How to explain the "Childless Cat Lady" phenom?

1. The world is not vastly overpopulated. We have no prior experience of the long term process of societies declining in population in the modern world. The closest example we probably have is the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent Dark Ages. The Rennaisance, the Englightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the remarkable technological progress of the 20th century, was all fuelled and made possible by population growth. We have no idea if a population decline can be managed, or if in the real world a country that allows its population to decline will not simply be swallowed up by a country that doesn't. This could either be through economic necessity, such as Germans replacing themselves with Syrians and Turks, or through force, which is arguably what is happening to the Ukraine, whose population declined from 52 million to 38 million in the space of 30 years, and which simply doesn't have enough men to prevent Russia from gobbling away at its land.

2. Lol, you're referring solely to Christianity in the West, which is being rapidly replaced by Islam, which will be a solution of sorts to the declining population problem.

3. In other words, women are acting selfishly, and putting their careers and personal pleasure above the very survival of the society that produced them.

Those who preach population decline are just nihilistic virtue signaling lefties justifying their own selfish materialistic, and egocentric world views.

One of the reasons I'm certain Trump is in trouble this election is this board. It was all in on him in 2020, now not so much

Want a perfect partner but they best Males dont want them. Too vain to settle for less so only cat is left

The birth rate of Mormons, Catholics, and much of the 3rd world will ensure the human race comes nowhere close to extinction. People worrying about a declining birth rate are worrying about a non-problem.

subpar man identified

Which most women become by 35.

Shrinking pool of alpha males.

Males and females don't know how to communicate anymore.

Lazy males and females.

1. Not only did you give zero evidence to support the bizarre statement that the world is not overpopulated, you cited random historical moments as somehow "benefits" of drastic and unsustainable population growth. While population growth certainly forced certain developments and discoveries, it is wildly misleading at best to say it is the reason for something like the Renaissance or the Enlightenment. Given the state of the world today, poverty, starvation, inequality, war, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and climate change - not to mention the slavery, genocides, and world wars that occurred - find it absolutely ridiculous to preach the course of history as we know it, particularly the overpopulation part which contributed to tensions that led to much of that strife, as a good thing.

2. Lol, I am referring to nearly all major organized religions, not just Christianity. In general, organized religions preach "family" first. They pressure people mindlessly into reproducing, and women particularly are made to feel as if it is the sole reason for their existence.

3. Women, oppressed, beaten, raped, and treated as less than by men for the course of human history, are being selfish because they don't want their entire lives to revolve around having 5-10 children? Spoken like someone who either has never been laid, or who had their child bride pimp'd to them by their pastor in Utah.

4. You did a good job in that last sentence in listing off a lot of alt-right buzz words. My guess is you have a Ron Paul bumper sticker (though you're still not sure what you'd do if there was ever a hurricane or flood and FEMA had been eliminated), probably wear a Reagan '84 re-election t-shirt without realizing he supported gun control and immigrant rights, and you do your part and re-share a lot of Elon Musk conspiracy theory tweets (ever since he took over X, he was a lost lib before that, right?).

And here’s another guy that can’t get any!

yeah there's some hardcore incel energy in here.

unless you're from Britain, you're a low quality white misspelling the word travelers.

In fact America is filled with low quality whites. They came here in droves and massacred entire civilizations of Natives. Their letsrunning descendants seem to think they spontaneously combusted within the borders of a wealthy white nation because they were "high quality," while "low qualities" were born in poor black countries. Logic!

Ignorant, racist, and stupid is no way to go through life son.

Is one of your hobbies burying bodies? I've listened to enough real crime pods and you sort of fit the description.

He's just young. When he's older and figures out his life has absolutely no meaning whatsoever he will wish he waste so much time being a narcissist.

Too many Muslims, low quality black "gang" types, fanatical religious folk, Chinese etc. These are the types that should be excluded from white western countries.

