asia black cats are seen as bringers of good luck. There was even a turkey dressed as a preacher yelling at him, calling him a sinner bastard destined for Hell. Yes, there were words in this animation project like: faggot, fuck, ass, damn, shit, and piss.

Like I said before, it represented real life.

They even had strip clubs, local biker bars, drug stores and video stores featuring films that are rated-X. Derek sees a possum dressed as a homeless man being thrown out of a bar and cussed to himself. He was drunk like a skunk and just glared at Derek as he guzzled down the bottle of beer.

“The King of Hell solutes you!” He says in a deep, grizzled voice, an intoxicated smirk spread across his pink, furry lips.

Derek asks, “Why is everybody here telling me that I’m back luck, have I ever been brought shame to people?”

The possum-man just looks at him with that ‘really, motherfucker?’ face, “Look, kid, like that old saying goes: One man's toxic sludge is another man's potpourri! Now, I’m not saying your ‘bad luck’, I’m saying that your…well, I don’t want to sound rude but… Witches have always liked cats. Sure, they’ve been known to hang out with a wide variety of creatures, including lambs, hornets and crabs. But felines are their favorite consorts, according to an academic analysis that tallied up animal ‘familiars’ from 200 historic English witch trials. Is anybody really surprised? The hags from Macbeth didn’t dunk their ‘brinded’ cat in the cauldron with the newt’s eye and dog tongue – they preferred to keep it alive and meowing. In America’s Salem-era scares, witches made their child victims ‘purr like so many cats’ (which, many parents might concede, is a far more melodious alternative to normal kid noise). Today, cats – especially black ones like yourself – still pounce upon us at Halloween time, in costumes and décor.”

Derek didn’t know what he was talking about, so he asked, “W-what do you mean?”

The possum-man then said, “Okay, here’s where the bus stops. The glow at night is not the most unsettling thing about cats’ eyes. Unlike tigers and jaguars and other big cats, house cats (like you) have vertically slit pupils, right? A common feature among small nocturnal predators that hunt close to the ground. What else has vertically slit pupils and occasionally hisses? The serpent. And who made his first biblical appearance as a snake? Satan.”

Derek’s face then shifted into that of dread, and took a few steps away, “…. Oh my god….”

“Now, now. I know this may come as a shock but, it was all because of Pope Gregory IX’s ‘Vox in Rama,’ a warning against the perils of witchcraft, accusing its targets of canoodling with a black cat that was actually Lucifer in disguise. Although the pope also decried frogs and ducks, anti-feline prejudice quickly swept the church. Cats were burned and hurled from bell towers – a practice that is supposedly memorialized today in a bizarre annual festival in Ypres, Belgium.”

“So… It all started, with Christians?”

“It all started with Christians.”

I couldn’t believe what I was watching, I completely felt something the same thing Derek felt: Sadness, Hopelessness, Worthlessness, Betrayal, Loss of Interest, and automatic Anger and Frustration towards society.

“My- whole life is a lie.” Derek said. “I went to school, I went to church, I played soccer, I learned about sharing and caring and playing as a kitten, but…” He pauses.

He remembered an incident where he mauled and ate a rat one time, even though it wasn’t shown, he did explain it in gory detail. Now, Cats are quite anti-social animals in human eyes, preferring to go out and mind their own business. Since cats hunt mice, a much smaller animal, humans' sympathy has always gone to the mouse rather than the cat, despite mice being considered vermin by most people. A cruel game where the hunter teases his victim before finally striking him is called a "cat-and-mouse game" in many languages. The concept is based on the behavior that real cats often display before killing their prey and which is often misunderstood as cruel torture. In reality it's just an instinctive imperative to make sure their prey is weak enough to be killed. It’s just how it goes. In this animated film, however, it was considered “Cannibalism”, and a cat would be arrested and either thrown in prison, or be executed in the electric chair, or by lethal injection.

