[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Of all the things on the Internet, feline-related content makes up 15 percent of the total traffic. That may seem teensy, but in 2009, 13 percent of web traffic was erotic searches. What makes these kitties so provoking? Why is the Internet so obsessed with objectifying cats? It can be distilled to three qualities: their behavior, their appearance and their extroversions.
To explore this idea, it’s important we deconstruct what “cat” is. Felis catus was ‘domesticated’ by humans as far back as 7,500 BCE on the Greek island of Cyprus. It’s hypothesized that cats were probably taken in by humans as a way to keep vermin away from food stores and farms. So, in fact, cats were actually never bred by humans, as dogs were. Cats just kind of stuck around and, therefore, their behavior can still be wild.
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but cats are murderous killers to begin with. The Oatmeal, a popular online comic strip, has presented several examples of the cat’s ability to manipulate humans to get what they want. One infographic on the site communicates that one in three well-fed cats will still kill prey to be eaten (30 percent), brought home (21 percent) or “left to rot” (49 percent). According to The Oatmeal, “there are 84 million cats in this country. This means that according to the statistics … 28 million of them are ‘murder cats’ and the total body count from domesticated house cats every year is 2,912,000,000.”
Despite these violent tendencies, we still ‘rescue’ these feral creatures and bring them into our homes and around our children. Knowing that a relationship with a cat is surely masochistic can maybe explain why we enjoy videos of our feline friends falling off of things or running into walls. “Garfield” cartoonist Jim Davis said “cats are absolutely perfect for the Internet,” and he would know, considering he’s made his fortune from the behaviors of cats. Of course, not all cat-related content is of felines making fools of themselves. The other end of the spectrum consists of cats that are “cute.”
People’s obsession with cute kittens can be explained through the science of neoteny. Because human babies are born unable to defend and care for themselves — those freeloaders — humans have evolved to develop features that indicate their inability to defend themselves, and in turn we also evolved to want to care for small, cute and cuddly things. Cuteness is usually expressed with large eyes and a large forehead. Therefore cats, and kittens in particular, are seen as indefensible animals that need humans to care for them, feed them and even, despite all good judgment, talk like babies to these vicious carnivores.
On top of that, humans record videos of themselves acting like fools trying to please their cats and share them on the Internet. I would argue that one of the main reasons cats have so much traffic on the Internet is because they are shared through social media. Cats are indeed social animals, despite their seeming indifference to humans — assuming they have a full stomach, that is. Humans often treat cats as small, furry humans. We superimpose our emotions on these short-tempered, homicidal kitties when we “determine” something is wrong. So it makes sense to share cat pictures that express our feelings rather than writing them out. Just as all memes do, cat photos can become communal because they express thoughts that are universal or ridiculous.
What can we learn from all of this? We know cats can’t be trusted, but they are without question hilarious. We know that cats express human qualities only because we think they do. And finally, we know that the cat’s natural habitat is the Internet, as it’s the only place they can get the attention they demand. It seems cats are just going to keep sticking around.
[email protected]
@ChronyArts[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]