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"?

Comments

• SpicyTaint@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Because they are all fur babies. Always.

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• aaaa@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ 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

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  • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world ⁨41⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    Yes, but Lady Cat and Gentleman Cat just sounds like cats being fancy. And cats are fancy.

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    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      You haven’t met my chonker

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  • floo@retrolemmy.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    I believe you’re thinking of Catman

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    • Zachariah@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      respect my authoritay

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• Steve@startrek.website ⁨19⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  You can call your cat anything you want, they still won’t come.

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• LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Cat smol.

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• exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Not a lot of cats grow to be 18 years old.

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• floo@retrolemmy.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Because pet owners tended to infantilize their pets.

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• FoxyFerengi@startrek.website ⁨39⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ 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

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• InvalidName2@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ 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.

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  • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    I do call my doggo ‘old man’, but never just called him a man.

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• undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  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.

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  • Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    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?”

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• ski11erboi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Boy and girl cats grow up??

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• Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  IMO:

  Boy/Girl cat implies gender.

  Man/Woman cat implies anthropomorphism.

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  • RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Man animal you say? www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3OzAfcPb3A

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• Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  They do? Who does this? I’d say ask them.

  I use the terms “male” and “female”.

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• riskable@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Because that would be a cattasrophe!

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• Canconda@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  nostupidanswers? cuz there are no man cats or woman cats. That’s some weird chimera shiz.

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