If you're actually interested in understanding the issue (and not just insinuating that modernity has wrought a monolith of selfish women who keep their affection and childbearing away from men out of spite or self-indulgence), then the new book What Are Children For? by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman would likely be interesting to you.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250276131/whatarechildrenfor

"Childless Cat Ladies" is one of those terms that is frequently mentioned in common parlance, despite meaning different things to different people. Looking at my own experience and the people I know in my own life, here are a few of the stances or reasons women may have for delaying or forgoing marriage and/or children.

1. Many educated and/or professional women, whether partnered or not, are waiting to get through graduate school and the introductory stages of their careers before having kids. Elite business schools are primarily two years of networking and social events; unless you want to forgo all the dinners out and trips abroad with your B-school classmates, or you have a spouse (usually a wife) who is willing to solo parent while you attend all those outings, it doesn't really make sense to bring kids into the picture at that stage of life. Likewise, medical and law schools (and residencies and clerkships) often require a few moves and undesirable work schedules. It's not that you can't have kids in that time, but if you want to actually see much of your kids during those early years and neither parent is going to stay home full-time, it makes sense to wait. I'm close with a couple in their late twenties/early thirties who just started as attending doctors and want four kids. They've waited to get through residency before trying, and their choices of specialties (peds and family med) were partially influenced by wanting to finish residencies and fellowships on the early side so that they can start parenting with decent work schedules.

2. It's not always easy for women to find male partners. There's a stereotype that women are too picky, looking for 6/6/6, only going after 20% of men, etc. However, I know plenty of women who aren't nearly as shallow as incels and MRA-online types would like to believe, but who are still struggling to find a man. They want a man who listens to them, is an interesting conversationalist, is kind to their friends and family, takes on an equitable share of household tasks, emotionally supports their pursuits, and expects her to be a partner, rather than a second mother. None of those things require height, a six-pack, or a high income, but they're still not that easy to find. Yes, women also want to have kids with a man who provides a sense of stability, but that often just means "has a middle-class job or is on a path to get there" rather than splashy wealth.

Most of the single women I know are settled in decent careers and put effort into building lives they enjoy. This could mean participating in walking clubs, book clubs, fitness classes, D&D groups, etc; they're planning day and weekend trips with friends or, yes, spending time with beloved pets. These women do not typically fit a stereotype of being undesirable in looks and/or social skills. They likely have some sort of regular fitness routine, know how to cook well for themselves, and spend time socializing both with female friends and those friends' male partners. These women are putting effort into creating enjoyable lives, and, while they may actively want to find a male partner, they also aren't going to upturn their enjoyable life to settle for any man. That doesn't mean they're picky in a shallow sense-- it means they would rather stay single than be with a man who they don't like (or, commonly, a man who doesn't even like them, but wants a woman for sex/cooking/cleaning or the societal approval of being partnered).

3. As an earlier poster mentioned, there does seem to be a Russian-roulette element to having children. You can do everything in your power to establish a stable, nurturing, enriching, environment in which to procreate, but that doesn't guarantee that your children won't experience serious challenges (physical, developmental, mental/emotional) that can radically alter your time and finances for longer than just their early childhood years. I don't mean to imply that parents of kids with special needs don't love their kids or shouldn't have had them; I'm just saying that you never know whether you'll have a "typical," well adjusted kid or a kid with severe borderline personality disorder or a congenital condition that means they'll need assistance with feeding/dressing/toileting/etc. for the rest of their life. The ways that those spins of the wheel can alter not just your middle age but your retirement years and finances can be stark. Parents have always had to make those choices, but now that being childfree has become more societally accepted, I think more people are honest about deciding that they aren't comfortable with the risks and uncertainty of being responsible for bringing new people, whatever their needs and challenges may be, into the world.

There are other things I could mention, but this comment is already too long. Really, though, that book may be useful to you if you find yourself frequently considering this topic.

i could get into women's liberation but that would be taking the bait. this is an amorphous slogan slur like "woke" to be used against women whose choices or politics you don't like, by conservative suburbanites and incel type men. it's amorphous because i have heard it lobbed at women of varying attractiveness, marriage statuses, and gender preferences. as well as step-parents. it's a slur because it's intended less as descriptive and precise, and more to rip on people. just like politics you don't like are "woke," women without their own children who you don't like are "cat ladies" label now.