Each photo in this collection consists specifically of bearded men and their cats.
The Whiskers Project works to break both masculine and feline stereotypes in the same shot.
Cats have been linked with femininity for a long, long time. Older women have been called “cougars,” feisty women have been called “tigers,” aggressive women have been called “catty” and when women get into physical arguments, some call it “cat-fights.” Older, odd, single women? Yeah, they could be known as a “crazy cat lady.” As we’ve unfortunately heard from the mouth of our current president, even a female’s sexual organ can be publicly referred to as a “pussy” and no one bats an eye. So that correlation has obviously woven its way deeply into our cognitive psyche.
On the other side of things, men are not linked to cats. Men who like cats are emasculated. Men are usually associated with dogs because dogs are larger, stronger and more aggressive. So a man who considers himself a cat-person can be seen as, heaven-forbid, feminine or even weaker as an individual.
The Whiskers Project was created to break the stereotype of cat-loving being a “woman thing” and cat-hating being a “man-thing” by coupling cats with bearded men. Beards are regarded as a highly masculine trait. Combining whiskers and whiskers through photography is the purrfect way to bring attention to this divide.
Cats can be and are a “man thing.”
It’s time we celebrated that.