誰說養(yǎng)貓無好女?

Stand Up for Your Cats

誰說養(yǎng)貓無好女?

TAYLOR SWIFT, I salute you.

泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)，我要向你致敬。

Not for your snappy songs and sartorial flair, although these are all fine things. I applaud you for the fact that you have almost single-handedly skewered the myth of the owner of the feline as a tragic, rejected “crazy cat lady.”

原因不是你的輕快歌聲和衣著品位，這些都很好，但不是。我贊賞你，是因為你幾乎憑一己之力破除了一個謬說——養(yǎng)貓的都是些可悲、沒人要的“瘋貓婆子”。

Ms. Swift regularly poses with, and posts about, her two Scottish fold cats — Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson — with unabashed pride. She posts their pictures on Instagram and has been featured in commercials where she is swarmed by fluffy cats, all the while still managing to somehow remain desirable.

斯威夫特有兩只蘇格蘭折耳貓——梅瑞迪斯·格雷(Meredith Grey)和奧莉薇亞·本森(Olivia Benson)，她經(jīng)常和她們合影，發(fā)與她們有關(guān)的文字，絲毫不去遮掩自己對她們的驕傲之情。她在Instagram上發(fā)她們的照片，還讓她們參演廣告，在廣告里，她被毛茸茸的貓簇擁著，卻依舊能顯得性感妖嬈。

“It is a daily struggle,” she tweeted, “to not buy more cats.”

“每天都在糾結(jié)，”她發(fā)推文說，“不能再買貓了。”

The longstanding, irrational bias against cats stems from archaic views about women.

對貓的荒謬偏見由來已久，它的根源是一種對女性的陳舊認知。

Their owners are more likely to be single women than single men — according to the American Pet Products Association, 11 percent of cats live with single women but only 2 percent live with single men — and so they have become addendums to the spinster stereotype.

養(yǎng)貓的人里，單身女性要比單身男性多得多——據(jù)美國寵物產(chǎn)品協(xié)會(American Pet Products Association)的數(shù)據(jù)，11%的貓和單身女性生活在一起，只有2%是跟單身男性在一起——所以貓就成了“老處女”刻板印象的一個注腳。

We seem unable to contemplate the thought of a woman enjoying the sweet company of a cat, without assuming it is a hallmark of a sad single existence. The words woman and cat don’t conjure up thoughts of a glamorous fast life, but pajamas, Chinese takeout, bowls of Ben & Jerry’s, couches and DVDs.

一想到一個女人和一只貓親昵相處的樣子，我們總免不了要去假定，這是一種悲慘的單身生活的表征。把女人和貓放在一起，你不會想到容光煥發(fā)的快節(jié)奏生活，只有睡衣、中餐外賣、一盒盒Ben & Jerry冰激凌、沙發(fā)和DVD。

The words associated with cat lady on Urban Dictionary, for example, include: “lame,” “forever alone,” “spinster,” “ice cream” and “smelly.” Nice.

例如在Urban Dictionary上，與cat lady(貓婆子)相關(guān)的詞包括：“lame”(無聊)、“forever alone”(孤獨終老)、“spinster”(老處女)、“ice cream”(冰激凌)和“smelly”(有味兒)。嘖嘖。

A man and his dog, on the other hand, are icons of independence, freedom and adventure. Granted, this is partly because dogs tend to be happier accompanying you to places outside your own house. But Ms. Swift takes Meredith out in Manhattan and the singer Kesha takes her cat on airplane flights. Must female cat owners constantly have their sanity questioned simply because they like to coexist with purring fur balls?

而男人和狗在一起，就是獨立、自由和冒險的象征了。得承認，這在一定程度上是因為，狗在戶外的確是一個更開心的伙伴。但是斯威夫特會帶著梅瑞迪斯去逛曼哈頓，歌手Kesha帶著貓坐飛機。難道就因為喜歡跟咕嚕嚕響的毛球在一起，女性養(yǎng)貓者就活該不斷被人懷疑精神不正常?

This is not a tired cat-versus-dog debate. Everyone loves dogs. Even if they do, say, eat the feces of other animals, howl at ambulances, delight in bottom-sniffing and even — like my old Labrador — eat jellyfish until their faces are numb. (Is there anything a Labrador won’t eat?)

這和已經(jīng)吵膩了的“要貓還是要狗”是兩碼事。人都喜歡狗。就算它們吃其他動物的糞便，沖著救護車狂吠，熱衷于聞屁股，或者——跟我那只老拉布拉多一樣——吃水母吃到整個臉失去知覺。(世上還有拉布拉多不吃的東西嗎?)

