Abstract

This article analyses Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, focusing on how patriarchal norms infiltrate and toxify female relationships, leading to trauma in children. Atwood challenges traditional feminist ideals by subverting the notion of sisterhood, portraying women as both victims and perpetrators of misogyny. Through Elaine and Cordelia’s complex relationship that complicates even the antiheroine femme fatale trope, Atwood reveals how internalized patriarchy influences young girls. This highlights “toxic femininity” as theorized by Hannah McCann and the psychological harm it inflicts from childhood into adulthood. Through psycho-social analysis of Elaine’s self-retrospective childhood to adulthood journey, the article critiques how mimetic culture and societal expectations warp moral boundaries, leaving children trapped in cycles of manipulation, toxicity, trauma, and insecurity that affect their adulthood. The objective of the study is to re-frame the femme fatale concept through Elaine’s experiences of toxic girlhood, childhood misogyny, and trauma, revealing how rigid gendered constraints blur the line between victim and victimizer, where being toxic and fatal stems not from independence but from the lasting impact of trauma. By critiquing restrictive gender stereotypes, this article ultimately aims to envision a nonbinary, transformative female agency free from mimetic societal expectations.