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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/20\/style\/cat-dad-stereotypes.html?emc=edit_wkdr_20260927&nl=the-weekender&segment_id=227149",
    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTIt\u2019s a Great Time to Be a Guy Who Loves His CatWe\u2019re living in the age of the \u201ccat dad\u201d and he\u2019s being used to sell premium cat products and talk about healthy masculinity.Listen \u00b7 8:14 min Share full articleJeff Judkins, a software engineer in the Bay Area and his cat Zulu. The pair are featured in the documentary \u201cCat Daddies,\u201d by Mye Hoang, a film that explores male cat ownership.Credit...Mye HoangBy Sophia JuneSept. 20, 2026Sign up for The Ethicist newsletter, for Times subscribers only. Advice on life\u2019s trickiest situations and moral dilemmas from the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah. Get it sent to your inbox.A black shorthair cat walked right into Joseph Clayson\u2019s apartment in Pocatello, Idaho, one night after he returned home from a long-haul trucking route.He had always been a cat person. But that\u2019s when he became a cat dad.Clayson, 33, named the cat Medivh, after a World of Warcraft character, and their routine came to include cross-country drives and daily walks on a leash around the neighborhood.On one such walk a few years later, Clayson found a stray kitten in the bushes. Soon, Smoke joined Medivh as his loyal co-pilot. Clayson even removed the passenger seat in his truck and replaced it with a cat tree for the pair to nap in as he drives long-haul routes. Medivh has racked up more than a million miles; Smoke is close to the half-million mark, he said.Before Clayson drove trucks, he spent six years in the military, which he described as \u201cnot really a career that draws cat lovers.\u201d He rarely sees other truck drivers with cats, but when he does, he said, it signals an understanding.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWhen I see another dude with a cat in his truck and I walk up to say hi, I feel like they\u2019re on the same wavelength as me,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not worried about looking ultramasculine.\u201dImageJoseph Clayson and his cats Medivh and Smoke. He has a special setup for them in his truck, so they accompany him on long-haul trips.Credit...Joseph ClaysonCats haven\u2019t changed: They\u2019ve always been independent, mercurial, complex and selective with affection. But as cat ownership in the United States surges, many men\u2019s perceptions of what it means to own a cat \u2014 and culture\u2019s perceptions of the men who own them \u2014 are shifting.In the United States, the ranks of cat people have continued to grow. According to the American Pet Products Association, 2024 was a record year, with cat ownership surging 23 percent. And an APPA report published Monday found that men account for 43 percent of U.S. cat owners, with a particular bump in Gen Z male cat ownership. Amid this growth, a slew of recent ad campaigns celebrate the idea of the \u201ccat dad\u201d as not simply a man who owns a cat, but a softer, more emotionally literate version of a man.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPeople magazine teamed up with Temptations treats to name the actor Dave Franco the magazine\u2019s first \u201cSexiest Cat Dad\u201d last fall. In February, Christina Najjar, an author and lifestyle influencer known as Tinx, began a partnership with the cat food brand Jinx built around the idea that being a cat person is now a dating green flag. For Father\u2019s Day 2025, the cat food brand Smalls ran a campaign that framed cat dads as role models, with the slogan \u201ccat dads > other men.\u201dSmalls\u2019s co-founder Veronica del Rosario appeared on the popular online video series \u201cSubway Takes,\u201d defending cat dads. Men, she said, \u201cdon\u2019t know if they should be too manly or if they should be softer or how to behave in the world without getting judged or canceled, and I think that cat dads are a really good model of how to be.\u201d In the comments, some women tagged their cat dad boyfriends; some men proudly claimed their cat dad status and others wrote that they now wanted to get a cat.Clayson\u2019s cats travel with him in a special setup in his truck. Medivh, the black cat, has racked up more than a million miles; Smoke is close to the half-million mark, he said.All this positive branding contrasts with longstanding stereotypes about women with cats \u2014 from the Middle Ages, when people associated cats with witches, to a modern day bias against women with cats \u2014 one JD Vance tapped into in a 2021 interview where he called prominent Democrats \u201cchildless cat ladies.\u201d \u201cWomen have been onto the cat thing for a long time, but it isn\u2019t treated as valid and is even maybe mocked until men start claiming it too,\u201d del Rosario said. \u201cMale adoption really functions as culture\u2019s proof of validity,\u201d she added, noting that the same is true for therapy or Botox, which have recently become more popular with men. \u201cCats are just a really light version of that.