When I bring up the subject of cats on this blog, as I so often do, it’s party because, well, I’m a bit of a fan. But it’s also because I know it confuses and irritates the misogynists who read this blog, inveterate cat-haters all (or almost all). I’ve never quite understood the depth of the animosity the guys in the manosphere seem to have towards cats.
But now one of these cat haters has provided us with a theoretical explanation for his catphobia. In a post with the suggestive title “Limp-Wristed Cat Lovers, Beautiful Dog Lovers,” the guy behind the PUA blog LaidInNYC explains why real men — and real women — hate cats and love dogs instead.
Dogs are loyal, obedient, and affectionate.
Masculine men love these qualities in our companions, and they are qualities we want in our women as well.
Cats are selfish, independent, and alpha.
Masculine men hate these qualities in our companions. This is because masculine men are the owners, not the owned.
Huh. It’s weird how these descriptions of “alpha males” often read like confessions of massive insecurity. So “masculine men” are so insecure they can’t stand being challenged even by their pets? They’re so threatened by the independence of other creatures that they can’t tolerate a pet that might sometimes wander off into another room to take a nap?
But according to Mr. LaidInNYC, it’s the cat-loving dudes who are the sissies:
95% of men who love cats are either gay or have sub fantasies*. If you like cats, you like not being in control.
Well, all except for a small-percentage of super-alpha dudes who are so manly they can tame even the mighty housecat:
There are a small percentage of straight alpha seducers that like to own cats. The reason is they love dominating an already dominant living thing. They like to stare down and dominate their cats just because they can.
Welcome to my world.
Well, ok, sometimes the cats stare me down.
But what about the women? If masculine men love dogs, shouldn’t feminine women love cats? Then why do manosphere dudes so regularly hurl abuse on women with cats?
Well, LaidInNYC has an answer for that: it turns out that truly feminine women actually prefer dogs to cats, but for a totally different reason than men.
While men love the loyalty and obedience, girls are much more likely to coo over a dogs unconditional love, furry cuddles, and “look how cute he looks when he does that thing with his paw” type stuff.
Feminine girls love their dogs but they don’t enjoy training them, letting them run in an open field and feeling pride when the dog comes right back when called, punishing them when necessary, etc. …
Most of the feminine dog lovers I know already have strong male dominance types in their life, be it a strong father, boyfriend, or husband, and they just like the dog as another source of love. … cats are superfluous when you have a man to obey.
It’s a different story indeed for “the masculine, ugly, old, short-haired, barren feminists who end up being cat ladies.”
Ugly masculine girls, on the other hand, cannot find a male to dominate them in their social life because they lack the beauty. Since being dominated by a strong independent entity who doesn’t need her is so important to a woman, she must seek out that domination. Ugly girls find this in either a career, feminism, cats, or some combination of the three.
A job, a cat, some feminism: the holy trinity of MISANDRY.
I’m not not exactly sure how any of these things “dominate” women, but since Mr. LaidInNYC doesn’t actually seem to know anything about anything, I guess I’ll let that one slide.
In the meantime, I would like to treat you all to pictures of some of the evil independent creatures that make alpha males tremble in fear:
Awww, fedora cat is a cute little fedora cat.
I’ve just published another post that includes trippy images. Click on my head if you’re interested. 😀
Where do people find these adorable little hats to put on their kitties?
AAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh fractals!
Okay, I just had to go and look for fractal cats, didn’t I? And I had to go and find a downright scary one, didn’t I? And then I had to go and link to it, didn’t I?
I’m not altogether sure it isn’t the Cat David Collective, though. The expression could be their reaction to one of Owly’s more spectacularly bizarre efforts.
Speaking of trippy pictures, here is a cat WHO HAS TAKEN THE RED PILL.
http://media-cache-ak3.pinimg.com/736x/70/44/d8/7044d807ee236fdd6ba09cfc1dac385a.jpg
Don’t worry cat. Do you clean up the human’s poop? No? Then you’re clearly in charge.
@Summer: Well, my personal experience is also limited to dogs who live with humans, and I do think a sort of parent-offspring relationship tends to develop between us… But I’ve known elderly people who used to have outdoor dogs in their youth for instance, and from what they’ve told me, it doesn’t seem that these dogs were particularly neurotic merely because they had to take care of themselves to a large extent. I think a dog will usually find ways to handle various situations even without a human being to protect zir and train zir – zie might simply run off from things that seem scary, and be content as soon as she’s put some distance between zirself and the scary thing, for instance (just like cats do). And there are also lots of dogs that are fairly fearless and happy-go-lucky by nature.
I’ve heard lots of dog people claim that disobedient dogs are automatically unhappy, because these dogs go around with a feeling of having loads of alpha responsibility dumped on their shoulders. Obedience training makes them happier, because the dog will then feel that the burdensome alpha responsibility is lifted from zir shoulders and taken up by the human being instead. I think this line of thinking is anthropomorphizing the dogs… I don’t really think dogs think in terms of responsibility like that.
