Wikipedia Editors’ Argument Over Sex of Garfield was Misplaced

Garfield is a well-known cartoon cat. The guys who edit Wikipedia have been arguing over whether Garfield is male or female. There was a battle going on with constant edits to change the cat’s sex. The argument has been resolved.

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Garfield

For me, they were missing the point although I see why the argument started. Garfield is most definitely male because the name is a male name and in any case he had a girlfriend and his creator stepped in to state categorically that he is male.

However, the sex of a cat is far less important to cat owners and humans in general than the sex of humans. The domestic cat is somewhat androgynous in the eyes of most humans, I would argue. Cat owners are generally quite fluid in their choice of the gender of the cat they choose to live with.

Also, and importantly, domestic cats breakdown the barriers that humans suffer from of color, race, ethnicity, age and indeed gender. Humans have to deal with so much racism, sexism, ageism et cetera. That does not apply to cats, either between cats or with respect to the human to cat relationship. That’s a beautiful aspect of our relationship with domestic cats.

And Jim Davis who created Garfield hints at this when he said:

“they’re not perceived as being any particular gender, race, age or ethnicity”

Davis likes animals partly for that reason. And so although Garfield is male, there is in the background the slightly androgynous nature of the cat and the elimination of barriers to do with sex, age and ethnicity.

We should learn from this.

Source: usnews.com