Debbie Wynn's Notebook 5 (12-28-2011)

[Kris@WLP]

Werecats- a bit silly, a bit dark.

Hope you're having a fun holiday season!

[Happygun]

Yaaay! Werecat conspiracy theories and borderline institutionalized sexism!

[griffinguy24]

Hey there, I'm new. I was actually only introduced to PitW yesterday, after finding the page on TV Tropes, and did a full archive trawl. I love it. It's great, and I particularly love the inclusion of other werebeasts besides wolves. That's one of my favorite things. Particularly werecats. I'm a huge nerd about big cats, particularly jaguars, and I've studied a lot about them, and including them is a definite plus as far as I'm concerned.

Now that I've said that, I have to say that, to me, a lot of the info given about werecats makes no freaking sense.

The paragraph about how werecat females treat males, and therefore how they raise their sons, does make some sense, particularly in terms of large feline ecology. Typically, males are very territorial, staking a claim and not allowing any other males in. Females, however, get considerably more leeway, and their territories are more fluid. So, modern werecat males would stake out their "territory", in modern times, probably the equivalent of a suburban town or a specific neighborhood of a city (rural territories would be much larger), and werecat females would have their own territories, overlapping with a male (or several), probably smaller than a male's, but not by much. While acquiring and keeping a territory requires intelligence, business savvy, and suchnot, the primary means of attracting mates would be sex. Males werecats in this day and age would probably see their mates' territory as their own and use it as a buffer against other males or as a means of spreading their territory... especially if the female in question rejects a competing male and favors them...

The main problem is that this seems to be an explanation for Noah's behavior... and werelions would have a considerably different social system from other werecats.

Werelion gender roles would be, to most other 'thropes, really really WEIRD. On the one hand, the desired males tend to be tougher physically, on the other, they're the ones expected to stay home and take care of the children while the women go out and work. Impressive physical specimens would be favored, yes, but the "traditional lion male" is also expected to clean, cook, and change a diaper. In modern times, where outright fighting other males who burst in on your territory is considered gauche at best and outright insane at worst, lionesses would probably consider joining a more domestic lion's pride over a handsome one's (Of course, if he's a great cook/cleaner/child-carer AND he's pretty, SCORE!). So, perhaps somewhat ironically, runt lions nowadays have a tendency to have the largest prides...

Additionally, much of the typical Western parental roles would be reversed in werelions, thanks to the nature of the relationship. So, the fathers tend to be the "mother hens" to their (usually many) children, while the mothers have a more aloof, less available relationship with their offspring. So, Noah has a pretty good relationship with his mom, which is nice.

And now, I'm going to stop before I go totally overboard and speculate details about each individual werecat "society" (to use the phrase extremely loosely)

Anyway, just some food for thought, keep up the good work. I'm loving it so far.

[Kris@WLP]

Glad you're enjoying the comic!

I won't address your whole post, only make a couple of points.

First, actual real-world male lions, last time I watched a documentary on 'em, don't do much in the way of child-rearing at all. Nor do they do much to protect the pride or the children from anything other than... other male lions, who will kill young cubs sired by another male when they take over a pride. This behavior of course would not fly in human society, so it doesn't carry over... but male lion laziness and arrogance, and female lion willingness to tolerate it, does.

Second, wild-animal instincts and behaviors must bend to the needs of human society if you're a lycanthrope. Territories can't be the be-all and end-all of mating/marriage. Nor can territorial fights be out in the open. Such things just can't be left to the males to decide. Net result: the women decide which male(s) stay with the pride, and which move on at the next opportunity.