Alex Francavilla - Week 2 - Catboy Chronicles
Just a week ago, my two cats turned 13 years old (happy belated birthday Scole and Tigress!). Across these 13 lovely years, I’ve learned all of their behaviors and mannerisms. Tigress is pretty friendly to new visitors on the caveat that she gets to sniff their hand for an indeterminate amount of time, likes to roll around on the carpet to ask for attention and pets, and eats relatively little unless it's canned tuna. Scole tends to be a lot more reclusive but becomes friendly if I force him out of the cat bed, holds meow conversations with me in the morning to beg for more food, and eats way more than he probably should be.
Scole (inside bed) and Tigress (on top of bed)
In addition to having learned their mannerisms, I have also… “learned” their mannerisms. In my conversations with my two cats, we use a wide variety of vocal communication, like meows and trills (did you know that cats have over 20 distinct kinds of vocalizations they use for communication?), and subvocal communication, like slow blinking and headbutting (I use a closed fist for this, not my actual head). The cute little foreleg stretch my cats do every time they get up has performed miracles on my spine and shoulders. And of course, we can’t forget about loafing.
Now, with all this being said, I am not a cat nor do I believe I am one. For one, I believe that it is common and normal for pet owners to imitate their pets in some capacity, often for similar reasons as mimicry among human peers. I personally think it’s fun to act like a cat sometimes just for the sake of doing it—something that took me a long time to come to terms with.
Cringe culture—the phenomenon of widespread public mockery and teasing of the enjoyment of niche, harmless interests—has existed for as long as we have been alive and then some. Nearly every hobby under the sun was “cringe” at some point; even though some are no longer considered as such, many still are and will be. This antagonism against harmless whimsy and enthusiasm in a world devoid of it only serves to further feelings of self-doubt and confusion that little me felt after facing countless instances of ridicule and name calling, often over the internet where the assailants don’t need to reveal themselves.
So what did I do?
I stopped caring as much. My general philosophy is that if you’re having fun doing something that isn't harmful to others, you shouldn’t need to internalize any shame or negative emotions from others because, at the end of the day, it just doesn’t really matter all that much. If they’re going to call me a catboy, then by god I will become the greatest catboy the world has ever seen. And maybe my internet friends will only have to suffer a little bit from it.
Happy late birthday Scole and Tigress! Having two cats with two different personalities must be fun. While it is only natural to understand your cats’ behavior after a whole thirteen years with them, taking the time to acknowledge their communication quirks and fist bumping their heads really shows your care for them. Most people try to get cats to recognize human language commands rather than communicate with them in their own language.
ReplyDeleteIt’s quite entertaining to act cute and meow at your friends—in the case they do meow back, it’s a short moment of fun for both parties. The “:3” emoticon is one of my favorites just because of how mischievous it looks, but there’s always going to be people who associate it with the “cringiness” of the 2020 online sphere. There’s also normalization in calling people “furry” as an insult when it’s quite disrespectful to the real community; their subculture has an incredibly bad reputation when the majority are simply just people who have an interest in anthropomorphic characters. But you don’t have to be a furry to meow. Are cats not just animals like us? I’m glad that you’ve come to embrace the whimsy in your heart though—life is full of joy and there are far too many party poopers who just don’t know what fun is. Thanks for the blog Alex!
Hi Alex!! Firstly, I love the fun pieces of information that dot your posts—they make your blogs incredibly engaging to read through (and I can't wait to learn more about wind turbines or cat behaviors every time I do so). I think that the entire idea behind "cringe culture" as it's called is inherently a distorted form of embarrassment. In very rare situations, I believe that social embarrassment as a consequence of disruptive actions can be a good deterrent—but somehow, it has transformed into another beast entirely. Nowadays, what people decide to be "cringe" is no longer a marker of poor behavior; on the contrary, many of these habits, as you mentioned, are entirely harmless. It boils down to differences in preferences, which are almost always good to have. We should never want a society where everybody behaves the same! I believe it to be yet another consequence of the incredible polarization of views brought about recently (thanks in no small part to modern media).
ReplyDeleteI look forward to more cringe behavior, Alex...if only we could all be as free and unbothered as a pair of cats. :)
As a green cat owner of merely four years, I defer to you for your knowledge ! Despite what other people might believe about something, I’ve always been of the mind that so long as nobody is harmed, there’s no use in contesting its validity. I think the main reason for such a strong stigma persisting today is simply because the loudest people are the most transgressing. We never hear about the respectful furries, for example, because the ones that go viral are the ones that disrupt public spaces. It’s important to express yourself in any way that feels right; it’s part of being human. On a separate note, I always talk to my cat, but after your blog, I might just start meowing at them too (:
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