Confused Cats Against Feminism are getting their claws out

The ‘Confused Cats Against Feminism’ movement is a mocking riposte to what it deems the absurdity of the ‘Women Against Feminism’ blog, says Barbara Herman

A Tumblr blog called ‘Women Against Feminism’ spawned debate on Twitter as #womenagainstfeminism. It featured images of women holding signs saying why they weren’t feminists.

“I’m not a feminist,” read a typical sign, “because I like being treated like a lady.”

“I don’t need feminism,” said another, “because I’m not oppressed.”

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened author and blogger (TheBloggess.com) , Jenny Lawson, had a measured response. In a post entitled ‘Women Who Are Ambivalent About Women Against Women Against Feminism,’ she defended women who didn’t like all aspects of feminism, while criticising them for not seeing the big picture. “Some of the reasons they give for not needing feminism, including not wanting to grow out all their body hair to become equal with men,” she wrote, “almost seem like a parody and just make me wonder where in the world they got their definition of feminism. If you think men and women should have equal rights politically, socially, and economically, you’re probably a feminist.”

But for Chicago-based freelance writer, David Futrelle, an online feminist crusader, there was only one response to what he saw as the absurd arguments of ‘Women Against Feminism’ — more absurdity.

He started a parody blog, starring cats, because “cats need a place where they can post pictures of themselves holding signs, denouncing feminism for assorted weird reasons that don’t seem to have anything to do with what feminism is actually about.” So, on July 24, ‘Confused Cats Against Feminism’ was launched. Within days, it had 5,000 followers, more than 200 submissions of anti-feminist cats — mostly from women — and coverage in German and Italian newspapers.

Such issues used to be debated in cafés over cigarettes; now, they are fought by proxy between warring cat memes and Twitter hashtags.

The cute anti-feminist cats stubbornly refuse to buy into feminism, because it’s not directly in their best interests, echoing the arguments of Women Against Feminism. “I don’t need feminism, because it’s not food,” reads the sign hanging around the neck of a reclining cat. “Is it food? Where’s my food?”

Some clueless, but contented, cats make non-sequitur arguments. In one instance, an oblivious cat doesn’t need feminism, because it already has a “cool mustache.”

Four years ago, Futrelle started the blog, ‘We Hunted the Mammoth’, to engage with the toxic elements of what he calls the “manosphere” and “the new misogyny” online. There, he wages digital war with Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs), who argue that feminism hurts men; Involuntary Celibates (or “Incels,” as they call themselves), who resent women for being too picky to sleep with them; and ‘pick-up artists,’ a loosely organised cabal of men who practice, and sometimes teach, manipulative psychological strategies for getting women into bed.

“I stumbled into this,” Futrelle says, referring to his feminist crusading, “and started arguing with MRAs on Reddit, because I thought their arguments were ridiculous.

“A lot of feminists on the internet have found themselves getting into debates with anti-feminists and MRAs, who show up virtually any time there’s any discussion about feminism online and just start spewing nonsense that has no relation to actual feminism.”

I asked Futrelle why his critique of ‘Women Against Feminism’ was gentler than his verbal warfare against the MRAs in the “manosphere.”

“When I argue with the MRAs,” Futrelle says, “I’m arguing with fairly dedicated ideologues, who spend a fair amount of time thinking about it, and I’m not sure that’s the case with the women who were putting up the signs on WAF.

“They’re more like what I thought the MRAs were at first, people who were misguided and confused. People who were reachable in some way.”

Futrelle’s aim with Confused Cats Against Feminism, however, is not to change the minds of women who argue against feminism, but rather to provide comic relief for feminists who have to deal with them and other anti-feminist diatribes online.

Sometimes, he says, a ridiculous argument doesn’t deserve a rebuttal.

Or, maybe it deserves a rebuttal from cats.

Dodai Stewart, deputy editor of the feminist blog, ‘Jezebel’, which helped release Confused Cats Against Feminism into the wilds of the internet, says she knows why cats help the feminist cause. “For millennia, cats have been associated with women,” she says. “They’re mysterious familiars — domesticated, but not really. Of course, confused cats would cheekily assist in dismantling the patriarchy.”

Futrelle, a cat lover, isn’t sure why Confused Cats Against Feminism has become so big. “It’s resonated in some weird way that I don’t fully understand,” he says. “People keep sending pictures, and I’m posting them as fast as I can justify posting them. At this point, I probably have 200 I haven’t posted yet.”

The message of Confused Cats Against Feminism to the Women Against Feminism seems to be feminist.

Stand up for yourself, the cats proclaim. Be proud you don’t take any guff.

And get that tuna.

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