'Cat Person' Trends On Twitter Again, Giving The Site War Flashbacks To 2017

If you were extremely online in 2017, you likely remember the mini Twitter apocalypse caused by a New Yorker short story called "Cat Person."

The story, released at the dawn of the #MeToo Movement, gives an account of a young woman, Margot, who goes on a date with an older man, Robert. The two go have a bad experience that does not live up to her expectations, as they share an awkward kiss and bad sex. At the end of the story, Robert shares a series of depressed, angry text messages with Margot and calls her a whore.

At the time of the story's release, it was lauded by women who identified with Margot's situation and the threatening aura of Robert's demeanor. It caused much discourse over the course of several weeks in late December of 2017, but also a lot of jokes because of its extremely uncomfortable cover image:

The story was thrown back into the limelight three and a half years later when, this morning, Slate posted a story by Alexis Nowicki, who claimed that "Cat Person," written by Kristen Roupenian, was based on her personal experience. Nowicki says she does not know Roupenian, leaving the question: how is that possible?

"The similarities to my own life were eerie," writes Nowicki.

"The protagonist was a girl from my small hometown who lived in the dorms at my college and worked at the art house theater where I’d worked and dated a man in his 30s, as I had. I recognized the man in the story, too. His appearance (tall, slightly overweight, with a tattoo on his shoulder). His attire (rabbit fur hat, vintage coat). His home (fairy lights over the porch, a large board game collection, framed posters). It was a vivid description of 'Charles' a pseudonym Nowicki uses for the man in her past. But that felt impossible. Could it be a wild coincidence? Or did Roupenian, a person I’d never met, somehow know about me?"

Over the course of her essay, she details how her relationship with "Charles" mirrored that depicted in "Cat Person," and clarifies that the central sex scene in the short story was not true to her own life. She also says that she sent the story to Charles after it first came out, and he said, "This is weird! it is very disparaging to the guy, am I a slimeball?" In late 2020, Charles passed away, and while discussing his life with friends, a friend Nowicki calls "David" confesses that Charles knew Kristen Roupenian, and the inspiration for "Cat Person" came from her and Charles' relationship.

Nowicki emailed Roupenian after learning this, and Roupenian confirmed:

When I was living in Ann Arbor, I had an encounter with a man. I later learned, from social media, that this man previously had a much younger girlfriend. I also learned a handful of facts about her: that she worked in a movie theater, that she was from a town adjacent to Ann Arbor, and that she was an undergrad at the same school I attended as a grad student. Using those facts as a jumping-off point, I then wrote a story that was primarily a work of the imagination, but which also drew on my own personal experiences, both past and present. In retrospect, I was wrong not to go back and remove those biographical details, especially the name of the town. Not doing so was careless.

The essay is a fascinating examination of what it's like to have your life go viral, and the weird sensation of being one of the few people who know a famous work of fiction is based on you. Nowicki also details the way Charles was a much kinder and more generous person than Robert in "Cat Person" and their relationship wasn't as fraught as it was portrayed in the story.

The essay made "Cat Person" a trending topic on Twitter yet again as people debated Roupenian's choice to write a story based off people she knew, but most of the reaction was people exasperated that "Cat Person" discourse returned at all.

Regardless of what side you fall on in the latest "Cat Person" brouhaha, it is, if nothing else, fascinating that a short story about bad sex has entered its fourth year of captivating the internet.