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Notes -
A couple of things do that.
First the facial feature proportions of house cats are close to human babies. This activates nurturing instincts in women. More so than other small animals.
If you pay attention you can really see how that affects how men and women interact with cats. Men tend to see their cats akin to jobless friends crashing at their place. Some women become deeply concerned for their cats socialization and emotional life.
They match up better to yin and yang traits, cats being yin.
Most people these days have met enough loud outing women that yin traits don't strongly code feminine to modern eyes.
Some languages need to classify everything as masculine or feminine and from what I've seen there's a lot of randomness. In French cheese is masculine but apples are feminine.
I'll try to tie this together for a closing. Their wariness towards new people is seen as traditionally feminine coded. As is their quietness compared to a puppy. Dogs interests match up better to traditional masculine tasks -- patrol the boundaries of territory, go on hunting expeditions. Cats keep an eye on the homestead.
In modern life the feminine coding comes more from women who get them because of unmet baby desires. Also men are expected to at least pretend that they regularly trek through the wilderness.
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