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Are Dog People Narcissistic by Nature?
Pups are loyal, needy, and affectionate — living, barking ego boosts.
In the early ’90s, my first boyfriend, Derek, told me a story I remember to this day, possibly because it was about me. He had been out on his own a few nights earlier with his best female friend Angela, an artist in her late 30s.
At some point, the subject of me came up, and he mentioned that I love dogs.
“He loves dogs?” she responded, in what I imagined must have been a condescending tone, emphasizing the word “dogs,” as if she found the very idea unfathomable.
You might recognize the tone: It was favored by White hipster New Yorkers on the Lower East Side, circa 1992–1995, the ones who favored mismatched vintage clothes and Birkenstocks. The women often wore bouncy Jo Reynolds (from Melrose Place)-style bobs, a lone concession to ’90s glamor, while both genders dragged their sullen dispositions and deadpan expressions around town. On rare happy occasions, they’d grin because smiling — and laughing, unless it was ironically — was so bourgeoisie.
I could hear Angela pausing long enough to indicate it was a rhetorical question with a punchline to follow: “Oh,” she continued, “that sounds a little narcissistic.”
