hm, I guess I’ve been socialized to think it’s normal … in some obvious sense it’s weird, but no more weird than us thinking of pets as morally the same as humans, for example - we anthropomorphize and project things onto objects and animals that aren’t there, we read intention where there is none, etc. - so in the same way we project our human experience of gender onto non-human animals. In some sense that feels entirely natural and consistent with other human tendencies. But yeah, it’s weird when we examine it the right way.
I don’t think cats have a social structure complex enough to even have a concept of gender, so they probably don’t care how I refer to them
Probably not. I didn’t say I thought the cats would be offended, just that it’s weird.
we even gender things that have no sex - like boats
Yeah, are you agreeing with me that’s it’s weird?
hm, I guess I’ve been socialized to think it’s normal … in some obvious sense it’s weird, but no more weird than us thinking of pets as morally the same as humans, for example - we anthropomorphize and project things onto objects and animals that aren’t there, we read intention where there is none, etc. - so in the same way we project our human experience of gender onto non-human animals. In some sense that feels entirely natural and consistent with other human tendencies. But yeah, it’s weird when we examine it the right way.