Why GrabByThePussy.com is worth owning
Some domains are valuable because they describe a product. This one is valuable because it names a moment. The phrase comes from the "Access Hollywood" recording that surfaced on October 7, 2016, one month before the presidential election. Within days it was on protest signs, T-shirts and cable news, and it has not gone away since.
I registered the domain that same week. The date is not a coincidence, and it is the main thing the name has going for it: it is the dot-com of a phrase that millions of people recognize on sight, held since the week the phrase entered the language.
Let me be direct about what you are buying. This is a controversial name. It references a crude remark by a public figure, and it was turned around by critics, satirists and the women who organized the 2017 marches. You should be comfortable with that before you send an offer. If the controversy is a problem for you, it will be a problem for your customers too.
"I registered this one on October 7, 2016, the day the tape was all over the news. I did not have a plan for it. I just knew the phrase was going to stick around, and it did."
Amir Cohen, AmirCohenStudio.com
What can be built on GrabByThePussy.com
The phrase has already been used for satire, protest merchandise and feminist reclamation, most visibly through the pink pussyhat that became the symbol of the January 2017 Women's March. Projects that fit the name:
- A protest merchandise store selling shirts, hats, pins and signs, with a share of proceeds going to a cause the owner picks.
- A political satire site or newsletter that comments on campaigns and public figures and does not pretend to be neutral about the joke.
- A podcast or video series about the 2016 election, the marches that followed, or how a single recording changed political speech.
- A documentary or book project that needs a memorable home for trailers, screenings and press.
- An activism or voter-turnout campaign that wants a name people will remember from a bumper sticker.
- An oral-history archive collecting stories from people who marched in 2017.
Satire has a long record of protection under U.S. law, and the phrase itself is a quotation, not a trademark. That said, I am not a lawyer, and you should talk to one before you print ten thousand shirts.
The phrase, the marches, and why it still matters
The January 21, 2017 Women's March was one of the largest single-day demonstrations in U.S. history. Political scientists Erica Chenoweth (then at the University of Denver) and Jeremy Pressman of the University of Connecticut compiled crowd counts from hundreds of cities and estimated that between 3.3 million and 5.2 million people marched in the United States that day. The pussyhat, knitted by volunteers from a free pattern, was the visual shorthand for the whole event.
Nearly a decade on, the phrase still gets pulled out every election cycle, in op-eds, on late-night shows and on merchandise tables. Interest spikes and fades with the news, which is something a buyer should plan around. A site built on this name will be busier in October of an election year than in a quiet spring.
"I will say this plainly: it is a controversial name. If you have to explain to your board why you own it, you are probably not the buyer. If you already run a protest shop or a satire podcast, you get it in two seconds."
Amir Cohen, AmirCohenStudio.com
What the name "Grab By The Pussy" means
The phrase comes from a recording made in 2005 on an "Access Hollywood" bus. The Washington Post published that recording on October 7, 2016, one month before the presidential election. On it, Donald Trump, then the Republican nominee, made a crude remark about women that included the phrase. I will not quote the full line here. A search turns it up in seconds, and the wording is not the point of this page.
What happened next is the point. Within hours the words were a headline. Within days, critics had turned them around. Women posted their own stories under hashtags. Comedians built sketches on the line. Street artists printed it on posters. By the January 21, 2017 Women's March, the phrase and the pink knitted pussyhat, designed by Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman and shared as a free pattern, had become the visual shorthand for the protests.
The domain carries the phrase with the pronoun dropped, which is how it often appeared on signs and shirts. People read it in one of several ways:
- A protest slogan, repeated by marchers to put the speaker's own words back in front of him.
- A reclaimed term, used by feminist writers and artists who refuse to let the word stay an insult.
- A satire hook, the kind of line that late-night shows return to every election cycle.
- A merchandise line, printed on shirts, pins, mugs and the pussyhat itself.
- A historical marker, a date that political scientists and oral historians use when they discuss the 2016 election.
- A crude remark, which is what it was when it was recorded, and what some visitors will see first.
I want to be plain about this. The name is provocative. It was provocative the day the tape aired and it still is. Satire lands on whoever holds power, so the name is not owned by one party. But a buyer needs to be comfortable with a domain that some people will find offensive on sight, and should expect that some payment processors, ad networks and social platforms will balk at the word. If you have to talk yourself into it, this is not your name.
Industries and businesses related to GrabByThePussy.com
This is a niche name, and the niche is political. Here is where it fits.
Political satire media
Satire sites, newsletters and video channels run on recognizable hooks, and few phrases from the past decade are more recognizable than this one. A satire outlet could use the name as a brand for its election coverage, or as a standalone project that goes live each campaign season and goes quiet in between.
- Satirical news sites and paid newsletters
- Political cartoon and meme publishers
- Short-form video channels covering campaigns
Protest merchandise and print-on-demand
The phrase has sold shirts since the week it surfaced. A print-on-demand store runs with no inventory and can switch designs as the news changes, and giving a share of proceeds to a chosen cause gives the store a reason to exist beyond the joke. Read the content policies of your printer and payment processor first. Some of them draw the line at this word.