Later on, in the film, Derek meets Bill and Jeremy, they have their fair share of conversations, then Derek meets up with his old friend, Melody, who works at a Jazz club as a stage singer. Derek then had a nightmare, he was in complete darkness surrounded by voices, they were saying stuff like: “You are powerless over me!” “You can not lay a hand on me!” “Get thee behind me, you demon!”

He started to fall back and crawl backwards, breathing heavily and crying. To be quite honest, I couldn’t blame him. He didn’t want this, no body does! This was psychological torture, I mean, I know Scotty was into horror during our times in high school, but… What the fuck, honestly?!

Derek then woke up, and realized he was crying in his sleep. He then sniffled a few times as he got up, wiped the tears in his eyes, and looked out the window and at the lit city. He tried to calm himself down, and decided, fuck it, let those bastards have their fun.

The next day, Jeremy called Derek and told him to meet him at Lover’s Lane around 8:15 PM. As he did so, he asked, “What’s up?”

“Uuuh…Derek? Um, I got a confession to make.”

Derek then asked if it was about his sex life or something, which got a laugh out of me. But I stopped laughing when Jeremy just flat-out said as he cringed in guilt, “I remembered your conversation with me about cats being evil and shit.”

“Yeah?”

“Well….” Jeremy gulped and clinched his eyes shut and bared his teeth, he was having guilt build up inside of him. “I did it, no we did it!”

“Did what?” Derek asked in confusion, he didn’t know what is making Jeremy so paranoid.

“We blamed you, it was the dogs’ fault, they want us to pin the blame on cats, just for the sake of getting even with you!”

Derek’s eyes grew in shock, “WHAT?! I… Why would you do that?!”

“The dogs knew our weakness, we were just tired of being the prey all the time! We wanted revenge! But I didn’t know everyone would go nuts over it! For years those motherfuckers had to keep us quiet, so that we wouldn’t tell anyone about it, make this our little secret! I-I’m sorry if I ever meant to hurt you, I’m so sorry!”

I looked, and saw my classmates eye the screen in shock and guilt over Derek. Jeremy just ruined his life, just to get back at him for making him the bottom of the food chain. It is true that when everyone decided bullying cats and not bother mice and dogs again. It was like an abandoned toy. For mice it was totally perfect. As long as they were silent, they would be able to live their lives in safety. They succeeded, the plan was unbelievably perfect.

Derek became furious, he grabbed the collar of his shirt, and then gave him a violent punch to his jaw, suddenly Jeremy slipped and fell from the cliff. Derek’s anger was replaced with fear and instantly grabbed him and tried to pull up but did not have enough strength.

Jeremy fell.

Derek closed his eyes, afraid to look at what would happen. I could not imagine what would happen after falling 7 stories high…

Police arrived and questioned Derek since he was at the scene. He was too shocked by the accident and could not say a word. Once again, Derek was in the topic of discussion. Some thought that Jeremy committed suicide, and Derek could not save him, and who had seen clutching Jeremy’s hand before falling. But others…Those, brainwashed and corrupted others…Thought of a darker, more gothic, and more macabre theory…Of murder.

That night Derek was in his room crying, trembling, and couldn’t get the blame out of his head. He needed to calm down, he seriously needs to calm down.

“It’s not my fault…It’s not my fault…” He repeated this over, and over, and over again. “It’s not my fault…. It’s not my fault… Jeremy, deserved to die…"

This made him feel much better and vanished guilty. Derek smiled, "Jeremy, deserved, to die… He has had his punishment ... I guess it’s time for other people have theirs… Right?" Derek developed a thirst for revenge as his sadness was replaced with the sick, twisted pleasure, of madness.

That night, Derek heard the rustling and coughing of Bill out the doorway of the apartment. His door was closed. He walked over and opened it. Looking out into the hallway. He padded through the front door and found the Doberman standing and having a smoke in the bedroom.

