Megara, Hercules, and the Rest
Aug. 21st, 2024 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aMegara is (we presume) named after Hercules' wife. She (the wife, hopefully not the cat) didn't have a happy ending. When Hera sent Hercules into a fit of rage, he slew his children and is usually presumed to have killed his wife as well. (The myths, as is often the case, vary.)
Hercules then carried out his famous Twelve Labors as atonement for those murders. Which makes, by my assessment, Megara one of the first women to ever have been "fridged" in literature.
That's a term originated by author Gail Simone if you're not familiar with it. It referred to an incident in Green Lantern when hero Kyle Raynor's girlfriend was killed and literally jammed in a refrigerator afterward. Simone was mostly commenting on the violence done to women in comics, and the permanence of it, in comparison to men. However in the years since, it's come to mean a woman who is killed solely to draw emotional reaction from a man, as opposed to being about their own arc.
And that's Megara.
But the mythological namesake, not the cat currently living in Kimberly's office.
And we currently plan to keep the name if we keep the cat, as Megara is the exact type of name we'd give a cat.
--
As for the cat: progress.
She's continued to hide under the chair, but that's better than up inside the chair.
She's been eating and drinking aggressively, but mostly after dark. Enough so that I suspect she wasn't getting food at the Humane Society (probably because she was so scared).
Kimberly and I have both been spending time in the room. I spent some time last night reading aloud to myself (and the cat I suppose) then spent a bit of the work day in there today when I just needed to write.
Kimberly's mostly been taking care of her food and litter and hanging out, including spending some time in there this afternoon when I went out for a walk, with some Mozart for Kids on.
And miracle of miracles, Megara came out and ate some food and used the litter box and just sat and stared for a bit when Kimberly was there today. That's the first time she hasn't been crammed back in a corner when other people were around.
So, early days. And we don't even know yet if she's a nice cat or a friendly cat or a cat that would be compatible with our house. But, if nothing else our fostering seems to be drawing her out and getting her out of the very, very scared state she was in.
Hercules then carried out his famous Twelve Labors as atonement for those murders. Which makes, by my assessment, Megara one of the first women to ever have been "fridged" in literature.
That's a term originated by author Gail Simone if you're not familiar with it. It referred to an incident in Green Lantern when hero Kyle Raynor's girlfriend was killed and literally jammed in a refrigerator afterward. Simone was mostly commenting on the violence done to women in comics, and the permanence of it, in comparison to men. However in the years since, it's come to mean a woman who is killed solely to draw emotional reaction from a man, as opposed to being about their own arc.
And that's Megara.
But the mythological namesake, not the cat currently living in Kimberly's office.
And we currently plan to keep the name if we keep the cat, as Megara is the exact type of name we'd give a cat.
--
As for the cat: progress.
She's continued to hide under the chair, but that's better than up inside the chair.
She's been eating and drinking aggressively, but mostly after dark. Enough so that I suspect she wasn't getting food at the Humane Society (probably because she was so scared).
Kimberly and I have both been spending time in the room. I spent some time last night reading aloud to myself (and the cat I suppose) then spent a bit of the work day in there today when I just needed to write.
Kimberly's mostly been taking care of her food and litter and hanging out, including spending some time in there this afternoon when I went out for a walk, with some Mozart for Kids on.
And miracle of miracles, Megara came out and ate some food and used the litter box and just sat and stared for a bit when Kimberly was there today. That's the first time she hasn't been crammed back in a corner when other people were around.
So, early days. And we don't even know yet if she's a nice cat or a friendly cat or a cat that would be compatible with our house. But, if nothing else our fostering seems to be drawing her out and getting her out of the very, very scared state she was in.