When you’re 50 years old and start dating someone do you call them your wo/manfriend?
She’s not my special lady, she’s my fucking lady friend.
I only very vaguely remember applying this tag to you, but it’s making me chuckle. Most likely that’s why I did it.
How do you do this?
It varies per client, but for me (Connect on Android), tap a comment to expand it or open a user profile, then tap the three dots, then tap “add user note.” I’ve heard that some other clients call it a tag rather than a note.
I’m just using default Lemmy in the browser 😔
My friend had a a cat that as a human would have been a balding, neurotic man with a mustache and glasses. A very high strung cat tbh. His name was Mr. Pappy.
Because they are all fur babies. Always.
My cat was an “old man cat” for a while before he passed.
Anyhow, a “man cat” just sounds like a cat who dresses up like a man and fights crime
I believe you’re thinking of Catman
respect my authoritay
Yes, but Lady Cat and Gentleman Cat just sounds like cats being fancy. And cats are fancy.
You haven’t met my chonker
fancy chonker
He is not fancy
He reminds me of Missouri
Shape wise? Or because he particularly enjoys barbecue?
The people
That’s still fancier then mississippi
Worse food tho
Man cheetah
or a human/cat hybrid. like splice.
I’ve read a lot about how dogs have evolved to hit some of the same triggers that human infants do. I’ve also read about how we tend to view pets as children in our minds. I imagine that that all plays a role in it.
We totally do.
You can address a pet like you would politely address an adult, but only in a jokey way. Like “oh, and who’s this handsome gentleman/lady?”, same as with kids.
I dunno. I view my dogs as companions. Yeah, they need me to look after.them like they’re children, but I need them to take care of me in the wilderness, protect the house, cheer me up, entertain guests, tow me on the longboard.
There’s no association with them and a human child for me. If anything dog ownership has shifted my mentality into the symbiotic relationship of a pack. I think being stuck thinking of them as children would make for some very miserable times and bad behaviour from both the owner and the dog.
I agree, but I also think the studies are speaking more broadly and possibly on a subconscious level. I feel the same as you but at the same time I can acknowledge evolutionary traits they might have.
IMO:
Boy/Girl cat implies gender.
Man/Woman cat implies anthropomorphism.
Man animal you say? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3OzAfcPb3A
Right but why is that your opinion of how those words work? Because the only strict differentiation between man/boy and woman/girl is age.
because they stay smol!
Because kitties are forever babies 🤗
Generally speaking, the terms man and woman are reserved specifically for humans. I couldn’t tell you why, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
For pets, the use of boy/girl probably does have a lot to do with how people tend to infantilize their companion animals.
Additionally, the boy / girl terminology is often generalized to cover all animals, particularly when adults are interacting with children and by extension when children are interacting with each other. It’s not uncommon to have a child ask something like “is that a boy rabbit or a girl rabbit?” but it is a little unusual to hear an adult ask another adult that same question, unless it’s sort of tongue-in-cheek or maybe in the presence of kids.
I do call my doggo ‘old man’, but never just called him a man.
Adults would generally use actual adjectives, ‘male/female cat’ instead of ‘man/woman/boy/girl cat’
I can hold onto many feelings and ideas at once.
My orange baby boy is an old man.
Mama Trump, is it you?
He’s just a lil guy
The only true man cat is Idris Elba in Cats
“And that’s where you’re wrong, buddy. Damn I look good.”
Fishy fishy
I’m gonna eat you little fishy!
Because pet owners tend to infantilize their pets.
Easy to do based on their small size, large eyes, big ears, and fluffy fur.
Same reason I refer to my 14-year-old dachshund as a puppy.
Because he’s my puppy.
Human/animal bonding is aided because their faces retain neotenic features that remind us of babies. So many are inclined to relate to them like children.
From that article:
Accumulating behavioral and neurophysiological studies support the idea of infantile (cute) faces as highly biologically relevant stimuli rapidly and unconsciously capturing attention and eliciting positive/affectionate behaviors, including willingness to care. It has been hypothesized that the presence of infantile physical and behavioral features in companion (or pet) animals (i.e., dogs and cats) might form the basis of our attraction to these species.
It has been hypothesized that both behavioral and physical infantile features present in companion animals might form the basis of our attraction to these animals and may bear some part of the responsibility for our motivational drive to pet-keeping and pet-caretaking (Archer, 1997).
That’s weird because babies are ugly. Cats, on the other hand, are just so… hey wait a minute, my cat stole my heart 💘😼
This spell, so potent… 😍🐈
I think this might be a case of cart-before-horse. It seems obvious to me that domesticated animals have these traits because they were selected for by our ancestors, not the other way around.
That’s true for dogs, less so for cats. It’s also immaterial since we’re talking about present attitudes toward pets.
I feel like the factors that shape our drive towards cuteness and what we find cute are not immaterial to our present attitudes towards pets… but no doubt you’re right to point out that there can be more than one factor at play.
