User:Jaclyn Docherty/sandbox

I am a student at LSU in the Women Genders Studies class.

"Cat Lady" in the 21st Century

In today’s society some people use the term “cat lady” as a reference towards single women with one or more animals. Plenty of people use this term on a daily basis, whether to describe themselves or others. Some people find this term funny and use it as a joke, not meaning it as an insult. However, others find it insulting and disrespectful to those women who choose to live alone with their pets. Some women with cats do not think it is a joke and sometimes take offense when others laugh at their life styles.

Harmless Term?

Some people think of the term crazy cat lady solely as amusing. These people never mean the term in an oppressing or insulting manner, only as a joke.

Today cats are coming increasingly popular and are seen everywhere on shirts, posters, mugs, and plenty of other merchandise. There is even a Facebook club for cat lovers to meet and chat with other cat lovers. With the growing popularity of cats, more and more people find the term "crazy cat lady" amusing and use it more often.

Some women love their lifestyles with their felines, and do not care about the jokes. They feel a strong bond with their animals, and find that they bring them a great sense of companionship. They hear the jokes, find a sense of comedy in it, but do not plan on changing the way they live their lives.

Even celebrities like Taylor Swift have multiple cats and she posts about them on social media. Female celebrities have a big influence on the way people view cat owners. They help change the negative previously conceived notion that all cat owners are crazy, to a more positive light. Majority of the people who use the term "crazy cat lady" find it to be harmless and do not mean it in a sexist or oppressive manner.

Having multiple animals in your household has many unknown benefits. For example, having more than one animal is known to increase your mood and health. The more pets means the more activity, such as, playing with them or taking care of them. They also offer a great sense of companionship for you. They can also be a great way of socializing and meeting the pet owners. Having more than one pet means multiple trips to the groomer, pet spa or classes and other public places where you could possibly meet people who share your love for animals. Living in the same environment as multiple animals can also decrease the likelihood of allergy conditions. Animals can also teach children great lessons, for instance, teach them responsibility, encourage emotional development, promote a nurturing instinct. Being a cat lady could have benefits that some people may not have realized before.

Or Offensive Term?

On the other hand, when some people think of Cat ladies they tend to think of them in a negative light. Today crazy cat ladies are equivalent to old maids or spinsters in the past. They are seen as single, unattractive, old women who are outcasts of society because they are unmarried and have different jobs or hobbies, just like old maids and spinsters. All of these terms have similar undesirable connotations but the names have changed overtime.

In Katherine Sullivan Barak’s dissertation, Spinsters, Old Maids, and Cat Ladies: A Study in Containment Strategies, she said “the media characterized spinsters and old maids as selfish, proud, unnatural, unproductive, and childish in newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets.” She is acknowledging how men and the media sometimes mocks the independent women who made a conscious decision to live alone and to live the way they choose. Katherine also said, “these characters must be contained because they intrinsically transgress social norms, query gender roles, and challenge the limitations of mediated womanhood.” This term can force women who do have many cats or pets to be considered strange and are looked as an outcast of society. The popular website, Petful, has an article written by T.J. Banks called, 9 Reasons Why the “Crazy Cat Lady” Stereotype Is Nonsense, and in the article she lists reasons why we should stop calling women crazy cat ladies. One reason that she listed was, “It reeks of male chauvinism. It implies that a woman can’t get a man and is using feline companionship as a substitute. But there’s a bit more to it. Men who don’t like cats because “they’re too damned independent” are — news flash! — the same ones who don’t like independent women. The “crazy cat lady” label is their way of making fun of what they secretly fear.” This reason basically indicates how this term started, because women feeling that they were not good enough for a man. Another popular site, The Huffington Post Online, writes 5 Cat Lady Myths That just Aren'y True. One of the myths listed was the myth that single women are the only ones who have cats. She proves that the myth is false by saying, “has anyone ever noticed that the stereotype is directed only toward women? Yeah. There's something wrong with this. Men own and love cats, too -- and yes, there are single men who own and live with cats. So why isn't there a crazy cat man label? It seems as though the stereotype is a bit sexist and implies that it's OK for a man to be single, but if a woman is, she obviously will never find a suitable mate and will doomed to an eternity of pooper scoopers and hairball medicine. Do we realize how ridiculous this is yet?” William L. McKeithen expresses how he thinks how the term crazy cat lady began in his study Governing Pet Love, when he says “…laid bare the twinned oppressions that masculinism and speciesism have wrought upon women and nonhuman animals, violences which, as I will argue, continue to be exacted upon ‘crazy cat ladies.’” Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, who is a veterinarian, admitted in her study titled Feline Fortunes: Contrasting Views of Cats in Popular Culture, “In the human mind, cats frequently have a feminine image.” All of these authors agree that calling someone a crazy cat lady is sexist and wrong because it is normally only directed to women. They believe that we should stop using this term because it appears to be doing more harm than good.