Cat Fleming

Somewhere in the wild foothills of Mt Baldy (outside Los Angeles), lives an Australian/American person named Cat Fleming. She is one of those curious creatures who writes things down, she has done that her whole life, she even has a degree in Creative Writing. Cat is in also in blissful contentment when reading others' writing too. She became and English teacher so that she could spread the joy of the written word in all its soul-exposing forms. As a writer she is compelled to cut through facades and reveal truths. Being a mother, a teacher and a writer have somehow coalesced in her life to form a passion for writing MG and YA novels, which is what she does now. Cat has written in several other genres and forms, an array of which have been published in the online journals, Mung Being, Sitelines, Right Hand Pointing, The Short Humour Site and Connotation Press, and has been printed in Mundaring Sharing Magazine and the MLM anthology, Winter Canons.

Posts Written by Cat

The Harbinger of Doom, or NOT!

This is where we were at in my last post:

“Now, I hate to be the harbinger of doom (I’m talking to all you younger ladies out there as well), but all women, every single one of us, must face this scenario sooner or later. As we age the popular media gradually villainizes and de-sexualizes us, and eventually completely removes us from view. By eliminating our visibility they take away our voice. Without a voice we have no power. Our problem is stated.”Should we wait to do something about this until it reaches crisis point? No. Come on ladies, we need to look at it now!”

How then, do we, as women, address this impending pandemic postmodern crisis, especially when it is rooted so deeply in the foundations of our patriarchal/consumer capitalist culture?

Well, I think we’ll have to look a bit closer at why the media depicts women in such a disempowering way, to understand it. Maybe then we’ll be able to envisage a workable solution.

We’ll start with patriarchy, which has commodified the female body. Luce Irigaray outlines the process in her book This Sex Which Is Not One, where she explains that society constructs men as producer-subjects and women as the objects of exchange. The more attractive the woman is, the greater her value in the sexual economy.

Then, how is attractiveness defined and who decides this? Well, I’ve got my eye on the consumer-capitalist hegemony (corporations, adverting agencies etc.). They have set up a template for female attractiveness that consists of a ...

Quit your whining, bitch, and just age gracefully! The Invisible Woman – Part 2

G’day ladies.

If you read my last post, you might have noticed that I’m a bit uptight about the aging thing. It’s not so much about the natural physical process (although I can’t deny that it hurts – literally), but how aging women are perceived, and received in our western society. We are looked at differently and treated differently, but we are the same (productive, competent and sexy women), on the inside. It’s a great grizzly suckfest, as far as I’m concerned, and I blame it on the patriarchy, and the media, and most of all the consumer capitalist hegemony.

Now many of you young ladies out there may be thinking, and you wouldn’t be the first, because I have actually been ...

G’day ladies.

If you read my last post, you might have noticed that I’m a bit uptight about the aging thing. It’s not so much about the natural physical process (although I can’t deny that it hurts – ...

The invisible woman: Part 1

“What am I if I’m not sexually attractive – am I anything?” ~Ella Dreyfus

Aging is terrifying! I have to tell you, the older I get, the crueler the whole thing seems. It’s that evil bastard, time. It just goes too fast. I hadn’t thought about it much until recently, I guess I’ve been on sort-of an extended holiday in denial, conveniently avoiding the whole thing. But lately, the damn holiday has started to sour. That bitch in the mirror is part of it. Every time I look at her, she points out another disagreeable development. The fine lines and spider veins on my face, which I was previously able to pat away with some night repair serum, are deepening and ...

“What am I if I’m not sexually attractive – am I anything?” ~Ella Dreyfus

Aging is terrifying! I have to tell you, the older I get, the crueler the whole thing seems. It’s that evil bastard, time. It ...

Your Prince Charming is NOT coming! Fairy Tales: How much do they hurt?

I think it is normal to cherish “Princess” fairy tales. HOWEVER…

Most people think these stories are harmless and that our daughters will see them as merely another entertainment narrative. When the truth is that these stories are part of the cultural toolset that is used to control the population.

The French social theorist Michel Foucault came up with the idea that our culture is like a panopticon prison, which is circular in shape, with one large tower in the centre containing men with high powered machine guns pointed at every inmate. The inmates occupy the cells which are set in a circle around the tower. They don’t try to escape, or do anything against the rules, because even though they can’t ...

I think it is normal to cherish “Princess” fairy tales. HOWEVER…

Most people think these stories are harmless and that our daughters will see them as merely another entertainment narrative. When the truth is that these stories are ...