On Saturday Night Live, Kate McKinnon plays Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a silly, slightly nasty old lady with an uncomfortable white-lady-talks-black shtick. In the new documentary RBG, Ginsburg is shown watching the clip and lightly chuckling to herself. When it ends, she lifts her gaze and flutters her eyes in what could be an elderly twinkle or a light wink—but could also be an extremely subtle eye roll.
Like a cat, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is small and cunning, and it’s cute when she naps in places she shouldn’t. And so the internet, having apparently exhausted its cat resources, claimed Ginsburg for its own. Over the last few years, thanks to Tumblr and the increasingly blurry lines between politics and entertainment, this brilliant legal scholar has been turned into “the Notorious RBG,” often pictured with a big-ass crown on her slight noggin. Every blistering dissent Ginsburg dropped gave millennials “all teh feels,” as we say. (We’re awful.) Because she’s so smart about having opinions we like! And she’s small! Like a cat!