Moreover, the language on the site sexes the animals themselves. They consistently refer to cats as “she” and “her” and dogs as “he” and “him.” For example, the text reads:
I hope everyone recognizes this as bizarre.
Dogs and cats come in both hes and shes (that how there are more cats and dogs every year). And notice that we tend to stereotype dogs as more like the stereotypical woman (dependent, passive, and happily subordinated) and cats like stereotypical men (independent, self-serving hunters), even as we masculinize dogs and feminize cats. So there is some serious contradiction going on here. We gender everything though, so why not dogs and cats!
This post originally appeared on Sociological Images. Republished with permission.
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