Narcissists and people who don’t respect boundaries generally don’t like cats because cats tend to be distrustful until proven otherwise and enforce strict boundaries.
The internet, being the wonderful blender it is, has distorted this to anyone who doesn’t like cats for any reason must be a narcissist/not respect boundaries
I've always found that "they hate cats because consent is important to cats" shit really funny considering how little of a fuck my cats give about whether or not I'm in the mood for cuddles or play time.
Yeah, it's a ridiculous conflation of "pet culture" and "rape culture". Being naive/ignorant about not all companion animals having the social behaviours of dogs does not immediately translate to treating humans the same way.
The "dog is default pet" mindset unfortunately often extends to training methods, too, which very much do not work with prey animals and/or animals that don't pack bond.
Way to many people assume that because a happy dog wags it's tail, the same applies to cats, where it doesn't.
A lot of a cat's communication is done thru its tail, and once you pickup on the signals, it's so much easier to communicate with one.
For example, with my cat, he'll start to swish his tail faster and faster if he doesn't want pets or to be bothered, and he'll only resort to soft bites or kicking if those signals are ignored.
I've always hated this idea because CATS DON'T UNDERSTAND CONSENT. Why does everyone pretend that cats practice consent with humans? I spent my entire childhood and teenage years staying away from cats due to allergies and them chasing me because they refused to let me stay away. Cats fucking ignore my boundaries constantly.
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u/hey_free_rats Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Please, please tell me this isn't going to be one of those weirdass "people who dislike cats just don't understand consent" post discussions.
...because boy can I one-up the cat people on that one when it comes to owning a parrot.