Your example of Siamese cats is a really good one - the Siamese from fifty years ago were nasty, brutish and short - at least compared to the modern ones. But they were robust and didn't have the whole catalogue of congenital difficulties, such as respiration problems, that today's Siamese exhibit. They might also (though I'm not sure) actually have had some genuine historic link to an Asian breed of cat - I don't know.
But whatever, I'm pretty sure that the bizarre, unhealthy form that Siamese have been twisted into has been informed by ideas of 'the Orient' and 'exotic'; the same thing that made the Siamese in
Lady and the Tramp the way they are.
Its quite sad really.
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