Another topic I'm curious about is how the general populous thinks about the topic of bestiality and zoophilia/zoosexuality.... I am someone who likes the idea that humans could romance (even have sex with) with members of other species. I feel like I see a lot of people who are not zoo (do not have such feelings for other species) talking about how they feel disgusted or sick when the topic comes up. But then on the flip side they seem to laugh about it! Why would you chuckle at something that also makes you feel sick... Is that some sort of logic disconnect or something? They seem to JOKE about it. That seems kind of rude because I believe there are people in the world who do like animals in that way... and these "zoos" are hated and discriminated against and I know this because where is the acknowledgement in society at large that my orientation is a true and legitimate orientation? Where are zoophile characters on prime time tv shows? I feel as though I need to hide my orientation or else perhaps I would lose my job, access to non-humans, friends, family..
So that is one thing--- the nature of the attitudes of non-zoos about zoophilia. That is one thing I'd like to understand more about.
Another thing would be I'd like zoophiles to discuss some of your own memories about learning that there are some people who have sex with animals. What did you think about that thing or people who did that? Did you ever feel like how a non-zoo may feel about it but then changed your mind? What are some of your first memories? I remember as a child I had thought that I had invented the concept of what the rest of the world knows as "bestiality" and I never knew that there actually was a word for it at all until I was emotionally deep into it and I believe I was reading "Bear" by Marian Engel... and the word is mentioned in her book. I saw it, and I immediately thought, "what does that word mean?" and then I got out my dictionary and wow was I surprised that there actually was a word for the fantasy/desires I had been having! I had a happy childhood but I didn't like school- I felt that the majority of the other kids in primary school were unfriendly but I loved my home-life. My father was a dairy farmer I had a lot of pets but I didn't love them romantically... the animals that I love in a zoophilic way are actually bears..... a dangerous and powerful predator! Good luck to me, I know! lol Anyway.... and I know that THAT is a fairly big topic.... I'm really just saying that one day I'd like zoos to have a bigger discussion about that. I think it will reveal how we view ourselves to some degree and also reveal some of society's general disconnect to the topic of bestiality/zoophilia/zoosexuality.
Oddly enough, I first learned about sex with animals by reading through the first few books of the bible. Funny how the death penalty part of that never really stuck with me. On the broader scale, I considered myself a born again Christian, though far more fire and brimstone and far more self-righteous than most people at my church. I never specifically felt like a non-zoo, in the sense of feeling that there's something inherently disgusting about sex with animals. To me, it seemed that God's purpose for sex was procreation alone, and that only within the confines of marriage. In truth, I was much more homophobic than zoophobic (though thankfully I wasn't a complete asshole about it).
What changed my mind was the onset of puberty. I began feeling sexual urges later than my classmates, but not toward anyone at school or anything like that. When the time came to "know myself", I found myself remembering Jesus talking about how looking at a woman with lust in one's heart is the same as adultery in God's eyes. And so, probably because I was drawn to them anyway, I started masturbating to nature films, lions mating and that sort of thing. The association between sex and animals having been made, I began having feelings toward them later, in particular some dogs I was familiar with.
That's it as far as an origin story. There was an incident in childhood where I touched my dog's butthole and was surprised how hot it was (the "volcano butt" incident). As for the problems in social acceptance... for now, our only options are a "whisper campaign" for positive opinions of zoos and perhaps the production of such zoo-positive content. I'm more concerned about stopping it from being banned throughout Western civilization, myself. People laugh at it because they either don't believe it's real ("People just CAN'T feel that way about a sheep!") or, if they do, they think it's absurd ("I guess the cheese slipped off of his cracker, huh?").
I have never heard this saying. I love it XD
I watched "The Green Mile" the other day. One of the character's goes nuts and completely catatonic, and the men inspecting him makes this remark. I love that movie (though it is long and sometimes maudlin).
heh .. i was so shocked when i first saw sex in an animal documentary (it was lions for me, too) .. i actually mentioned it to my mom, saying "how can they show that on tv?" my brain didn't draw a line between showing sex involving humans and sex involving animals being "porn".
I always try to see the issue from a different perspective. And to be honest I mostly understand other people's reasoning why having sex with animals would be wrong. I can see why, and I would've thought the same if I didn't knew a little bit more about the whole subject than the others. That's the whole issue with zoophilia (and the majority of other taboos). They are misunderstood. People who do not know or understand a certain thing, will get afraid and thus get abusive towards it. You'd be surprised how many people actually think zoo's are just people who just want to have sex with every animal they see. When you tell them it's actually all about the relationship and not about the sex most wouldn't even believe you.
