# What's the male equivalent for "crazy cat lady"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236 "2012-03-19T16:30:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/61 "2012-03-21T21:53:48Z")
\*\*VOW \*\*for the win. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/62 "2012-03-22T00:22:56Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Was the cat trying to take a pea? Heh - no, I think she was just looking to bother my two cats. On a completely different note, I want to be a furmudgeon, too! ---
**Author:** ![buzzlightyear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@buzzlightyear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buzzlightyear)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/63 "2018-02-08T06:32:14Z")
This is freaking outstanding!! ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/64 "2018-02-08T13:46:19Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > I was thinking “Old Man [last name]” but it looks like the OP wants a feline-obsession-specific element in the title. > > Might have to go with “freak” in that case. The concept of Crazy Cat Lady exists because it’s an example of the stereotypical nurturing female taken to an extreme. Stereotype Man is not nurturing, he’s mechanically-inclined, stoic and independent. The extreme of that is the expressionless, antisocial guy who’s always hammering on his roof and controlling the chemical composition of his front yard with elaborate, scientific precision; bonus points if he’s a WWII European theater veteran. Such men don’t like cats. Based on that, an old recluse with a bunch of cats is a freak. At least that’s what Old Man Montoya’s gonna call 'em in 30 years. “Goddamn freak lettin his goddamned cat into my yard to diggup my goddamned tomato plants.” (muttered while synthesizing some kind of cat trap from Coke bottles, plastic coathangers, Vaseline and string). > [@artemis](#): > > Or the Gun Nut/Car Nut/Computer Nut, etc. They’re both collectors; but the Crazy Cat lady is drawn to collecting and fetishizing living creatures, while her masculine counterpart is drown into collecting and fetishiizing objects. Very true. Years ago, I was chasing some lady so I went to a horse show with her. She was into show jumping, had her own horse - and horse trailer and truck to haul it. She kept her horse on a farm outside of town that boarded horses, and all the clientele that wandered in there or were mentioned - were all female. At the show, maybe 90% or more of the competitors - were female. OTOH, her father and brother were into (amateur) car racing, had all the toys. In discussing the phenomenon, I suggested that women identified with the horse and liked it for the personality, while men more likely than not would regard a horse as a “meat motorcycle” rather than a personality. So I’m going to agree that the reason “cat lady” is a thing and “catman” isn’t is because one predominates, whereas the other collects comic books and car parts. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/65 "2018-02-08T15:41:45Z")
Foolish feline fellow ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/66 "2018-02-08T16:15:55Z")
One of the symptoms of CCLD is that the patient has the belief that they are uniquely qualified to care for the special needs of their cats … so this is a sex linked disorder as the male’s Y-chromosome doesn’t carry enough genetic information to allow for any form of caring … as demonstrated by [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4) in Post #14, give a man enough cats and he WILL use them to experiment with electricity, not having the ability to think this might be bad for his children; and by proxy, for cats … The correct term for a man with multiple cats is “animal abuser” … ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/67 "2018-02-08T17:32:22Z")
Fact: Cats can see zombies. Fact: Cats have nine lives. [ul] [li]We have 81 indoor lives my wife and I support. It wasn’t planned; it happened.[/li][li]We have a feral/wild colony in the backyard of 63 lives. I am the only human they have ever known. They only trust me.[/li][/ul] I rescue cats. What’s your superpower? ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/68 "2018-02-08T17:36:30Z")
I always think of Peter Ustinov in “Logan’s Run”. It was on late last night and I was trying to count the kitties, he had quite a few. All nicely tame. You would think a cat that had never seen another human would stay away, but Logan and Jessica pet them often and they never object. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/69 "2018-02-08T17:39:59Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > I was thinking “Old Man [last name]” but it looks like the OP wants a feline-obsession-specific element in the title. > > Might have to go with “freak” in that case. The concept of Crazy Cat Lady exists because it’s an example of the stereotypical nurturing female taken to an extreme. Stereotype Man is not nurturing, he’s mechanically-inclined, stoic and independent. The extreme of that is the expressionless, antisocial guy who’s always hammering on his roof and controlling the chemical composition of his front yard with elaborate, scientific precision; bonus points if he’s a WWII European theater veteran. Such men don’t like cats. Based on that, an old recluse with a bunch of cats is a freak. At least that’s what Old Man Montoya’s gonna call 'em in 30 years. “Goddamn freak lettin his goddamned cat into my yard to diggup my goddamned tomato plants.” (muttered while synthesizing some kind of cat trap from Coke bottles, plastic coathangers, Vaseline and string). Right: The male equivalent of the Crazy Cat Lady is the Survivalist/Prepper. Someone who thinks they’re self-reliant with a lot of guns and canned food and guns and stored fuel oil and fertilizer and guns and shacks in the woods full of preserved food and guns and literature and guns and maybe a few guns, because why not? They’re obsessed with knowing everything about the tools they use, know that a gun is a tool, and never quite realize that they’re one, too. They’re pretty much cut off from the outside world, often have weird ideas (this world overlaps with the “alternative medicine” world quite a bit, in addition to the extremist politics world), and may flip over into being dangerous one fine day. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/70 "2018-02-08T20:53:57Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Fact: Cats can see zombies. > Fact: Cats have nine lives. > [ul] > [li]We have 81 indoor lives my wife and I support. It wasn’t planned; it happened.[/li][li]We have a feral/wild colony in the backyard of 63 lives. I am the only human they have ever known. They only trust me.[/li][/ul] > I rescue cats. What’s your superpower? Use a step-down transformer, will ya’ … ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/71 "2018-02-08T21:18:05Z")