It should be pointed out that many men also love cats. Ernest Hemingway was mad about polydactyl, or six-toed cats, and kittens played with Winston Churchill’s newspaper as he read, and sat alongside him during meals.

應(yīng)該指出的是，很多男人也愛貓。海明威酷愛六趾貓，邱吉爾的小貓會玩他正在讀的報紙，坐在身旁陪他吃飯。

Ricky Gervais frequently tweets about his cat, Ollie; he even aspires to the cat-lady life, telling HBO: “My evening usually consists of sitting on the couch in my pajamas from 6 p.m. with the cat on my lap watching trash TV.”

里奇·賈維斯(Ricky Gervais)經(jīng)常在Twitter上講他的貓奧利(Ollie);甚至渴望過上貓婆子的生活，他對HBO說：“晚上我通常是從6點開始穿著睡衣坐在沙發(fā)上看垃圾電視節(jié)目，腿上趴著貓。”

Ricky, you may join the sisterhood.

里奇，姐妹們歡迎你。

Cat men and women, we have the numbers. There are now roughly 95.6 million cats in America, compared to 83.3 million dogs.

各位養(yǎng)貓男女，我們的數(shù)量是占優(yōu)勢的。全美有大約9560萬只貓，8330萬只狗。

We also have science on our side. Studies have shown that cat owners are less likely than those who have never owned a cat to die of cardiovascular disease, and pet owners have a decreased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

科學(xué)也站在我們這邊。研究表明貓主人死于心血管疾病的幾率低于那些從未養(yǎng)貓的人，養(yǎng)寵物還能降低罹患非霍奇金氏淋巴瘤的幾率。

Researchers from Miami University and Saint Louis University found “pet owners had greater self-esteem, were more physically fit, tended to be less lonely, were more conscientious, were more extroverted, tended to be less fearful and tended to be less preoccupied than non-owners.” Less lonely, happier, fitter. Pets don’t indicate mental illness; they seem to aid in recovery from it.

邁阿密大學(xué)(Miami University)和圣路易斯大學(xué)(Saint Louis University)的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，“與不養(yǎng)寵物的人相比，養(yǎng)寵物的人更自重，身體更好，相對而言不那么孤獨，更有良知，性格偏外向，不那么容易擔(dān)憂和執(zhí)著于某事。”少一些孤獨，多一些快樂和健康。寵物不是心理疾病的標(biāo)志;倒是對心理疾病患者的康復(fù)有幫助。

Ms. Swift, who faces a constant barrage of questions about boyfriends and being single, mocked the cat lady stereotype to a reporter, joking that if she does not find a man by 30, she will naturally be scared, housebound and “surrounded by cats. So many cats, they’ve divided themselves up into armies and she wanders around lint-rolling the couch that no one’s going to sit on because she’s afraid to have people over...” Yeah, right.

斯威夫特每天要應(yīng)付一連串關(guān)于男友和單身生活的問題，她曾在接受記者采訪時嘲弄了貓婆子刻板印象，開玩笑說要是不能在30歲前找到男人，她自然就得整天宅在家里惶惶不可終日，“周身都是貓。貓多到要分成幾支隊伍，她得拿著粘滾刷沙發(fā)，但沙發(fā)永遠不會有人坐，因為她很怕請人到家里來……”好吧。

This generation of young female celebrities is refusing to be portrayed as on a perpetual, sad manhunt. Asked at an event what she looked for in a man, Rihanna tartly and perfectly responded: “I’m not looking for a man. Let’s start there.” Katy Perry told Rolling Stone that she would happily have a child on her own: “I don’t need a dude.” Ms. Swift has become defined by her posse of female friends — as well as her feline companions.

這一代年輕女性名人拒絕被人當(dāng)成一群不斷在找男人的可憐蟲。一次有人問蕾哈娜(Rihanna)想找什么樣的男人，她做出了一個尖刻而完美的回答： “我沒在找男人。這一點得先明確。”凱蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)對《滾石》雜志(Rolling Stone)說，她完全可以自己養(yǎng)一個孩子：“我不需要男的。”身邊女性朋友如云，又有貓相伴，這已經(jīng)是斯威夫特的形象標(biāo)志。

Part of the appeal of cats is that they are independent and discerning. They have few needs. They come to you when they want; you can’t force them, or cajole them. They can be fiercely affectionate. They are gloriously indifferent. Cats don’t pretend to like you, and don’t care if you like them.

貓的魅力之一是它們的獨立和敏銳。它們少有需求。它們會主動來找你;你不能強迫或哄騙它們。它們可以濃情蜜意。也可以冷若冰霜。貓不會假裝喜歡你，也不在乎你喜不喜歡它們。

Let’s start there.

這些得先明確。