Animalization classifies women as non-human animals who must be tamed and controlled by marriage and motherhood. Our earliest written sources, like Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days (7th c. BCE) and Semonides’ Fragment 7 (7th c. BCE), describe women’s body parts in animal terms to manipulate the actions and behavior of female characters for a male audience.
Animalization continues to affect the treatment of women and animals today, particularly regarding voice, agency, and bodily autonomy. Using Julia Kristeva’s (1985), Donna Haraway’s (1985), and Carol J. Adams’ (1990) theories, I propose a woman-as- animal spectrum where female-presenting individuals slide between neutral/domesticated/sacrificial animals and bestial/wild/hybrid monsters. Using this spectrum, I investigate the animalized female body in classical literature through women’s skin, mind, and reproductive system and end with a discussion of how contemporary authors and artists are reclaiming animalization today.
Because women develop from monsters in ancient cosmogonies, I argue in chapter 1, “Skin,” that Io, Callisto, Ocyrhoë, and Scylla in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (1st c. CE) experience species dysphoria, anxiety and depression because their interior and exterior experiences do not match. Hindu and First Nations stories, however, show that women do not have to suffer when transforming into animals with whom they share a close kinship.
In chapter 2, “Mind,” I explore three animal metaphors (snakes, dogs, and lions) through four women from Greek tragedy (5th c. BCE): Agave in Euripides’ Bacchae, Creusa in Euripides’ Ion, Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, and Medea in Euripides’ Medea. I then move to Roman tragedy (1st c. CE), where I argue that Seneca’s Medea and Phaedra present the title characters as uniquely Roman manifestations of the woman-as- animal spectrum. I end by suggesting how tragic women can harness hybridity as a tool for promoting their own and their children’s agency.
In chapter 3, “Womb,” I discuss the animalized reproductive system. Related to the wandering womb, the animalized womb and its constituents, rabies-causing menstrual blood and the vagina detanta (fanged vagina), turned the uterus into a terrestrial/feral creature. When the uterus worked properly, ancient authors/artisans described it as aquatic, recalling the wet nature of women in ancient medicine; however, we see through Baubo, Scylla, and Medusa the development of a monstrous, deadly female reproductive system that threatened male social control.
Finally, chapter 4, “Soul,” revisits skin, mind, and womb through three short stories and accompanying works of art that reclaim animalization for female–animal agency and equality: Audrey Niffenegger’s “Raven Girl” (2013), Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” (2006), and Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” (1979). By exposing the misogynistic impulses behind animalized women in the past and exploring what contemporary authors and artists are doing today, I consider the context and impact of the woman-as-animal spectrum on women’s and animal rights.