Monday, January 5, 2015
"I don't know if I should take a husband or a wife": Krazy Kat and Gender
I received Fantagraphics' first collection of Krazy Kat recently and, flipping through it, I was struck by how modern the notions of gender are. At one point, Krazy complains that they "don't know if I should take a husband or a wife" (October 1915). Despite the heteronormative ideals clearly present in that statement, it strikes me as similar to the new genderfluid movement - a movement that aims to free people from the gender binary.
When George Herriman, Krazy Kat's creator, was asked to define the Kat's gender, he replied "that Kat can't be a he or a she": despite this, Krazy Kat has near-universally been referred to with feminine pronouns in the years since the strip ended. This trend began with e.e. cummings-no stranger to breaking tradition himself-and hasn't yet ended. All of this clearly rings of the common practice of misgendering (that is, referring to someone with the wrong pronouns).
There isn't a dearth of material available on Krazy Kat, so I'll keep this short; I believe that, much like Coconino County, Krazy Kat is in a constantly changing state.
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