For instance, lots of dogs will bark angrily at other dogs they meet during a walk. I don’t think that’s particularly problematic for the dog zirself if zie rarely meets another dog and therefore rarely has to bark. I mean, from the dogs POW, it works. Zie barks at the dog coming towards zir, and that dog soon goes away again. If zie meets lots of other dogs during walks, I think it’s a problem for zir because it’s stressful to bark all the time, but that’s it. I don’t think zie’s thinking something along the lines of “I’m having responsibility for protecting the pack, that’s more responsibility than I can handle, I wish a human being would take responsibility for pack protection so I wouldn’t have to” – that’s anthropomorphizing IMO.
I think that if a previously disobedient dog seems happier after some obedience training, it’s probably because a) performing arousing behaviours over and over and over again eventually becomes stressful, so if the dog is trained not to do that zie will become more relaxed, and b) less conflicts with humans. But it’s not because the dog has some advanced thoughts regarding pack structure and responsibility.
Maybe you weren’t talking about that either, but since I’ve heard this line of reasoning quite often, I read something like that into your first post.
Wasn’t sure where to drop this off, but I think http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/fathers4justice-family-courts-f4j you guys might find that interesting. The comments are as trolly as you would expect.
@Monster
You know, my initial thought on reading the OP was that someone determined to “dominate” their pet is likely to end up abusing it into submission. This bit you quoted doesn’t exactly allay my concern for these guys’ pets…
Off topic again, but does anyone know what doves are like as pets? They seem kind of like cats, since they’re chill but still like to cuddle occasionally, but with no fur or hunting.
@Sittie
I’ve actually heard people say that dogs won’t obey women. I bet some of these guys would latch onto that meme if they heard it.
@Thread
Budgies! I love parrots, and would love to have a cockatiel or a budgie, but my partner doesn’t really want one. This would be after the cat eventually passes away, anyway.
@Ellex
Also, Patrick Stewart.
And that pic of Christina Ricci and her cat scowling at the camera is adorbs. But that Nicole Kidman shot is from a movie (Practical Magic), so I wonder how many others are…
@Historophilia
As it happens, I keep an emergency kitty around
And finally, on the topic of men and cats (sorry if this has been posted already, but it’s one of my favorites):
that… was adorable…
I love the Engineer’s Guide to Cats!
RE: SittieKitty
I loaded your bonus sketch!
o/ Yay!! That looks awesome.
I loved this! The media induced belief that cats are evil, unmanly, ‘gay’. It really annoys me. Especially being a 21 year old guy who has spent his whole life with cats. My m00-cat is like my best friend. But yeah, while I was scrolling down and got to the pictures, I kept pulling the faces of the cats as I got to each one. Lol.
Robert Parker started a series late in his life with a female protagonist: Tough, and she kept a boston terrier.
His more famous series had a protagonist who kept German Shorthairs, but that’s a male lead (and those dogs were spoiled, in a minor way: you could also tell the dogs were Mary Sues for Parker’s dog. When one died, and another was obtained, there was a shift in personalityl; the author photo also had a new dog).
Wow, their language is revealing. They just want women who will be obedient and loyal, like dogs! Is that really too much to ask? Ladies, start obeying your owners – er I mean, husbands.
Holy shit. These people are really beyond parody, aren’t they?
For some reason this line made me laugh my ass off:
“I stated this theory on twitter and I was very satisfied with it.”
Aw, look at that little researcher go! The scientific method in action right there!
Hilariously pathetic. Don’t worry—they’ll die off and their kids will probably hate them.
And OH MY GOD THAT LITTLE BLACK CAT IN THE SINK AWWWWWWWW.
Any man who associates his manhood with being kinder to certain types of animals over others has no idea what being a man is about. This guy is trying way too hard.
That was so funny and so true! LOL Thank you!
Cats are nicer looking than dogs.
I don’t know about those theories about men and women and cats. Most of the men I’ve dated, (straight then and still straight today, also very sexy and manly men), as well as my current husband love cats. The few guys I dated who didn’t like cats were not good looking, and they ended up being abusive. As a woman, I am more ladylike than average, and I am not much of a dog person, no do I own any nor plan to ever. I love cats, and it’s not because I am manless, as I am happily married to a straight manly man who loves cats. So whoever came up with these theories is absolutely wrong, and my life is proof. Just sayin.
I’m an alpha male and always preferred cats. Cats are natural hunters, I like that about them. While independent they are also easy to get close to if you raise them from kittens. Now dogs I can’t stand, they try to damn hard, always underfoot, wagging their tails, looking for attention, trying way too hard. Some think its not manly to like cats, I think it shows supreme confidence in who you are as a man to admit you like them & dare anyone to question it.
Speaking of “trying too damn hard”…