When you’re 50 years old and start dating someone do you call them your wo/manfriend?
Why people say they have a "boy cat" or a "girl cat" but when the cat grows up, they don't call is a "man cat" or "woman cat"?
Submitted 7 months ago by wesker@lemmy.sdf.org to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 7 months ago
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 7 months ago
She’s not my special lady, she’s my fucking lady friend.
normalexit@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Probably the same reason my six year old dog is still my puppy. She is just a baby after all.
scarabic@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I think for most people the answer is that pets are not considered peers. They have gender but we will never consider them on a level with human adults - maybe on a level with human babies or young children. We love and prize them, but we don’t give them equal rights and respect. Just like with children.
It probably doesn’t help that we also spay/neuter them at birth, which not only prevents them from ever becoming repressive viable adults, but also affects their hormones permanently.
FWIW I personally have two human kids and I refer to our German shepherd as the 3rd grownup in the house. I do say “good boy” but I also say “hey man” and call him “old man.”
TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
my cat always acts like she’s a year old and is pretty small for a cat (we assume she’s the runt)
when we got her the pound said 2 years old (info from previous owner) but when we took her to the vet we got told that she’s actually about 5She’s about 7-8 now and still looks just as adorable as when I got her!!
418_im_a_teapot@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
I have a dead cat. 🤷♂️
BleatingZombie@lemmy.world 7 months ago
How long have you had it?
418_im_a_teapot@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
I inherited it from my grandfather 12 years ago.
NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I have a little man cat, he’s my little guy.
GraniteM@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Speak for yourself. I’ve got two brother cats and I refer to both of them as little kitty cat mans.
disco@lemdro.id [bot] 7 months ago
He’s just a lil guy
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Because kitties are forever babies 🤗
Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 7 months ago
Define “grow up”. Their personality changes with age but they remain fixated on their care giver(s) similar to children for as long as you let them.
TheDoozer@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Same reason I refer to my 14-year-old dachshund as a puppy.
Because he’s my puppy.
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 7 months ago
ms_lane@lemmy.world 7 months ago
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
because they stay smol!
tacosanonymous@mander.xyz 7 months ago
I can hold onto many feelings and ideas at once.
My orange baby boy is an old man.
Lembot_0004@discuss.online 7 months ago
Mama Trump, is it you?
otp@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Because they get neutered/spayed
Doublenut@lemmy.zip 7 months ago
One of my cats is a man cat. We always call him a man unless it Big Bubba Boi for the alliteration. The other cat is a demon.
Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
My cats are gentlemen and ladies
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I only have one lady. The rest I call terrible names.
Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
Oh I call them like 100 terrible names as well but they are still nobles without rank or title
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
Human/animal bonding is added 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).
BussyGyatt@feddit.org 7 months ago
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.
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
That’s true for dog, not for cats. It’s also immaterial since we’re talking about present attitudes toward pets.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
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… 😍🐈
Steve@startrek.website 7 months ago
You can call your cat anything you want, they still won’t come.
Bazoogle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
That’s when you break out the tuna can. Try to see them resist that shit
Lembot_0004@discuss.online 7 months ago
Because their real name sounds like a food pouring into the bowl.
FoxyFerengi@startrek.website 7 months ago
My 16yo cat is definitely a prim and proper old lady. Oddly, I call the 4yo Maine Coon “little man” even though he’s easily 4x the old lady’s size
I’m probably forever going to call my dog “bestest girl”, but she’s starting to get a grey muzzle too
riskable@programming.dev 7 months ago
Because that would be a cattasrophe!
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
Not a lot of cats grow to be 18 years old.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
Cat smol.
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 7 months ago
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.
Revan343@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Adults would generally use actual adjectives, ‘male/female cat’ instead of ‘man/woman/boy/girl cat’
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I do call my doggo ‘old man’, but never just called him a man.
floo@retrolemmy.com 7 months ago
Because pet owners tended to infantilize their pets.
Bazoogle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Easy to do based on their small size, large eyes, big ears, and fluffy fur.
aaaa@piefed.world 7 months ago
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
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
Man cheetah
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 months ago
or a human/cat hybrid.
I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yes, but Lady Cat and Gentleman Cat just sounds like cats being fancy. And cats are fancy.
floo@retrolemmy.com 7 months ago
I believe you’re thinking of Catman
Zachariah@lemmy.world 7 months ago
respect my authoritay
ski11erboi@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Boy and girl cats grow up??
Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 months ago
IMO:
Boy/Girl cat implies gender.
Man/Woman cat implies anthropomorphism.
scarabic@lemmy.world 7 months ago
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.
RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Man animal you say? www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3OzAfcPb3A
SpicyTaint@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Because they are all fur babies. Always.
6stringringer@lemmy.zip 7 months ago
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.