Meet the Fetishists Empowering Themselves with 'Kitten Play'

Don't compare Cat Girl Manor to the Playboy Mansion.

May 10, 2018, 9:54pm

A community of feline fetishists has created its own paradise in the Colorado countryside. Founded by UK-born kitten Isabella Antoinette, Cat Girl Manor is a Victorian mansion turned oasis for women who practice kitten play, a BDSM subset that involves dressing up and role-playing as cats. Antoinette says men often link the Manor, also known as the Cat Chateau, to the Playboy Mansion, but she finds the comparison inaccurate.

"I say no, it's different," she told the crew in the debut episode of our new series, The VICE Guide to Sex. "Hugh Hefner created Playboy with the bunnies to sell a men's magazine for men. Whereas with the chateau, it was made by girls for girls, for our lifestyle." Half a dozen women who feel empowered by kitten play live in the chateau, which is decked with paintings of anthropomorphic cats, furry BDSM toys, and Victorian decór. Even more women congregate online at Antoinette's website, TheChateau.org, and attend glamorous events she organizes. Kittens are usually submissive to doms, who are referred to as "gents." Together, they've carved out a safe space to live out their fantasies.

Meet the self-described Persian house cats and feral kitties of the Cat Girl Manor in the behind-the-scenes photographs of The VICE Guide to Sex: Cat Chateau below.