27 pages • 54 minutes read
Kristen RoupenianCat Person
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Modernist Realism
“Cat Person” fits within the genre of Modernist Realism, which tends to be the majority of what the New Yorker publishes. Such pieces deal with a realistic conflict seen in the contemporary, real world, usually between two primary characters, and often centering around dialogue. In the case of “Cat Person,” dialogue propels the narrative forward: It is the basis for Margot and Robert’s relationship—if one could call it that—and sets the tone for how the readers perceive characters other than Margot.
The story focuses on the singular character of Margot; this represents another aspect of Modernist Realism, which often forgoes omniscient narrators for the more limited perspective of a singular character. The story is told in third-person limited omniscient, meaning that Margot is referred to with third-person pronouns (she/her), but readers get a close look inside her head. Readers have access solely to Margot’s thoughts and imaginations, such as when she fantasizes about telling her future imaginary boyfriend about her terrible sexual encounter with Robert. The story filters the other characters through Margot’s lens.
The narrator follows but is also clearly separate from Margot and often seems to know things that Margot, perhaps in her youth, cannot. The elements of conversation that the narrator includes indicate fairly early on that Robert is manipulative and patronizing, although Margot always gives him the benefit of the doubt, concluding that he is merely sensitive.
Due to the realist nature of the short story, much of Twitter and public discourse has mistaken it for confessionalism. As Roupenian discusses in The New Yorker:
[…] its status as fiction had largely gotten lost […] people began conflating me, the author, with the main character […] I was thirty-six years old and in my first serious relationship with a woman, and now everyone wanted me to explain why twenty-year-old girls were having bad sex with men (Roupenian, Kristen. “What It Felt Like When ‘Cat Person’ Went Viral.” New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2017).
Although Roupenian admits that the story is loosely based on an online date gone bad, it does not fit the confessional genre of works by authors like Sylvia Plath, where so-called fiction is thinly veiled nonfiction. Instead, like many realist authors, Roupenian drew on what she knew to create a fictional story with a main character who is not the author.
Social Context: “Fourth-Wave” Feminism
“Cat Person” potentially went viral due to the rise of the #MeToo movement, which has been called fourth-wave feminism. Although the phrase “MeToo” was used on Tumblr beginning in the early 2000s, it gained national attention in October 2017—two months before “Cat Person” was published—with the Harvey Weinstein scandal, when the New York Times detailed how numerous women accused the former film producer of sexual harassment, and the New Yorker reported how women came forward to accuse the former film producer of rape and sexual assault.
As a result, when “Cat Person” was published, much of the debate on Twitter focused on issues of consent within the short story. As Roupenian says in “What It Felt Like When ‘Cat Person’ Went Viral”: “Was what happened between Robert and Margot an issue of consent, or no? […] Men read ‘Cat Person’ this way! Women read ‘Cat Person’ that way!” (Roupenian, “What It Felt Like”). This difference in gendered readings of the story led to heated debate, especially considering the age difference between Margot and Robert. Readers found it difficult to see Robert’s behavior toward Margot—the kissing on the forehead, his repeated patronization and mention of her youth—as not predatory in some capacity.
Similarly, the story plays with the idea of a power dynamic, as in who holds the power in a specific relationship. At times, Margot feels as though she holds the power—she is more attractive, more wanted by Robert—and therefore feels like she is subverting gender norms. However, Robert’s actions can be read as prolonged grooming. Indeed, this is the point that many readers in the wake of MeToo brought up: how the difference in power dynamics clearly favored the much older male. One might even draw similarities between the pity Margot feels for Robert and Weinstein’s cloying attempts to gain the sympathy of the women he abused.
This short story occurred in a place where feminism demanded that society recognize that the survivors of sexual assault are still “victims” even if they are allegedly imperfect. The conclusion of “Cat Person,” with Robert’s accusatory and defamatory text, also signals the so-called “slut-shaming” rampant within society that fourth-wave feminism sought to address and undermine.
