I Am a Cat Lady Because...

I am a cat lady because cats don't give a fuck.

Today in my Motivation and Emotion class we were (I'm not sure why) talking about body image, which happens to be right up my alley these days, and how women are objectified. While I wasn't exactly fond of the way the professor was "guiding" the discussion in the first place, it ended even more horribly than I could have imagined.

First of all, as a woman and an "intellectual", I feel that my professor did an absolutely horrible job in helping to empower women; by agreeing that women should be thin, wear make-up, and buy the latest fashion, I believe my professor shot herself and all women in the foot. Seriously... I never thought I would hear an intelligent, educated woman saying the things that she said today. Secondly, when a male student raises his hand to "let us know" that he would never date a girl that wasn't always wearing make-up, perhaps we should move the discussion to a more constructive place. Instead, it continued on and was made into a discussion of, "well, yeah...80 pounds is too skinny for a grown woman, but just because that's too skinny doesn't mean that this is an excuse for girls to wear sweatpants and get fat". At this point, I lost it.

There are 10 women and 5 men in my class; nearly everyone had a look of horror on their face as these things were being said by the professor and one other student but no one dared to speak up. So I did. I'm not sure the professor or the dude that "doesn't date chicks unless they have on make-up" got my point, but I hope that someone in the room felt better. At least a little bit. Isn't it sad that women are expected to be "perfect"...and men just get to be whatever they want to be.

So, I am a cat lady because cats do not care if anyone is wearing make-up. They don't care if you wear sweatpants or a mini skirt. They just don't care. And I wish that's how humans were, too.