+34
Men who love cats are increasingly celebrated as cat dads, challenging old stereotypes. Owners Ashkan Teymouri and Greg Beazley share how their feline companions changed their lives, as experts point to shifting gender norms.
Men who love cats are increasingly celebrated as cat dads, challenging outdated stereotypes. Owners like Ashkan Teymouri and Greg Beazley share how their feline companions changed their lives.
Cat Ownership and Modern Masculinity
Experts say this shift reflects changing gender norms and a rejection of toxic masculinity. Growing up in Iran, Ashkan Teymouri was surrounded by cats but never had one of his own until migrating to Australia over a decade ago.
First there was Mamoosh, a beautiful Persian who offered companionship and familiarity in his early, often lonely, years in Melbourne. During the pandemic, he adopted three British Shorthair kittens: Mini, Circe and Jay Jay. The trio has, in no uncertain terms, changed his life and emotional world, teaching him patience and responsibility. They don't like to be approached very harshly.
You have to be so slow with them and take your time to get their trust. But it's rewarding, says Teymouri, 36. So devoted is the tradesman to his cats that his last relationship ended in part because of them. Jay Jay escaped and eventually died last year.
His partner at the time, who never liked his cats, showed a lack of sympathy to Jay Jay's loss, which Teymouri considered the final straw. When I lost him, I went through an absolute mental crash. I can't tell you. I couldn't go to work because I was crying, and she said, Just be strong, Teymouri recalls.
How Cats Change Men's Lives
The way he looked up at me was with gratefulness. While some cat lovers like Teymouri are born that way, others, like Greg Beazley, are made. I grew up with a dog, so I always assumed I was a dog person, he says. But it didn't take long for a kitten named Pom Pom to win his heart.
Very quickly, I was like, Oh man, cats are just amazing. There are so many pros to a cat as opposed to a dog: they're toilet trained, they show the right amount of affection and not overly so, like they're not always in your face, they don't have to get washed, and they can fend for themselves, says Beazley, 42.
In the past year, Yoo and Beazley's family has expanded to include rescues Bewty, named by their five-year-old daughter, and Skipper, who started as a foster cat but engendered strong emotions in his dad. He was covered in ringworm, and we treated him very carefully over the coming months.
But what really sold me on him was that he came in very skittish and shy, and as soon as we showed him some love, it was like he never felt that before, says Beazley. The way he looked up at me was with gratefulness. From Zsa Zsa Gabor to Sade, Emily Bronte to Taylor Swift, pop culture is full of cat ladies, often with adjectives like crazy or single tacked on.
Cat Dads Challenge Gender Stereotypes
Such women have long attracted a certain stigma of loneliness, introversion, witchiness. As have their male counterparts, historically seen as weak, effeminate or antisocial. A 2020 study found heterosexual American women found men pictured holding cats to be less dateable than those without. Its authors hypothesised this due to ingrained cultural perceptions linking male femininity and homosexuality.
But while the feline has long been associated with the feminine, cat dads like Teymouri and Beazley are moving into the limelight as outdated gender stereotypes fall to the wayside. Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco and Macklemore, alongside the late Sam Neill and Hollywood veteran Anthony Hopkins, are among a number of Hollywood men declaring their love for their feline companions. Pet food brands have also tapped into this trend.
Meanwhile, the subreddit r/cuteguyswithcats abounds with photos of men, sometimes topless, with their feline companions. On TikTok, heterosexual women post videos of boyfriends and husbands with cats, declaring them green flags. Cat dads are now considered hot. Every time you see a video of a cat dad, there are always comments like protect this man at all costs, affirms Yoo.
While dogs remain Australians' favourite pet, cats are a close second with 33.6 per cent of households owning at least one, according to a 2015 Roy Morgan survey. The survey found 1.3 million Australian women owned cats, compared to 1 million men. More recent research from the UK and according to dating app Hinge, 31.8 per cent of men with pets on their profile have cat listed compared to 41.5 per cent of women.
Care, Masculinity and Cat Ownership
I think a lot of women don't feel safe and don't know what to expect from men, and they're having a shift in what they value. Anything that could indicate a guy having a modicum of being decent or safe or attuned to emotions is a good sign. Cats, Care and Modern Masculinity It should go without saying that there is no inherent association between cat ownership and moral character.
But there seems to be something about cats, their nature and the kind of care they require, that infers a rejection of our culture's toxic masculinity. Cats are seen as being aloof and independent, and you have to work on boundaries, to sit down and talk about consent between one another. But some more traditional, conservative men who are tethered to this idea of subservience and obedience find that difficult to navigate and can prefer dogs.
Some small studies have indeed found differences in personality traits between cat and dog owners. Still, Koens is wary of the double standard: When guys are into cats, suddenly they're heroes. But when girls are, they're crazy cat women. The association between femininity and cats can be traced as far back as Ancient Greece, but became supercharged in the medieval period during the witch trials, explains Stewart.
Into the 18th and 19th centuries, alongside changing ideas around women and family, cats were seen as the pets of women and children. But history is full of cat dads if you know where to look. Stewart's research unearths men and cats outside the domestic sphere, often in the workplace or in places of hardship: like young soldiers in war zones cuddling with cats or caring for feline shipmates. At sea, cats were seen as workers, kept to catch vermin.
Please follow us on Google to support us
brisbanetimes 
smh:‘Green flags’: What’s behind the growing obsession with men and cats? 
theage:‘Green flags’: What’s behind the growing obsession with men and cats?This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Gender Stereotypes Pet Ownership Relationships Masculinity Cats
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
How Half-Asleep Chris Sent a Rollercoaster to Space and Made Bella the Cat a StarYouTube sensation Chris Burton, known as Half-Asleep Chris, reflects on his billion-view career, the recent loss of his cat Bella, and his ambitious plan to recreate the Rainforest Cafe in his London home, while emphasizing his commitment to creative integrity over viral trends.
Read more »
Why boxing is still a box office smash hit even as the sport’s popularity wanesFighters have always provided rich material for stories on stage and screen and the appeal to audiences has not wavered
Read more »
Democratic Challenger Gains Ground in Alaska Governor's Race as Trump Popularity WanesJonathan Kreiss-Tomkins leads the nonpartisan primary in Alaska, capitalizing on a significant drop in President Trump's approval ratings through extensive grassroots campaigning across remote communities.
Read more »