Nobody Puts Baby in the Glass: How Bonsai Kitty Reveals our Penchant for Oppressive Female Trends

At first glance, Bonsai Kitty appears to cater to the recent obsession with miniature pets. In a society loaded with purse puppies, plastic surgery and the ever-prevalent celebrity culture, Bonsai Kitten affords a unique answer for cat lovers. This site offers several options for these personalized felines, ranging from do-it-yourself kits to sending your own kitten for customized body modification. Those interested in acquiring their very own custom kitty may view the gallery photos or peruse the sales section offering various custom shaping vessels and paraphernalia. At closer scrutiny however, this site is clearly answering to a darker problem. Bonsai Kitten is a scathing critique of materialistic trends: purse pets that are worn as trendy status symbols for celebrity culture, and the ever-growing plastic surgery industry. More importantly, this site exposes how these trends oppress the women who seek them.
The introductory page for Bonsai Kitty contains two short paragraphs outlining the purpose of kitten body modification and the central principles behind this unique process. Simple black and white colour schemes make this introduction visually boring; the only images provided are two identical photographs of a “contained kitty”. The first line, boasting, “for centuries, people in the West have marveled at the delicate beauty produced by Oriental artists and sculptors” (Bonsai, Intro) is immediately suspect. One can easily reason that yes, there is beauty to be found in the art of bonsai trees, however can that extend to a desire to form living kittens into twisted art? The generalized explanative text does little to convince the reader of the legitimatacy of this site, offering stereotypical views of a vague Western obsession with Orientalism “for centuries” (Bonsai, Intro). Further text couples this vague reference with practices such as foot or head binding, glibly thrown in as another art form to appreciate. As a sign of oppression, especially for women, this site slips off the believability scale in a hurry, rushing towards feminist defense at the speed of light. Despite its sarcastic undertones aimed at society’s obsession with both customized items and accessory pets, there is a kernel of intrigue present.
Traveling to the “Methods” tab generally produces the same type of ridiculous text. This site is obvious in its sarcastic and very dark humor, emphasizing the importance of “Super Glue” in controlling waste removal: “It’s just like a kitty colostomy bag!” (Bonsai, Methods). Again, there are comments within the description claiming to provide what “you’ve always wanted . . . in the shape you’ve always dreamed of!” (Bonsai, Methods), a point made by Lorrie Blair and Maya Shalmon in their essay, Cosmetic Surgery and the Cultural Construction of Beauty. These additions point to the underlying critique of materialism in current society, extending from personal body modification to plastic surgery, images that are “embedded in our culture and transmitted from early childhood . . . reinforc[ing] the notion that beauty is a prerequisite for happiness” (Blair and Shalmon, 2005) . As this website playfully modifies kittens, the subverted message becomes clear: obsession with image and celebrity defies all rationality. If you will wear your dog as part of your purse, why not mold your kitten into one? As Blair and Shalmon argue, these “advertisements carry the suggestion that cosmetic surgery will . . . improve one’s quality of life” (Blair and Shalmon, 2005). Bonsai Kitten is clear in its exasperation with these obsessions, its sarcastic undertones revealing the empty logic behind superficial modification. This site works not to perpetuate the distorted visions of plastic surgery as self-worth, but rather to point out their absurdities.
The photo gallery itself houses only two links, each providing a few images of insertion and kitten containment. Although the site itself has done an admirable job in poking clean fun, these images are enough to engender animal activist fervor. Images of kittens stuffed inside jars, with flat faces and cramped extremities are inhumane, even for the few minutes it takes to snap the photo. As the only real images of this feigned “process”, it fails to show the results of bonsai containment, despite how much we want, or do not want, to view them. More importantly, these images work to anticipate post-surgical realities, de-bunking cultural images of model-esque post-op beauties, seemingly without worry or care. Real post-operative images are hidden from our visual society precisely because they are just as disturbing as these contained kittens. In conjunction with these images, this site is topped off with a realistic sales page that offers visual images of do-it-yourself tools. By making available custom modification containers as well as the ever-important Super Glue, this site is complete in its attempt to cater to trendy obsessions.
Generally speaking, the site in and of itself is successful. Although it can never, or should never, actually sell modification practices for the common house cat, it borders on the ridiculous, pointing to the same ridiculousness its creator applies to materialistic trends. Kitten images aside, it successfully critiques the practices of both body modification and accessory pets as trends without logic, identifying the recent need to conform to celebrity culture to the best of our abilities. Those oppressive references to foot and head binding in the intro capture women in the crosshairs, similarly caught in the obsessive trendsetter fast lane. As this website suggests, it is both without logic, and misleading. Conformity never leads to originality, and with as much disgust as we view these images of contained kittens, should we view those trendy illogics in pop culture.
This message certainly comes at a time when plastic surgery is on the rise, a time when modification has been accepted as a legitimate answer to societies distorted versions of beauty. Culture today has become so obsessed with visual modification that Dr. Michael Slazhauer has released a children’s book about plastic surgery, designed to explain to young children procedures such as breast augmentation and tummy tucks (Parzen, 2008). What possibly could be gained in creating propaganda such as this? These items further enforce unrealistic standards for beauty, teaching our children at younger ages to perpetuate this distorted vision. It seems that despite the claim to individuality that body modification trends present, one always ends up crammed into the glass, looking out at the world with the coveted “bonsai kitty expression” (Bonsai, Gallery), all the while claiming to enjoy the originality we “have always dreamed of” (Bonsai, Intro).

Works Cited
Blair Lorrie, and Shalmon, Maya. “Cosmetic Surgery and the Cultural Construction of
Beauty”. RedOrbit. May. 2005. Accessed 15 July 2008.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/148585/cosmetic_surgery_and_the_cultural_construction_of_beauty/
Bonsai Kitten. Accessed 15 July 2008.
http://www.shorty.com/bonsaikitten/index.html
Parzen, Molly C. “Plastic Surgery Sending the Wrong Message. 2008”. The Bi-College
News Online. July. 2008. Accessed 21 July 2008. http:www.biconews.com/?p=7151