What does Cat Person mean?

It seemed to me that neither one actually wanted to have sex with each other. But they did so anyway "just to be polite", and /or because they couldn't think of anything else to do together that evening.

Well my impression of Michigan just dropped ten-fold. http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=2206983

Horribly written.

I listened to it today, read aloud by the author. I hated it (I am female), but it could have been the author's vocal fry turned me off. That being said, I found myself in similar situations at the age of 20.

I thought it was very relatable and captured a realistic interaction.

Robert has a belly and is a bit hairy. That much was said. As he was not described as good looking or attractive and these flaws highlighted, it's reasonable to infer he is unattractive, or very average looking as men go.

Attractive women are not likely to go out with unattractive men. Especially 20 year old women versus 34 year old men. Even if Margot didn't know the man's age till later, it will still be obvious he's more than a decade older (you cannot hide ageing features such as receding hairlines, expanding bellies, coarsening of skin, nor do men do). There's a huge difference between 20 year old boys and 34 year old men in appearances. If there was something else to connect them, a passionate interest in a certain type of music or activity, I could accept the likelihood of an attractiveness gap. But in this case there is nothing. I am reasonably justified in inferring Margot is not a particularly pretty girl, and if she is attractive, it's in the way all 20 year old girls are attractive in the bloom of youth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woman here.

I know this is written so that we'll feel sympathetic to the narrator but honestly the person I feel bad for is Robert. THIS is why you don't have sex on the first date: so you don't have to force yourself to fuck a guy you find repulsive just because it's too awkward to say no and get out of there.

They had been talking for how many months before they slept together?

They hadn't been hanging out in person though. It's his physical self that repulses her - fat hairy belly in particular.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unattractive girl starts flirting with unattractive older man. She later finds out fantasy is better than reality and dude is likely too old for her. Sex is awkward, which she expected it to be, and she dumps him. Man, who had been somewhat distant till she starts pursuing him, likely feels betrayed.

Am I missing anything?

Yes, you are missing the fact that he fails to bow out gracefully and when girl does not return his texts he escalates it to the point that he has to stalk her and call her a whore.

How did you miss that.

Np.

And did you miss the part where she basically ghosts him, allows her friend to text him a cruel let down, then told all her friends about him and turned him into a big joke? She sees him in a bar and instead of saying hi like a mature person lets her friends hustle her out of there like he's going to kill her?

Soooo immature even for 20.

Plus let's not forget she started the whole thing but saying she wanted to have sex then not telling him when she changed her mind! He didn't rape her. She instigated all of it, even when he started to gross her out, she kept going.

Anonymous wrote:Woman here.

I know this is written so that we'll feel sympathetic to the narrator but honestly the person I feel bad for is Robert. THIS is why you don't have sex on the first date: so you don't have to force yourself to fuck a guy you find repulsive just because it's too awkward to say no and get out of there.

They had been talking for how many months before they slept together?

Anonymous wrote:Unattractive girl starts flirting with unattractive older man. She later finds out fantasy is better than reality and dude is likely too old for her. Sex is awkward, which she expected it to be, and she dumps him. Man, who had been somewhat distant till she starts pursuing him, likely feels betrayed.

Am I missing anything?

Yes, you are missing the fact that he fails to bow out gracefully and when girl does not return his texts he escalates it to the point that he has to stalk her and call her a whore.

How did you miss that.

This part made me laugh:

“Good night,” she said, and then she opened the door and escaped. By the time she got to her room, she already had a text from him: no words, just hearts and faces with heart eyes and, for some reason, a dolphin.

Anonymous wrote:Woman here.

I know this is written so that we'll feel sympathetic to the narrator but honestly the person I feel bad for is Robert. THIS is why you don't have sex on the first date: so you don't have to force yourself to fuck a guy you find repulsive just because it's too awkward to say no and get out of there.

I am not sure the intention is for us to feel sorry for Margot. She said not particularly sympathetic. I was yelling at her in my head the whole time. But I was also Margot at 20, getting myself into situations I had no business being in and carelessly affecting people without a bit of understanding or care for the rubble left in my wake.

Woman here.

I know this is written so that we'll feel sympathetic to the narrator but honestly the person I feel bad for is Robert. THIS is why you don't have sex on the first date: so you don't have to force yourself to fuck a guy you find repulsive just because it's too awkward to say no and get out of there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unattractive girl starts flirting with unattractive older man. She later finds out fantasy is better than reality and dude is likely too old for her. Sex is awkward, which she expected it to be, and she dumps him. Man, who had been somewhat distant till she starts pursuing him, likely feels betrayed.

Am I missing anything?

What makes you think she was unattractive? I pictured her as being very attractive. Why else would this random dude ask her out?

Even if she isn't, Margot's appearance is never described. Yet this person just states as fact she's unattractive. It's kind of fascinating.