Why has the phrase “childless cat lady” hit such a cultural nerve? It was intended as a slur when J.D. Vance used the term in a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. He denounced the Democratic Party as being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies” who are “miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made.” It was unearthed after he was named to the VP candidacy on Donald Trump’s Republican ticket. But now the phrase has taken on a life of its own, with none other than Taylor Swift using it to sign off her endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Key word there that Vance used in his own sentence? Choices. He recognized that women actually have choices! Silly bunny. In a country where reproductive rights have been curbed, curtailed and outright cut off across jurisdictions, choice is the real word that catches female voters’ attention. But “childless cat lady” is catchier, and women everywhere (with or without children, cats or geckos) are reclaiming the concept.
The cat lady slur may not just continue to haunt Vance; it could become the rallying cry that finally sinks Trump’s golf cart.
Oprah Winfrey invoked it at her surprise appearance at the DNC in August, incorporating it in a metaphor about the imperative to rescue one’s neighbours when their house is on fire. “If that place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well we try to get that cat out, too,” she said wryly. Oprah is not a woman to be underestimated.
Then came Swift, in a coup de grâce Instagram post dropped with precision timing after Tuesday night’s debate, which was widely considered a victory for Kamala Harris. She endorsed Harris and Tim Walz — along with urging her 283 million followers to register to vote, do their own research and follow their values. She signed it “Childless Cat Lady,” beneath a glamour shot of herself with Benjamin Button, one of her three cats.
Like Winfrey, Swift has the power to cause a tsunami effect in popular culture. Even more significantly, though, she has enormous influence on women in the 18-to-29 demographic. Federal officials reported that more than 337,000 people visited the vote registry portal Vote.org within a day of Swift’s post.
Young women in America in that age group have been trending Democratic since 1980, according to a spring poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School; the gap between women and men of that age has widened significantly since 2020. Today, 43 per cent of young women identify as Democrats versus 32 per cent of men (23 per cent of women and 29 per cent of men are Republican-leaning).
I asked Elizabeth Renzetti, Canadian journalist and author of “What She Said: Conversations About Equality,” which will be published Oct. 1 by McClelland and Stewart, why “childless cat ladies” is such a resonant rallying cry. “It’s all about declawing a pernicious stereotype, to cite one thing you should never do to an actual cat,” said Renzetti, who has two children and two cats.
The phrase taps into historical stereotypes. “For years, adult women who did not have male partners, through choice or circumstance, were derided as lonely spinsters. They had to settle for cats as companions,” Renzetti said. “Now that women are financially independent and no longer reliant on the patriarchy, many have decided they actually prefer the warm, zen company of cats.”
Ooh, there’s that choice thing again! “If you’re an insecure man, that’s got to hurt,” Renzetti said.
Even as women get stronger, more economically powerful and more confident, there has been a backlash to women’s rights and the progress of equality in the past decade. “A lot of women feel angry and hurt by continuing violence against us, and the destruction of reproductive freedoms in the United States,” said Renzetti. “When J.D. Vance talks about ‘childless cat ladies’ in one breath and stripping women of even more bodily autonomy in the next, women are going to express their rage.”
Renzetti is struck by what she calls Swift’s “singular power,” which she explores in her book. “She drives conservatives crazy because she is exactly what they fear: An independent, creative, happy young woman who does not need or want their approval.” But, she notes, Swift has also been the victim of sexual violence and deepfake imagery, so she mirrors the struggles of many young women. “Confident and thriving, but also trapped in an oppressive system that’s been millennia in the making.”
Chiming in to support Swift and amplify her message was singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks, who sent a post encouraging fans to vote alongside a photo of herself with her dog, Lily, signed “Childless Dog Lady.” Writer-director Lena Dunham called Swift’s endorsement “perfectly calibrated” and dubbed the singer “the Mother of Childless Cat Ladies.”
Singer Linda Ronstadt wrote on Instagram about her distress that Trump is holding a rally in her hometown of Tucson at a building with her name on it. She was moved to add an addendum on Vance, saying that while she raised her two adopted children, she does live with a cat and is not married. “Am I a half-childless cat woman because I’m unmarried and I didn’t give birth to my kids?” Such great shade.
My own kids are now grown, and I have three cats (plus two barn cats, six chickens and counting). But I’m perfectly happy to identify as a childless cat lady. Because the phrase has become so much bigger than the insult Vance intended it to be. It has become a call to arms. By reclaiming a slur, we can make it a badge of honour.
We are all childless cat ladies.
