Warning: Broad brush painting ahead.
Personally, I’ve always loved cats and have always had one or more as a pet. But I’m not exactly a “Manly man” either.
Some of my friends are though . They’re all into Sports, power tools and hunt’ and fish’n and what not.
Three of my friends like this have cats. Two of them just recently became cat owners. And they wuv their wittle kitties. 
So, anyone else witness something similar? Are men taking away the Kitty Kingdom from women?
Fashions change and so do cultural norms over the course of time.
Cats have become much more ‘cool’ in the past 50 years.
So, yes, I suppose you may be perceiving a genuine change.
Whether it is long-lived is yet to be determined.
My cats all have their own guns and they go with me to strip bars, where we chew glass and sneer at wimps. Later, we all pile into my SUV and go offroading while we argue about the college football rankings. We usually end the night with a BBQ, a game of poker and a bottle of tequila. My cats are totally manly man pets.
My cat is giving me a lap dance and occasional painful attempted happy ending. She are weird.
I know a guy who is visually and behaviorally pretty close to a fratboy douchebag. He loves his cat and hates dogs. That said, I know some not terribly macho guys who only have cats because their wives do. Maybe they haven’t met the right cats, but I still think they’re better pets than your brachycephalic dogs.
In the 19th century, manly men had cats as pets: soldiers, sea captains, writers, businessmen, etc. The dog as pet was actually seen as somewhat “lower class” (I’m not referring to keeping a pack of hounds on the estate or anything like that; those weren’t pets.)
Today, many men are in living situations where having a dog for a pet is impractical. Having a cat instead wouldn’t logically carry any stigma if you had no room for a dog or your lease didn’t allow one.
So, you were only a pussy for having one for a relatively brief time in recent American history.
are these long haired froo froo felines or short hair killing machine mousers?
Well, farther back, maybe you would’ve been seen as a warlock for owning one?
Longhairs are the same as shorthairs behaviorally. Among long hairs, breeds like Maine Coon are manly, because men like their trucks, beer, and wars big, too. Something about Persians and the people who own them unnerves me, though. I still think the best “breed” is DSH.
Oh yeah, Ernest Hemingway has a shitload of cats, most polydactyl. There are lots of things you could accuse him of; being effeminate/not manly is definitely not one of those, so by possibly spurious logic, cats are manly. Mojitos are okay too despite what some say, because he drank them.
No doubt. Guys can now have a cat. Mind you certain breeds like a bengal or maine coon are a bit more manly.
I have a cat just for all the openings for pussy jokes.
Men who love cats are hawt. Not only acceptable in my book, but preferred.
ETA - My definition of ‘manly man’ may not jibe with society at large.
Oh, meow.
I know of men who have wanted a dog, but a dog just wouldn’t fit into their lifestyle (such as not being home as much as they might like,) so they’ve had cats instead.
At the vet clinic we have quite a large number of single guys with cats. There’s something really endearing about a guy with a cat.
I’ve never thought of a cat as a pet for women. I’ve always had cats. I like my cats; they are great companions.
And I have no problems doing car repairs, using power tools, or drinking beer while watching football. Heck, a couple of my cats seem to like watching football! (No beer for them, though.)
Pussies.
I’m extremely fond of cats, and on the few occasions someone’s given me stick over being a guy who likes cats, I like to point out that both Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Don Vito Corleone had cats. That usually ends the “Cats = Girly” thing pretty quickly.
If I meet a man who tells me he has a dog, I can’t wait to be able to hang out with the dog someday. If I meet a man who tells me he has a cat, I wonder how long before he tells me he’s gay.
Ouch.
I have found that puffy-chested business executives can show each other photos of their dogs on their iPhone but that cats shouldn’t be discussed. Silly.
Openings certainly make it easier.