Ever since the immortal Seth Cohen popularized the expression "minty" during The OC, it's held a special place in my vernacular. Recently, I've found myself using it more frequently after having added a new resident to my apartment: a cat.
It's funny but I never thought the topic of "guys with cats" would be such a polarizing issue . . . come to think of it, I had no idea the ownership of cats in general would be so polarizing. Upon blasting the news of my new roommate, I was receiving feedback that ranged from "OMG - so cute - love her!" to "So I take it you've decided to switch teams?" Even more striking were the comments that ranged from "OMG I HATE CATS - I HATE THEM - UGH!" to "You guys look great together! She is such a cutie! I can't wait to come visit her!"
Now I know we're all familiar with the concepts of "dog person" and "cat person" but I had no idea that there could be such passion and fire behind these identifiers. Granted, I'm working with a relatively small n here but nonetheless, people appear to be pretty much on one side of the other when it comes to cats . . .
For today, I'll refrain on discussing the idea of being for cats or against them b/c I'd like to tackle something which resonates a little more for me from a personal standpoint: can real men own cats? Now I know that the defining and/or coming to consensus on the meaning of the term "real men" in this context would require its own post (or more likely, its own room in a library) but for now let's just assume it is best captured here and here.
The topic of men with cats is by no means an unpopular one, with a quick Google search finding that even sites like About.com are compiling pieces of research and analysis on the subject. More importantly, even publications like The New York Times have written detailed articles on the topic, raising (and thankfully putting to rest in some cases) many of the questions and issues I have been wrestling with. The bottom line appears to be that while a lot of statistics, publications, and commentary support the idea that real men can own and love cats, my social circle appears a bit more divided on the subject.
Do I talk to my cat when no one else is around? Of course I do. Do I let it sit on my shoulder like a parrot, take pictures of us together and post them on Facebook, and let out a series of tweets, whistles and baby talk-type expressions when I first walk in the door so it'll come bounding right over? Yes, yes, and . . . yes. Is this all a little bit minty? Maybe . . . but given I already call the things I use for my hair "products", I have many "gays", and I cried during the climactic scene in Forever Young, should I really be called minty for owning a cat?!
Now if this blog suddenly takes the shape of something more like this, maybe there'd be reason for concern that my personal level of mint was escalating. For now however, I'm here to say that I know it's a little bit minty that a straight guy owns a cat but there shouldn't be anything wrong with that!
2 comments:
This is really a philosophical question. If something is minty (little disappointed that this isn't Rsmith original verbiage but credit for excellent usage) but it gets girls to like you more is it still minty?
Why a cat and not a dog?
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