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According to different studies carried out in recent years, they show us how our relationship with domestic animals, such as dogs and cats, is conditioned by gender factors, which opens up the possibility of asking ourselves what is behind it and what we can do. do about it.
This is what is proposed by a study carried out by Colorado State University and another by the University of California, which propose that having cats or dogs makes men more or less attractive to women, as well as other research at the University from Vienna and the University of Washington, who tell us that both dogs and cats prefer women as their caregivers.
That said, it seems important to me to see these results from a feminist perspective, which makes visible the historical construction of a hegemonic masculinity, which has been related to nature and non-human animals from domination and submission, which has led to We bond with dogs and cats in a different way than women do.
Hence, we should not be surprised that women find men who have dogs more attractive, since it would be an animal that is easier to domesticate and train by men, which would highlight characteristics of traditional masculinity, focused on obedience, strength, dominance and competence.
On the contrary, having cats would supposedly be less masculine, since they would not have those characteristics of dogs, by not paying attention and not obeying the orders of a type of man or master, who cannot stand having to adapt to the needs of small felines, which behave differently and, therefore, submit less than dogs, being seen as treacherous and less trustworthy beings.
For this reason, as the Argentine psychologist and author of the book Antrozoology and the human-dog relationship, Marcos Díaz Videla, states, it is no coincidence that, according to different sources, women participate more in animal activism organizations and that men are more vast majority who abuse and exercise violence against dogs and cats.
Nor should we be surprised that an enormous speciesist, racist and capitalist system of buying and selling purebred dogs has been generated, dominated mainly by men, which has commodified the lives of millions of them, as if they were mere objects of consumption, within a cruel dog industry that has only generated abuse and abandonment, instead of care and love.
Given this, it is not strange that both dogs and cats prefer women over men, since we have built a masculinity far from caring for others and ourselves, which has caused other species to view us with fear, use punishment and physical violence as ways to relate to them.
The consequences of this masculinity are visible: dogs and cats that are not sterilized, abandoned, run over and mistreated, full of genetic diseases due to the breed business, dogs used for fighting and racing, and an indifference to their pain and suffering. of a large part of the population, who continue to see the care of pets as a matter of animal rights and not of basic dignity.
Having said the above, it is not enough to only generate new legislation on animal welfare, responsible pet ownership, declare animal sentience and consider them as subjects of law, as different countries have made progress in this regard, but also a relational change with our environment and leave behind systems of oppression, dominated by competition, profit and the denial of the other.
To achieve this, we must leave behind a dominating masculinizing speciesism, which prevents us from seeing pets as real members of our family and community, through an education based on a broad idea of ??empathy and care, which truly incorporates dogs and cats in our coexistence.
