Where did the ‘childless cat lady’ phrase come from?

( NewsNation ) — Old comments from Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance calling prominent Democrats “childless cat ladies” have resurfaced and unleashed anger among women now reclaiming the age-old trope.

In a 2021 interview with former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson, Vance said that the U.S. was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

The then-Senate candidate specifically mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as examples.

The phrase “cat lady” has been used to portray women outside of societal norms as crazy, lonely and even unstable. The term originates from medieval Europe, where women accused of witchcraft were often burned at the stake or hanged for their alleged crimes.

Diane Purkiss, an Oxford University professor of English literature, told Forbes that some at the time believed animal helpers assisted witches in carrying out their sorcery.

“The standard image of the witch, and therefore what people feared and what witch hunters sought, was an elderly woman living alone, with a visible pet,” Purkiss said.

Some also saw cats as sinister due to their perceived association with the devil . Some people came to believe that witches could change shape into cats or use them to do their bidding.

In America, black cats specifically were a feature of the late 17th century Salem witch trials. Cats later became a symbol of antisuffragist propaganda, but many suffragists attempted to reclaim them as a symbol of their movement.

The stereotype has persisted in mainstream media, with characters becoming punchlines in many shows, such as Angela in “The Office” or Eleanor Abernathy in “The Simpsons.”

With Vance’s comments resurfacing, social media users on many platforms have been posting themselves and their cats, saying that they (and their cats) will be voting against Vance in November.

Celebrities have been speaking out against Vance’s comments as well. Actress Jennifer Aniston, who has publicly spoken about her fertility journey, took to Instagram to say that she hoped Vance’s daughter wouldn’t need to turn to other options to have children, as he is trying to “take that away from her.”

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