Simon’s cat
Of course I know all Simon’s cats videos. After reading the article my first thought flew to the IR myths we discussed in school earlier this year (more details can be found in Cynthia Webber: “International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction”) and my first impulse was to re-watch the videos and see if I have missed any hidden messages while being totally fascinated by the cuteness of the characters. I know that one of the videos was created to raise awareness of diet issues for dogs (“Simon’s Sister’s Dog”), but otherwise I only see cute cats when watching them. But if I think a little bit more there are some power-issues over there: cat-bird, cat-dog, cat-kitten. I will not go further into this, I am writing a blog not a course paper.
Street Cat Bob
Second issue that got into my mind: cats have taken over the internet. Think Dewey, Bob and Grumpy. All of them became huge stars online, just like Simon’s cat, all of their stories migrated or will migrate to books and/or movies and the press all over the world wrote about them.
Their stories attract the audience because they are clearly emotional and touching pop culture texts (lines read in texts books go through my mind right now) and this is what makes them profitable. Look at me, I have Bob’s books, I read Dewey’s story, watched all Simon’s cats videos, have one of his books and enjoy every Grumpy Cat meme that is online. Plus I subscribed to their Facebook pages.
Grumpy Cat
Some stories were created just for fun (Simon and Grumpy) but some have more than just a background made out of cuteness. Bob helped a drug addict with his recovery and Dewey was a library cat with a bit of love for every person that entered that institution.
There are discussions to transform Dewey’s and Bob’s story into movies, Simon’s cat has a deal with Disney and Grumpy Cat has his own coffee (Grumppuccino) and is the image for Friskies cat food. Add to that lots of other promotional materials, websites, fan pages etc. Meryl Streep is rumored to play Dewey’s savior and owner.
Dewey
And there are some social issues depicted in these media products that at first sight promote cat tales, if you look behind the emotional stories you can identify some political and social problems that are as real and as serious as the feelings created in the audience when coming in contact with the narratives.
Plus the stories didn’t just take over the internet, they took over the world, these cats are global personae.
Spinning Words 