filed in Myths and stereotypes
Crazy Cat Lady Hidden Message
The dark, hidden message in the Crazy Cat Lady Coloring Book.
Discussion
18 comments for “Crazy Cat Lady Hidden Message”
Leave a Reply
About this Site
FIRST PERSON SINGULAR is a guide to surviving, thriving and sometimes just getting through a single day. Created by Wendy Braitman (more…)
Follow First Person Singular
Greatest Hits
© 2010 First Person Singular. 
I don’t really understand the connection between cats and single women??? But, I am glad that I don’t have (or want) any cats. I don’t need one more societal message to fight against. I’m tired enough with being single and child-free.
Dee, I’m glad you mentioned “child-free”. I have found that to be just as much of a social taboo as being single, if not more so. “Do you have kids” is all too often the first question people ask me (ummm, no, but I do have a Ph.D. And a cat 😉
Petra, you rock. All I have is a B.A. and a dog.
It’s such a dusty old stereotype. It would be interesting to trace the origins. I wonder if it was ever relevant.
Found this interesting explanation Wendy.
Who else, according to Anglo Saxon/American mythology has a cat for a companion? A witch, of course. Isn’t it interesting that our culture has placed two very scary types of women, single ladies and witches, in the “has a cat” category?
Source: http://singularcity.com/single-women-and-their-cats/
Makes complete sense!
Boy is this offensive and sexist. I am single with one cat (and I’ve had her when I wasn’t in a relationship). I am dating a single man with two cats. The married couple (friends of mine) up the street has four cats.
The fact is a lot of people have cats. According to the ASPCA, there are approximately 96 million cats in the U.S. in more than 1/3 of households.
People without pets won’t understand that pets are not like some substitute for human company. They are very much our family.
Definitely our family.
Ha! I feel like the cat lady stereotype has become joke now bc (most) people recognize it’s dumb. I have a dog and a cat. I know singles with varying combos of pets, including men. My friend kept my cat for a year and her husband took it the worst when kitty moved back with me! My elderly single male neighbor has 2 cats. If cat lady is the worst insult someone has for me now I feel like “that’s all you got?”
I like your attitude.
This gave me a good chuckle, because of the need for two adjectives, lonesome AND lonely. One wasn’t enough, they had to drive that point home. As I was getting ready to end a relationship a week go, I imagined that I would have to fill my house with cats in order to replace him and his company. After he left, I found out to my surprise that I was enough and actually felt really happy. I’m still sad about losing him and that it didn’t work out, but things like this just make me laugh. The work of defending our single lifestyle is never done!
It’s always good to hear that you’re feeling “enough and happy.”
This made me laugh too. Stereotyping in stealth mode 🙂
Old stereotypes die hard!
Ahhh…HERMIT on the far right hand side needs to be highlighted, too!!
That’s a fantastic find, Susannah! I completely missed it.