A female cat owner did not invite a ‘friend’ (let’s say acquaintance), Rose, to her dinner party because she knew that Rose did not eat at homes where there were domestic cats. Simple, and many would argue sensible not to invite her. In fact, to invite Rose would have been perverse. Nothing to discuss you might think. But…
The female cat owner (anonymous) decided to ask Reddit.com users if they thought she had been an A-hole for blocking the party invite. The response was that she is ‘Not the A-hole’.
On Reddit they have many thousands of discussion categories called subreddits. This one is AITA – Am I the Asshole?
Here is her post on Reddit:
It received a lot of discussion. It is interesting that she decided to air a fairly intimate part of her life on social media which can’t have made things easier between her and Rose.
Does it help to dissect these sorts of social issues in the glare of the social media spotlight? I think not.
It is a new phenomenon compared to around 20 years ago when this would not have happened.
Also the female cat owner (Reddit user: howcanibeguiltyassin) introduces her Reddit post with these words:
“A while back I posted a picture to my IG Stories of my cat sitting NEXT TO my counter as I was cooking. On his own stool. He was watching. Again, he was NEXT TO my counter. Not anywhere near the food. He doesn’t go on counters. He doesn’t go near the food. My ‘friend’ Rose reposted it with her own caption, a puke face emoji and “You can’t eat everybody house”.
Reddit user: howcanibeguiltyassin
IG = Instagram by the way.
She was being defensive it seems to me about allowing her cat to be in the kitchen while she prepared food but she made sure to tell readers that her cat was not on the counter but on a stool next to the counter.
I have no idea what the phrase “You can’t eat everybody house” and I don’t want to know. I think it is some sort of trendy new social media phrase with a meaning all of its own.
The opening words themselves can stir up quite a big debate about cat caregiving. Some hate the idea of letting cats go on kitchen counters while others, like me, don’t see the problem. I actually feed my cat on the kitchen counter which will make some readers squirm in horror.
Banning cats from kitchen counters is about preventing bacterial contamination from cat to food and I guess other nasties. I think the fear originates in toxoplasmosis which can be transferred from cat to person via oocysts in cat feces for a short period of a couple of weeks in the life of a cat. Although most people contract toxoplasmosis from eating raw foods. That point is not often made on social media.
Personally, I don’t think social media users should wash their dirty linen online. What’s the advantage?
In her Reddit post, the female cat owner seems to have wanted validation from other users that her behaviour was okay. I am not sure that it is necessary in the first place to ask for validation on Reddit.com and secondly in an ideal world she should feel secure enough about her own decision making to not need to ask the general public.
Her Reddit post was picked up by The Independent newspaper online which is how I bumped into it. Online newspapers scour social media from these kinds of ‘catty’ interactions as they believe that they appeal to their readers. They are very personal and people like personal, intimate stories. There is a voyeuristic element to it I feel.
RELATED: Google’s current algorithm favours large websites like Reddit.com in search results (June 2024)
P.S. I have presumed that the cat owner is female by the what she has written and the style of her writing but the post does not tell me the gender.
Reddit.com is flying high thanks to Google’s recent algo change. It did not need the assist. Most of the comments on Reddit are by wisecracking, smartarse young men who take pleasure in demonstrating to the world their ability to make funny quips.