Looking back, it’s strange that the story was read as a straightforward cautionary tale of fragile masculinity, more an educational tool than a work of the imagination. Suggested reading The case for the sexual revolution One almost wonders if Roupenian’s depiction of a callous and calculating Margot is motivated more by intrasexual competition than feminism. And what does he do that’s bad, apart from that final, half-page crescendo of text messages, by far the weakest part of the story and a cheap attempt to stick the landing? In 2021, the real-life “Margot” revealed that the story’s character was based on her, a younger ex-girlfriend of a man Roupenian had also dated (and who had no such negative feelings about him). By contrast, Rob is funny, sweet and unrealistically polite. Indeed, Margot seems like a caricature of female narcissism: she treats Rob with icy cruelty, any affection explicitly described as attempts to push him into further submission and herself, consequently, into victory. And just about the only response that recognised anything wrong with the story’s interpretation was a condescending National Review piece titled “Dear ‘Cat Person’ Girl”, which seized on the fact that Rob was Margot’s seventh partner to harp about the evils of casual sex.
#When will fable 4 come out full#
Nobody but the feminist of the moment, Roxane Gay, dared ask why the story was so full of fat-shaming. Today, “Cat Person” reads like a satire of 2017: Margot’s friends anxiously escorting her out the bar where Rob calmly sits drinking a beer Margot’s own admissions that he’s done nothing wrong and she’s exaggerated everything to her friends Margot’s casual insults about his fatness, ugliness, and clumsiness, as if being unattractive automatically means being a “creep”. Weinstein was easy to label as a villain, but what about Robert?” Sex that was ostensibly consensual, but still felt really bad. Seemingly overnight, “Cat Person” became water-cooler talk, a seeming skeleton key to a universal female experience: where an earlier generation of feminism said, “No means no!”, this one was saying “Yes might mean no!” Or, as the Financial Times glossed it: “Robert and Margot presented emblems of the murkier grey zones of relationships. Per the Guardian, it “sent the Internet into a meltdown”, and is still the only short story to ever legitimately go viral. Fanatically hailed as a portrait of the ambiguities of consent, it launched over 10,000 tweets and think pieces in which women said: it happened to me too. This was the question posed by Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person” when it was published during the heady heights of MeToo, the answer was unequivocal: the guy was a borderline rapist, Margot a vulnerable everywoman. More from this author Millennial Catholics are faking it Then the texts got grosser: when he had asked, in bed, if she was a virgin, had she laughed because she was actually so experienced? Eventually, he just sent: “whore”. Then he sent a few messages asking what had happened between them.
He got in touch, first apologising for texting her, then saying she looked pretty and that he hoped she was well. I hope I did not do anything to upset you.” A month later, she saw him in a bar, and made a speedy, conspicuous exit.
She admits that he hadn’t done anything wrong, except like her too much and be bad at sex.Įventually, her roommate grabbed her phone and texted him: “Hi im not interested in you stop texting me.” He responded: “O.K., Margot, I am sorry to hear that. She acted like he was much worse than he was. She responded with nothing, complaining constantly to her friends.
But he sent her messages, “each one more earnest than the last”. The next day, she wanted nothing more than “that he would disappear without her having to do anything, that she could just wish him away”. He texted her hearts before she even made it to her door. But your friend asked him to drive her home. He covered her arms with little kisses he wanted to make her eggs in the morning.
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