Nov 05, 2024
Cat Ladies: From The Victorian Parlour to the Presidential Election
Harris is, of course, mother to two stepchildren, which makes the comment even more loaded. On a popular podcast called ‘Call Her Daddy,’ Harris responded to the comment by saying, “We have our family by blood, and then we have our family by love, and I have both, and I consider it to be a real blessing…And I have two beautiful children, Cole and Ella, who call me Momala. We have a very modern family. My husband’s ex-wife is a friend of mine.” So, are we to assume a woman is ‘childless’ if they don’t fit into the traditional idea of a family from the 1950s?
Vance’s comment and the backlash that followed show that the negativity and hostility towards cat ladies is the result of deep-seated misogyny, but how did it become so entrenched in popular culture? In the late nineteenth century, plenty of cat ladies were far from objects of pity or scorn. From 1870 onwards, the cat's transformation from useful pest controller to pampered puss opened new economic and professional opportunities for women from every social class.
High-society felines by Louis Wain from his 1905 Annual
Feline financiers: Frances Simpson
The pre-eminent example is Frances Simpson, a clergyman’s daughter from London, who was the first woman to spot the new ‘cat capitalism’ financial opportunities. Just at the age when she might be expected to settle down and marry her father’s curate, Simpson started breeding cats for profit in the rectory garden. She built up her cat capital slowly, starting with a couple of good queens (breeding females) and then using the profits from selling their kittens to acquire more breeding stock. The aim was to get to the point where her Blue Persians bred ‘true’ by consistently producing kittens that showed no signs of their (inevitable) mixed ancestry. By the 1880s, Miss Simpson was proud to report that she was selling her kittens for 5 guineas a piece. This represented a fortnight’s pay for a skilled workman at the time and is the equivalent of £550 in today’s money.From here, Miss Simpson acquired two studs (breeding males). Now, any cat lady who wanted her female cat to be impregnated by Miss Simpson’s champion boys, Persimmon and Cambyses, simply had to pay a guinea fee and send their queen off on the train for a little rendezvous with her new silky-coated beau. If all went well, eight weeks later, there would be a litter of valuable kittens ready to take to market.
Cat crusades: The Duchess of Bedford
Not all Victorian cat ladies were so keenly commercial. The Duchess of Bedford was a passionate keeper of pet cats. However, since she didn’t need the money (her husband, who owned Woburn Abbey and much else besides, was one of the wealthiest men in Britain), she made no distinction between pedigrees and moggies. One of her favourite animals was Goblin, a rare and valuable Siamese, but she was equally fond of a stray rescued from the streets of London. Her real focus was combating the cruelty and neglect to which cats were often exposed, with perpetrators facing little consequence. To address this, she helped establish ‘The Society for the Protection of Cats’.
She was also the president of the National Cat Club, which caters to pet owners and cat breeders. In early 1901, the Duchess attended a dinner organised to thank the Cats Meat Men of London. These itinerant vendors pushed carts of offal about the streets from which householders could buy food for their cats (think of an ice cream van but selling horsemeat instead). In her after-dinner speech, the Duchess urged the Cats Meat Men to think of themselves as unofficial animal welfare officers and be ready to report any instances where they suspected animal cruelty might occur behind closed doors. Unpretentious and generous, the Duchess passed around the sprouts at the dinner and presented each man as he left with a pouch of tobacco.
Catteries and catastrophes: Lady Decies
Not all aristocratic cat ladies could afford to be so bountiful. One of the saddest stories concerns Lady Decies, who in the 1880s was reckoned to be one of the leading lights of what had become known as ‘the cat fancy’. Her pride and joy was ‘Fulmer Zaida’, a Silver Chinchilla whose record of 500 prizes had never been beaten. In 1900, she was offered £1,100 (over £130,000 in today’s money!) for Zaida, making her the most valuable cat in the world. Lady Decies turned the offer down but did accept a payment for Zaida’s photograph to advertise Ogden cigarettes.
Lady Decies' Zaida by Louis Wain
Gertrude Decies had a magnificent cattery on the grounds of her house in Kent, serviced by kennel maids who looked after the animals in the manner to which they – and she – were accustomed.
Frances Simpson visited Lady Decies cattery and was delighted with what she found “In the house there are three rooms set apart by Lady Decies for her pussies. In two of these the queen mothers have their families, and the other is used as the cats' kitchen. The beds for the cats are specially designed by Lady Decies. The walls of the cats' rooms are adorned with pictures by Louis Wain, and there is a display of prize cards [won by Zaida]…and here, the aristocratic little lady makes herself at home on the soft cushions and couches."
Lady Decies' Silver Champion 'Fulmer Zaida' with her awards
She was also vastly public-spirited, attending endless National Cat Club committee meetings and doing her best to settle everyone down when the fur started to fly. This happened often since the men and women who made up the Club’s committee were temperamentally incapable of getting on with each other – the adage about the impossibility of herding cats comes to mind. Gertrude Decies even managed to keep in with Louis Wain, the eccentric artist and president of the committee who could be guaranteed to upset everyone.
So it is sad to report that such a kind-hearted woman ended up acting out the most wretched of cat lady stereotypes. After the 1910 death of her husband from whom she inherited a fortune (almost as much as Taylor Swift), Lady Decies made the mistake of lending money to her ne’er-do-well brother Sir John Willoughby. A disgraceful reprobate, Willoughby ran through his sister’s money, leaving her so desperate that she was reduced to setting up a rabbit-selling business from her London flat until the neighbours complained about the smell. In her final years, Lady Decies ran a roadside tea shop in rural Sussex, slept in a leaky hut on the edge of a field under her mac, and was delighted with tuppeny tips from passing cyclists, ‘I need them’. She had become that most pitiable of creatures in Vance’s eyes, a ‘miserable cat lady’.
Loud and proud: modern cat ladies
But cat ladies today defy many of the outdated stereotypes. A recent study into the demographic by Ipsos found them to be culturally diverse, typically suburban, educated, with a broad range of incomes. Surprisingly, a third identify as Republican, highlighting their varied perspectives. They represent about 10% of the population.
Perhaps it takes the world’s biggest pop star to help burst the bubble of this outdated archetype. Already known for being a cat lady, Taylor Swift embraces the term with a leonine pride. After a recent Kamala/Trump debate, Swift encouraged her 280 million Instagram followers to vote. Pictured with her ragdoll kitten Benjamin Button, the eminently eligible Swift signed off proudly as ‘childless cat lady’. This modern twist challenges and redefines the old narratives, taking ownership and empowering the term - turning the cat lady into an influential figure that challenges the status quo.
ENDS
About The Author
Kathryn Hughes is a British author, historian, and literary critic known for her engaging books on the Victorian period. We are delighted to announce that Kathryn has become our resident historian and will be writing a series of articles on cat history for the Cheshire & Wain journal.
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