Thoughts on ‘Cat Person’ (no, not the Bowie song) Maia Mathieu shares her views on the short story published by The New Yorker that went viral this week.

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” ― G.K. Chesterton

The New Yorker published a short story ‘Cat Person’ this week. Spoilers: it’s not about cats. As far as viral content goes, this is atypical. The short story format isn’t usually much-lauded outside of the Literature classroom, and, well, as a publication, The New Yorker is one of the more elite. A hipster-darling of the coastal-elite erudite set, it’s about as far from Buzzfeed as you can get and still be attention grabbing.

Cat Person‘ by Kristen Roupenian is the story of early-twenty-something Margot and her relationship with an older man, Robert. It’s not Lolita, but it’s not pretty. Robert’s condescension and the age difference in the relationship initially thrill and then concern Margot; she veers between feeling like she has power by virtue of being young and desirable, and being afraid that Robert might end up murdering her. They have sex at one point, sex she initially pursued and ends up going along with for fear of seeming flighty when she realises she doesn’t want to – doesn’t want him. Lines of consent are blurred, murky, and she still hesitates to ghost him because of the undercurrents of gendered power within heterosexual interactions. Just read it, alright? It’s thought-provoking.

It’s telling and sad that ‘Cat Person’ went viral right now. As I said, the short-story isn’t the darling of anywhere but the Lit classroom, so we’re not talking about this story – I’m not writing this article – to discuss what Robert’s penchant for Red Vines alludes to, or if the novelty frog-shaped lighter is a specific symbol (for the bad-date, frog-kissing aspect of the story?). We’re talking about the unease we feel reading this story, the sick frisson of fear and the undercurrent of knowingness. “I relate” is the Twitter-trending response. I hate that that’s the twitter-trending response (along with the typical wilful misunderstanding) – but maybe that’s important.

#metoo was around for several years before it started to really catch on, and last week “The Silence Breakers” behind the meme were made Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year‘. “Feminism” is Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2017. Whatever is behind all this (theories concerning reactions to the “Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief” abound, and I’m not here to contradict them), we’re having a moment right now where issues of consent, female sexuality and the negotiations of power in sexuality (in the not-fun way) are on people’s minds and their lips. Maybe ‘Cat Person’ is the sort of story we need to tell right now.

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