- T-shirt, pin and tote stores
- Knitting pattern and pussyhat kit sellers
- Protest sign and poster printers
Podcasts and documentary projects
Nearly a decade on, the 2016 election is history, which makes it documentary material. A podcast on the campaign, the tape and the marches, or a film about the women who organized them, needs a home for episodes, trailers and press. This name does that job on sight.
Activism and voter campaigns
Turnout groups, especially those focused on women voters, have used the phrase to drive registration. A short domain on a bumper sticker or a march sign sends people somewhere. The crowd count compiled by Erica Chenoweth and Jeremy Pressman put the 2017 Women's March at between 3.3 and 5.2 million participants in the U.S., which shows how large that audience was at its peak.
- Voter registration drives
- Advocacy groups and political committees
- March and rally organizers
Comedy and stand-up
Comedians have mined the line since 2016. A touring comic, a sketch troupe or a comedy festival with a political bent could use the domain for a show title, a tour page or a filmed special. The name does half the marketing before the poster is printed.
Academic and oral-history archives
Universities and libraries collect protest ephemera, and the 2017 marches produced a lot of it: signs, hats, photographs, interviews. An archive that gathers those materials under a name people remember from the marches makes sense, and a university partner could point a project page here.
One thing ties all of these together. Surveys by Pew Research Center have found year after year that most U.S. adults say they follow news about politics at least some of the time, and attention climbs in election years. A site on this name will see the same rhythm. Plan for the spikes.
"A plain domain sells a product. This one sells a memory. Anyone who was paying attention in October 2016 reads it and knows the year, the tape and the marches without a word of explanation. For a satire show or a protest shop, that recognition is the whole marketing plan."
Amir Cohen, AmirCohenStudio.com
Who searches for a name like this
Search interest in the phrase follows the news cycle. It spiked in October 2016, again in January 2017, and it returns every election season. The people typing it fall into a few groups.
Students and journalists checking the date and the source of the quote. Shoppers looking for a shirt, a pin or a pussyhat pattern before a march. Podcast listeners and documentary viewers chasing a reference they just heard. Collectors and archivists hunting protest ephemera. And domain investors who watch cultural phrases the way other people watch stock tickers.
Their searches look like this:
- grab them by the pussy tape date
- access hollywood tape transcript
- pussyhat pattern free
- women's march 2017 how many people
- grab by the pussy shirt
- grabbythepussy.com
Most of those searches are informational, not commercial, so a site here has to earn its keep with content or a product that answers the question. I do not promise rankings for any domain, this one included. What the name gives you is recognition. The visitor who lands on it already knows the reference.
How to buy GrabByThePussy.com
The mechanics are the same as for any domain I sell. It goes like this:
- Send an offer through the form on this page with a number and a short description of your project. I reply to serious offers within one business day.
- Agree on a price by email. I will consider a payment plan or lease-to-own for a project with a real plan behind it.
- Pay through Escrow.com. Neither of us hands anything over until the escrow service confirms the other side is covered.
- Receive the domain. It is registered at GoDaddy. A push to your GoDaddy account takes minutes; a transfer to another registrar takes up to five days.
- Point the DNS at your store, podcast host or landing page and start using the name.
Five things to check before buying any domain
I give this list to every client, and it applies here with a few specifics:
- Registration date. GrabByThePussy.com was registered on October 7, 2016. You can confirm that through any public WHOIS lookup, and the date lines up with the day the recording was published.
- Expiration status. The domain expires in October 2027 and is being renewed. Nobody is going to lose it in the middle of a deal.
- Past content. Check the Wayback Machine. I have never pointed this name at a live site, so there is no archive of old pages, good or bad, to inherit.
- Trademark exposure. Run the phrase through the USPTO database. Satirical and political uses of a well-known quotation are generally hard to monopolize, but check for yourself and ask a lawyer about your specific product.
- Platform policies. Some ad networks and payment processors are touchy about the word in the name. Read their rules before you build a store that depends on them.
Who should not buy this domain
Do not buy this name for a mainstream brand, a professional services firm or anything a client might need to explain to their board. It is also a bad fit for an adult-content site; the value is in the political reference, not the words on their own. And I will not sell it to anyone who plans to use it to harass or target a private individual. Beyond that, I do not care which side of the aisle you sit on. Satire cuts in every direction.
"Every few years someone emails me about this domain around election season. I have never pointed it at a site myself. I would rather it go to somebody who will actually use it than keep renewing it out of habit."
Amir Cohen, AmirCohenStudio.com
About the seller
I am Amir Cohen, a web designer and SEO consultant in Denver, Colorado. I have built websites since the late 1990s, and I run AmirCohenStudio.com. I hold a small group of domains I registered for projects or clients, and this is the oddest one in the group. It has been parked since 2016. If you buy it and want a site built, I can do that, but the sale does not depend on it.
Ready to make an offer?
Use the form on this page. Tell me what the project is, who it is for, and what the name is worth to you. I answer every real inquiry, and I will tell you straight if I think the name is the wrong fit for what you describe.