I too have caught myself in similar situations. When I do find myself thinking like this, instead of just repeating everyone else's opinion and pretending it doesn't exist I actually prefer to figure it out myself even if I do absolutely hate it. The end result is usually that I still don't like it, but at the very least I understand the people who think this way.
People are creatures of habit. And I'm sad to say that it seems I'm in the minority when it comes to willing to investigate something that challanges my personal opinion. I wish more people were like this :( You don't have to agree with this, but understanding the people who do can help a great deal.
i am very self-conscious of the fact that ... i kindof am like that... my only positive thought about that side of me is the belief that once i have an animal partner of my own and have that solid relationship, that my eyes will stop wandering so much.
To be honest, so am I. I don't have an animal partner myself right now and it can be quite hard at times. So I get off on the second best thing I can find which are videos. And I'm very consious at staying with just this, I don't want to do anything sexually with an animal before I personally know them well enough and have a good connection with the animal. Idc if that be weeks, months or years. Or not at all. My decision depends on the animal, not my urges.
Well attraction and sex are two different actions, correct? There shouldn't be anything wrong with seeing the attractiveness of animals. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you will do anything about it (having sex). Or perhaps you may be going through a "promiscuous" period of your life. I think the idea is we want our orientation to match that of other (more accepted) forms of sexuality... We want to be normal within our alternate sexuality. We want our relationships to be similar to the relationships of persons who are not zoo.
I first heard about bestiality when I was at school — another student talked about a woman whose fantasy was to be mounted by a dog. It felt like a totally non-judgmental discussion at the time. I'm not sure if that happened before or after I realised my zoo feelings.
To answer your other question, humour is a very strange thing. The opening scene of Buffy the Vampire slayer (TV show, not seen the film) got a laugh out of my dad, despite it being "teenage boy murdered by vampire". And it's not just him being odd — the Hindenburg disaster is quite often used as a joke ("Oh the huge manatee").
People can hate us and laugh at us at the same time. It only stops being possible to laugh when it hurts personally, for whatever reason.
I'm more confused by the odd disconnect between what's "acceptable sex", and what's "acceptable violence". With the possible exception of BDSM (which I don't understand), the only form of "acceptable violence" should be "minimal", while sex is supposed to be fun. Despite this, our culture shows violence — even murder — casually in children's cartoons, while hiding sex behind closed doors and condemning outright many forms of it.
Basically humans are taught to think things are gross. This is basically to measure morality and keep from getting sick, subconsciously that is. It seems weird and they do not understand how somebody could think it is okay so the brains naturally response is to poke fun at it or "other" it in other was. Now the reason it is thought to be gross in my opinion is that sex is for some reason considered super special over all other activities (even though when you get down to it, the main difference between sex and tickling is that one can make babies when done right), so since it is sacred, anything that is both 'gross' and involves sex is therefor basically the ultimate gross, and therefor something to team up against and focus hatred against as humans seem to always do. To eleminate the 'gross' This is what is seems to me is the reason why people hate zoophiles so much. I used to be one of those people "the only cure is a bullet" A sick thing I said that I can not believe I would ever say, before I learned that hate is always wrong, not matter what, before worked so hard to master the art of understanding.
Anyway that is my two cents with a couple extra coins on top.
brother!
that (sad, improbable) attraction seems quite rare, but maybe i'm just not looking in the right places.
i'm attracted to dogs enough that i can be happy with them, but my heart definitely belongs to bears... if only i could figure out which species. ;)
i have always found interspecies romance (human-animal, animal-animal, human-alien .. whatever) to be .. 'interesting', shall we say .. whether manifested sexually or not (usually not, in my teen years to late 20s/early 30s).
as far as my introduction to the idea that zoophilia existed (well before puberty), my cousin used to joke that our dog was his "girlfriend". my siblings and his siblings would laugh, but deep down in my brain, it planted a seed of "this is something that people do and feel". i didn't really know it was a thing, though, 'til my brother introduced me to usenet newsgroups (way back in the early 90s) and i discovered alt.sex.bestiality and the like. of course... in between there was my mom discovering some of the things that were going on with me, and me learning how quiet and discrete i had to be... a tough but valuable lesson - HIDE.
I first found out the word zoophilia in an exotic animal sales contract (wolves/wolfdogs) when I was in 12 grade (none sold for purposes of zoophilia).