What gender is your dog or cat?

[TimIsHavingABadDay]

So I had to insure my moms dog over the weekend and I went with Tesco . I asked and asked the dog what gender it was but it just licked my hand and gazed at the treat jar. I went with female and she seems happy with that.

Seriously though, this madness now applies to animals? Tesco pet insurance need to sort their shit out

I honestly think language is evolving now around this. I asked my daughter yesterday if she knew the difference between sex and gender. She said there basically isn't any. Sex is what you start off with when you're born - based on your body - but it can change to match your gender (how you feel) when you are older if you have an operation. She seems to think that if someone was born a woman but wants to change their sex to be a man, if they get surgery, this is possible. I tried to talk a bit about DNA and how a fake penis isn't the same as a real penis but she was having nothing of it. The way she argues with me and looked at me made me feel like I was in the wrong, the way I used to look at my dad when he'd say something horrid about gay people when I was younger.

I was chatting to my friend this morning about the 'argument' (she's currently studying linguistics) and she told me that the word sex is evolving. She used 'Aspergers' as an example. There has recently been some controversy over the term and it's not diagnosed in US anymore. The diagnostic criteria for autism has changed from a triad of impairment to a diad. It doesn't mean that people diagnosed 5 years ago do not have the same condition as those that will be diagnosed tomorrow. It just means that word has changed meaning.

It all seemed a bit above me to be honest but definitely has me thinking. I felt ashamed of myself yesterday arguing so strongly about the difference between sex and gender. The way my child looked at me. She's going to grow up thinking I'm a bigot. It got me thinking why I don't care as strongly about other words that have changed meaning over the years. The change in 'autism' must affect lots of people just the same as the change in 'sex'. Why does one bother me more than the other?

Sorry, probably derailed a bit, but I'm really not sure how I feel about things anymore. I honestly felt like my dad last night (who is still a homophobic, racist old grouch to this day).

Oh Shit, just mis-gendered Him, er her, er they, er zee, er za, er baaaaah

I intentionally have a pink lead on my male dog which messes with people's minds like mad. He is definitely a frostgender demiboi. My cat is of the female sex and identifies as permanently pissed off.

This is utterly barking.

I begin to lose respect for your wider discussion when silly comments like this are made.

What? When attention is drawn to the insidious creep of language in favour of gender (system of oppression) over sex (material reality) which is to the detriment of women (sex) who are oppressed (by gender)?

Well, you carry on losing respect, and we'll carry on drawing attention to the war of attrition.

Well our cats have had more “bottom surgery” than most TRAs, so...

You only believe in women's rights and not erasing them if the women standing up for them are not in any way silly?

Yeah, you crack on with that. AIBU is over that way.

My ddog has teats that drag off the ground due to overbreeding but has a very masuline stance, i put a pink collar and coat on her but people always call her 'he' thankfully she is deaf so is unnaffected by peoples opinions on her gender.

Her body language and attitude identifies as a sloth!

He"s a furry The little pervert! 😱

🤣

My cat currently identifies as "scared", or possibly "annoyed", as there's work being done on the exterior of the house.

Either way her sex is female.

My (female) tortoise identifies as male...(Basically thought it was a boy for about 8 years and we’ve been saying ‘he’ and ‘him’ for so long now we can’t bring ourselves to change - made for a very interesting conversation with the vet talking about ‘him’ maybe being egg-bound! Tortoise showed approval of appropriate pronouns by kicking dirt in the vet’s face and pissing on the floor...)

I intentionally have a pink lead on my male dog which messes with people's minds like mad

In all seriousness, I actually find it quite helpful that so many people use pink or purple or 'pretty' on their bitches. Having a clue to the dog's sex from a distance before the undercarriage is obvious can be useful to assess how my dog will react, especially with larger dogs. He obviously knows their sex!

My cat is "me-gender" in that she expects the world to revolve around her. In this respect I feel she fits perfectly beneath the trans umbrella.

My dog is of the female sex, but being a mastiff is extremely butch and often taken for a male. What should I do?

PositivelyPERF :)

Get her some of those fake testicle implants that insecure men buy for their castrated dogs, Vicky, obviously.

WELL. My resident House Panther arrived at the Cats Protection a girl cat. But by the time we got her, she had had been spayed... So....

Incidentally, in Germany "dog" is a masculine noun, and "cat" is a feminine" one. Der Hund, die Katze.

Wonderful news that your dog now feels recognised. The dog walks will be totes amazing, no longer declaring they just a bitch amongst fellow dog friends.

My cat is male. He is a rescue cat.

He is male because he was born with testicles and not a uterus.

He is wary though of all human males. He runs away from them.

He does love the female humans in his life though.

My dogs identify as “we want what you’re eating.”

Not sure on gender, but judging by her behavior towards the postie, Ddog obviously identifies as a Rottweiler rather than a chihuahua.

Silliness aside, how is this even possible?

If gender is a social construct then how can pets/animals even fit in a category, being, well, animals?

Mine sometimes sticks her tongue out at me. She's probably some kind of non binary.

DDog: Sex - female, Gender - humps pillows so male I guess.

Yeps asked mine cats what gender they identify with in their inner selves
Stony stares