• curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    This is learned

    Yes, but that’s not the same things as trained.

    For example, my wife got a dog from a rescue. She was terrified of:

    • Men in hoodies
    • Drunk men
    • Men approaching her personal space

    So when she interacted with men, including me, she would stay off to the side and watch. The men who could play with her, or interact with her in general without issue? Men who didn’t go to stand over her to pet her or otherwise take a dominating position.

    When I first met her, my wife (then gf) left the room to help her mom, so I sat on the floor. Like 10 minutes later she was extremely playful with me. She recognized me as “safe”.

    That doesnt mean she was sexist, it means she learned to fear most men based on her experience.

    What you’re doing is conflating “learned” and “trained”.

    • foxglove (she/her)@lazysoci.al
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      22 days ago

      yeah, this is pretty ironic - nobody trains their dog to fear men, dogs learn to fear men because of the way some men behave 🤦‍♀️