Derek waited a second and watched him from around the corner before a burning feeling started deep in his chest. The influence of the anger was too much. He began to silently walk into the kitchen. He reached over the counter to the knife holder in the kitchen and pulled out the largest knife that had been resting in the case. He gripped it in his furry hand. He felt a sensation take over his neck. He let out a snicker.

“Heh… heheh… hehehehehe! HAHAHAHA!” he began laughing so hard he had to gasp for breath. Bill heard Derek and went to see who it was before he felt a brute force shove him to the floor. He grunted as the hair was knocked out of him.

“What!” he looked up at the cat who stood over him, grasping the kitchen knife in his hand.

“Derek, Derek what are you doing!” he went to sit up and put hand arms out in front of him in self-defense but before he knew it, Derek was on top of him. He went to grab at his neck, but Bill reached out and blocked his hand by grabbing onto this wrist.

“Stop! Get off me you little fucker!” he yelled, and with his other hand he threw an off-center punch towards Derek’s shoulder, but he didn’t stop.

The look in Derek’s eyes was not sane. It looked as if a demon had taken control over him. He yelled back and went to stab the knife into Bill’s chest, but he blocked him and grabbed onto his wrist once again. He went to shove him back, but Derek kicked out his feet in front of him and landed a hard blow straight to his face. Bill recoiled and pulled his arms away to cuff his face, but Derek got back up and drove the knife straight into his shoulder. Bill let out a loud cry and went to pull the knife out, but before he could, Derek threw his fist straight into his face. He began to pound his fists into his head, laughing and wheezing. He grabbed the knife and ripped it out of his shoulder. He drove it deep into Bill’s chest and repeatedly stabbed into his torso, blood spilling out and getting splattered everywhere. He didn’t stop until the dog’s body went still. He threw the knife over to the side and leaned over his body, coughing and panting.

He stared at his smashed in face and sat there, for a good minute or so. Then, the sound of police sirens blared outside the apartment, and police arrived and wrestled him to the ground, cuffed him, and dragged him to jail. It stayed on Bill’s mutilated body for a good twenty seconds, before fading to black.

White text appeared and read: “While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself.

-Douglas Horton.”

We just sat there, speechless. I looked at Scotty and broke the silence, “…Dude, what the fuck…?”

The professor got up and added, “Notes.” After we got home, I asked Scotty what the hell was going on, and he told me that some people just don't like cats. That's okay. Some people don't like pizza. Or dogs. Or Harry Potter. But some cat-haters aren't satisfied with not owning cats themselves. They need to drag the rest of us down with them. If that’s the case, then why make something as gothic, cruel, and depressing as this?

That’s when I brought two-and-two together.

I never thought I’d say this as an animal lover, but it makes a whole lot of sense! Jeremy’s confession! It made perfect sense! The dogs, it was all a big plot! Cats keep themselves clean. Cats don't require regular grooming sessions, like dogs do. The tongue of a cat is barbed in a way that removes dirt and grime from fur with startling efficiency. Cats literally lick themselves clean, another practical reason why cats are better than dogs.

They were so jealous! Here they are, high and mighty, and worshipped like gods! And the dogs are nothing but servants, forced to do every man’s bidding for another millennia! They planned to trick us into getting rid of every cat in the book! The dogs were tired of being the third wheel and are planning to be the new face of pet ownership, and the “Top dog” if you catch my drift! We were with cats from the very start, we built each other up to greatness! And now, we were forced to watch their decline, and now… They were…This… This, thing, this abomination…

We watched them slowly, and methodically go insane…

Scotty told me everything, every bit of it, anything is better than figuring out the truth myself (like I already have). But how is it effecting us in real life, how are we sure that it’s not happening now? Or better yet… Did it already happen? Those questions remained unanswered to this day.

You know, it’s funny. It’s funny how we see these stereotypes and use it to label animals for who they are in real life. Maybe that’s it, or I’m just second guessing myself. Who knows, maybe that’s how God intended us to be, just a walking stereotype. I got a hand it to that slick son of a bitch, he really did out-done himself on this one.

Maybe we're not so good after all.