\u201dClayson, cat dad of two, believes that men\u2019s perceptions of male cat owners \u2014 particularly straight male cat owners \u2014 are changing with culture as men consider the consequences of toxic masculinity. \u201cI think there are probably a lot more men that are willing to be cat-liberated.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSmalls got the inspiration for its cat dad campaign from the N.B.A. star Jordan Poole\u2019s reveal of the \u201cSecret Society of N.B.A. Cat Dads,\u201d where the famous cat lover confessed he was persuading fellow players, including Steph Curry and Myles Turner, to get cats.The professional athlete cat dad flies in the face of men-with-cats stereotypes. A 2020 study from Colorado State University found that men holding cats were viewed as less masculine; more neurotic, agreeable and open; and therefore, less datable by women. (The study did not cover how cats affected gay men\u2019s perceptions of potential partners.)\u201cI could have argued that being pictured with a cat would be seen as a positive thing because men would be seen as more caring and nurturing, or be seen as a negative thing because they were seen as less masculine, which is how it ended up,\u201d said Lori Kogan, the study\u2019s author, who was curious about pets in relation to online dating.ImageAn image from \u201cCat Daddies,\u201d a film about men\u2019s relationships with their cats, which Mye Hoang pursued after seeing more men with cats on Instagram.Credit...Mye HoangThe study was based purely on photos. Women who identified as cat people rated the photos completely differently from those who didn\u2019t. And, of course, neuroticism, agreeability and openness are desirable qualities for many women.In her 2022 documentary \u201cCat Daddies,\u201d which features nine cat dads and their furry companions, Mye Hoang follows a firefighter, a police officer and an immigrant living on the streets of New York City, among others. She became interested in the topic after seeing more men with cats on Instagram. \u201cSeeing men being vulnerable with a little creature is just something I hadn\u2019t thought about,\u201d she said. Her new documentary, \u201c25 Cats From Qatar,\u201d which is about a cat rescue in the country, is screening now. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHoang said she had seen an uptick in single men in the cat community in recent years, and was even considering moving to Portland, Ore., or Minneapolis, which reportedly have higher concentrations of single cat dads. \u201cIf you\u2019re willing to put up with a cat, you\u2019re probably willing to put up with me,\u201d she said. \u201cYou are probably a good partner.\u201dBeing a good partner does seem central to the cat dad mythology \u2014 and some cat dads arrive at the role through a partner.For example, Rama Duwaji, the wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, wants a cat to live with them in Gracie Mansion. The mayor is allergic, but has been getting allergy shots since late last year to make it possible. No cat yet, according to a City Hall spokeswoman, but Mamdani is still getting the shots, which can take one to two years to take effect. ImageSmalls co-founder Veronica del Rosario said the brand wanted to really celebrate \u201ccat dads who maybe feel like it\u2019s not something to be celebrated or who don\u2019t often love out loud on their cats.\u201dCredit...SmallsJosh Bransky, 33, an architect in Brooklyn, adopted his cat, Frankie, in 2023. He said he had absorbed a lot of 1990s cultural stereotypes around cats, and has always had a strong impression that women don\u2019t find men with cats attractive.\u201cA lot of people in my life hold this perception of male culture where it\u2019s like, if you\u2019re single, no woman will date you if you have a cat; that\u2019s not a masculine thing,\u201d he said.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTNo woman he\u2019s ever dated has had a bad reaction to his cat, he said, but he still doesn\u2019t include photos of himself with Frankie on dating apps.And while Bransky is happy that ideas about cat owners are changing, he felt the ads were a bit reductive.\u201cIt\u2019s a very dog-coded way of talking about cat culture,\u201d he said. \u201cI tend to think cats are less of a monolith than dogs. There\u2019s a lot more complexity and nuance. I think that goes to the people as well. There\u2019s many reasons and ways to be a cat dad.\u201dFrom the commentsSophia JuneNews assistantI am a lifelong cat person and was interested in the ways that brands are marketing toward male cat owners specifically, and how male adoption of cats is seen as a 'green flag,' whereas it can be seen as a liability for single women. Cats haven't changed. (They're still the best.) But it seems like the conversation around men with cats has. If you're a cat dad, when did you notice the shift?AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-20T09:00:57+00:00",
    "author_name": "Sophia June",
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    "ai_simplified_title": "Cat Dads Challenge Masculinity Stereotypes",
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