Gender Studies As Seen Through my Cats

Image Credits: Amina Rouine

Ladies, they/thems, and all the other hotties with a body — yes, you. Listen up: for I have the secret, the actual answer on protecting yourself from negative male energy. Well, more like my cats display the patriarchy, and I pander to their every need like a bumbling servant. 

Let me paint the scene: I have two tabby cats, Lady and Milo. They invited themselves in from off the tired streets of Philadelphia into my apartment a few years ago. For those years, they were separated mainly due to my naivety about how to deal with cats that hate each other’s guts. This summer, my family and I moved to our first-ever house, and consequently, so did Lady and Milo. For the first time, they had to learn how to live together. 

Lady, who in a past life — according to her microchip — used to go by Mary and lived it up in New Jersey, somehow finding her way to the far superior city of Philadelphia. About seven-years-old, she truly embodies her namesake: sassy, graceful and not one to deal with your shenanigans. Milo, on the other hand, is bold, brash, playful and genuinely in your face. To sum up Milo’s personality, in the next two minutes, he will claw your furniture, jump on your lap and hold on to your shoulders so he can look you in the eyes while you caress him (a bit of a perv if you ask me).

Now, let’s move on to their beef. Essentially, it’s a tale as old as time. Lady just wants to live her life, and Milo (A MAN) has a problem with that. If he’s downstairs, he’ll chase her back upstairs and force her to hide in my room so he can occupy the first floor alone. 

The first step to combat this energy is to immediately assert your dominance. Lady tastefully does this by hissing anytime Milo is near and going to higher ground to show him who’s boss. This works the majority of the time, but if Milo is hungry, “he can’t control himself.” Sound familiar, queens? Milo’s aggressive advances have brought out a side of Lady I’ve never seen before. As she deals with being backed up into a corner, both literally and figuratively, she reaches her breaking point, and fights back with a swipe! 

Consequently, Milo’s eyes go wide and he looks up at me with those big black eyes to implore my sympathy. Alas, just like human predators, this perpetrator once again plays the victim. Just as humans are complex beings, Milo’s personality contains multitudes. The often repeated, not wholly false, rhetoric of “not all men” plays true for our little furry friend. Sometimes he truly just wants a playmate. 

Now, as it often happens, the victim (Lady) is picking up the pieces and deliberating with me to create a plan to make this living arrangement work. We are discussing boundaries, which include “basement play time” for Milo, where I pick him up and let him look out the basement door for a while so she has some peace. Lady represents so many women who are forced to unfairly work harder to end their harassment. The “secret” isn’t how you handle the situation, but how you handle yourself. Lady did what she had to do; she was pushed to swat that crazy cat! However, did it change her into a shy, submissive girl? No! She stood her ground and the next time he came around, her arm was already poised and ready like the elegant queen she is. 

Amina Rouine is a third-year Urban and Environmental Planning major with a minor in Arabic and Sociology. AR1013154@wcupa.edu.