naamahdarling:

bibliophile20:

You know how the gender binary is so strong that people assign pets to masculine and feminine traits?  So dogs are seen as masculine, and cats are seen (and sexualized) as feminine.  Despite the fact that they’re, oh, for starters, two distinct species.

I just had a conversation that was even more surreal, and that I can only hope is not mainstream:

Apparently, according to this man, fossil fuels are masculine!  And renewables like solar and wind are, therefore, feminine! 

This was said in response to me talking about wanting to put solar panels on my (hypothetical) future home, and him interrupting, saying that he didn’t want a “girly house” and that I should just go get a gas-powered generator in the next aisle over (we were in Home Depot). 

A short conversation ensued, with me being rather, and increasingly, incredulous as it went on, as this fellow tried to impose his (literally toxic) view of masculinity on me, and eventually just started swearing at me (using gendered slurs) for failing to conform.  That part I wasn’t surprised by; it’s not the first time I’ve had such arguments with men whose masculinity is as fragile as spun glass and the only way they have of buttressing it is by imposing it on others. 

No, the part that has me going “buh?” is seeing the extension the gender binary view to infrastructure. 

This explains so much though. So much about the conservative resistance to renewable energy and the refusal to acknowledge the toxic environmental effects of nonrenewable resources.

And tangentially, I’ve noticed a significant overlap between people who hate cats and massive, revolting sexists.