Cat Lady - A Reckoning

Boil the cat lady down to her essence, and you find the belief that you shouldn’t trust a cat farther than you can throw it, you’d do well not trust a woman even that far, and it gets worse when they team up.


What is it about women and cats? Historically, both have occupied an uncertain status: are they feral or domestic? Malevolent or harmless? Deceptive or trustworthy?

With a claw-like swipe of the pen, Reiches toys with the facts and fictions that comprise the cat lady stereotype – from witches with their familiars, to Selina Kyle and her alter ego Catwoman, to Taylor Swift and her Ragdolls – and ponders why cats and their owners inspire such suspicion where their canine equivalents do not.

What, after all, is so dangerous about not answering when you’re called?