He might be the guy who lives in the haunted house down the street. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/72 "2018-02-08T22:16:49Z")
… with all the pet graves in the backyard … ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/73 "2018-02-08T22:26:10Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > One of the symptoms of CCLD is that the patient has the belief that they are uniquely qualified to care for the special needs of their cats … so this is a sex linked disorder as the male’s Y-chromosome doesn’t carry enough genetic information to allow for any form of caring … as demonstrated by [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4) in Post #14, give a man enough cats and he WILL use them to experiment with electricity, not having the ability to think this might be bad for his children; and by proxy, for cats … > > The correct term for a man with multiple cats is “animal abuser” … I seriously hope this is some kind of damn joke. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/74 "2018-02-09T05:57:06Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > One of the symptoms of CCLD is that the patient has the belief that they are uniquely qualified to care for the special needs of their cats … so this is a sex linked disorder as the male’s Y-chromosome doesn’t carry enough genetic information to allow for any form of caring … as demonstrated by [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4) in Post #14, give a man enough cats and he WILL use them to experiment with electricity, not having the ability to think this might be bad for his children; and by proxy, for cats … > > The correct term for a man with multiple cats is “animal abuser” … I have not really run across a lot of men who are into multiple cats. I have seen women who have multiple cats, or small dogs, or such pets. Perhaps it’s a “need to nurture” thing. Some women have multiple animals (the cats or smaller dogs) and where they are trainable, like the small dogs, they will even do things like set places at the table for them and other activities to treat them like their children. (So maybe the choice of dogs instead of cats has to do with a need to control). Men who have multiple dogs, however - I have not seen or heard of them treating them like children. Instead it seems they lord it over them, like their gang or army company - the man gets to be the boss of his animals the way he cannot be a boss of other men in the real world, telling them what to do and yelling orders, rather than treating the animals like pampered babies. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/75 "2018-02-09T09:38:55Z")
The obvious animal answer is “Crazy Snake Guy” or “Crazy Lizard Guy” since it’s uniformly men who buy exotic reptiles and then treat them like they’re children. Much like Crazy Cat Ladies they too often wind up being found dead eaten by their own creatures. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/76 "2018-02-09T14:46:18Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I seriously hope this is some kind of damn joke. Of course it’s a joke … electrocuting cats is cruel … I take advantage of their semi-aquatic nature and experiment with fluid dynamics … thus no cruelty … ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/77 "2018-02-09T16:15:25Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Men who have multiple dogs, however - I have not seen or heard of them treating them like children. Instead it seems they lord it over them, like their gang or army company - the man gets to be the boss of his animals the way he cannot be a boss of other men in the real world, telling them what to do and yelling orders, rather than treating the animals like pampered babies. I’m not like that with my dogs. I consider them my insurance policy for when I finally lose everything. They’ll go out and bring back roadkill for my survival. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/78 "2018-02-09T17:57:39Z")
Nobody has said “Fisherman”? Hey, they’re animals. Kinda. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/79 "2018-02-09T19:21:59Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I have not really run across a lot of men who are into multiple cats. I have seen women who have multiple cats, or small dogs, or such pets. Perhaps it’s a “need to nurture” thing. Some women have multiple animals (the cats or smaller dogs) and where they are trainable, like the small dogs, they will even do things like set places at the table for them and other activities to treat them like their children. (So maybe the choice of dogs instead of cats has to do with a need to control). > > Men who have multiple dogs, however - I have not seen or heard of them treating them like children. Instead it seems they lord it over them, like their gang or army company - the man gets to be the boss of his animals the way he cannot be a boss of other men in the real world, telling them what to do and yelling orders, rather than treating the animals like pampered babies. I remember a skit on TV where a guy is visiting with a professional resumé polisher. The counselor asks him, “Do you have any pets?” The man says, “I have a dog.” The counselor writes down, “Displays leadership skills.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236/80 "2018-02-09T19:36:09Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > He might be the guy who lives in the haunted house down the street. He was quiet and kept to himself. Never any trouble… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-male-equivalent-for-crazy-cat-lady/616236.md?page=5)