The handsome pink hardback copy of Cat Lady Manifesto features the author, Anna Go-Go, with a glamorously tousled up-do and (pink) leopard print dress, holding aloft and smooching a tabby cat – who, it must be admitted, doesn’t look too impressed by her ministrations.
Cat Lady Manifesto is both a celebration of these haughty felines and a passionate rebuttal of all the negative associations that society at large has cast upon the unholy trinity: single, childless women – usually accessorised with a cat.
The addition of this companion creature, hence the pejorative ‘crazy cat lady’ seems to rile some sectors of the (right-wing) community, who scorn and fear the prospect of independent women blithely going about their own way in the world, unshackled to expectations of marriage or motherhood. The predominant cat lady trope, after all, is one exemplified by a character in The Simpsons: elderly, raving and isolated with an army of furry squealers attached to her shapeless sack-like body.
This figure is weaponised and used as a cautionary tale for girls and young women: if they are too ambitious, if they don’t settle down and cosy into partnered domesticity, they too will end up as one of these tragic, pitiable figures living on the fringes of respectable life.
But, as Go-Go expounds, “As we zoom up and down the hallways of history, art and culture you will see that we cat ladies are not society’s rejects. We have been brave, fabulous pioneers of female liberation since the dawn of time.”
The book also examines a range of misogynistic practices that besmirch women who enjoy feline company, usually to the exclusion of men. Like, of course, the association with witches, those rebellious women with their cat familiars who, for whatever reason, dared to step outsider the realms of propriety and were condemned for their actions. The medieval witch hunt set the tone for centuries to come in terms of suspicion forever being cast on women who behaved outside the patriarchal codes of conduct.
Cat Lady Manifesto interlaces Go-Go’s own personal experiences with research on a range of sociological research, such as how contemporary single women generally fare better than single men, not having to put up with ‘hetero pessimism’, and also shows how women fighting for voting rights were held up to ridicule by propaganda pictures portraying them as dressed-up cats. The Suffragettes merely turned that insult on its head by depicting themselves as bandaged cats, but still determined to keep fighting.
And why in the name of all things sexist, is the male equivalent to ‘crazy cat lazy’ the far cuddlier moniker of ‘cat dad’?
In between the mostly lightweight material and, of course, plenty of photos and images of all manner of cats, there are some interesting points raised; for instance: “Mythological cats were connected to female deities and cats in many (if not all) ancient cultures were connected to women, good luck, abundance, fertility, war, motherhood and domestic life. It’s not hard to see how easily misogyny can be projected onto them.”
Read: Book review: Tomorrow There Will Be Sun: A Hope Prize Anthology, various authors
From cat worship in ancient cultures, to honorary cat ladies like Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln and Gustav Klimt, to the health benefits of having cats reside with you, to famous cat ladies like Taylor Swift and the superhero Catwoman, this book is a righteous manifesto for all lovers of these furry mini-deities. It is, of course, dedicated to Go-Go’s own best friend, Blinky.
Cat Lady Manifesto, Anna Go-Go
Publisher: Affirm Press
ISBN: 9781923046481
Format: Hardback
Pages: 256pp
Publication date: 26 November 2024
RRP: $34.99
