Hello! As someone who lives a pretty normal lifestyle, I wanted to say that I support what you guys do here. I am experienced with the feeling of social rejection, as I came out of the closet as "not Christian" to my social circle, which happens to be 100% Christian. The experience was utterly miserable, even though many were accepting. I support the spreading of information like safe practices and ethical behavior. I make an intentional effort to associate with people who are generally not accepted by society, despite the thought and effort put in to live in a socially constructive way. That being said, do any of you fine people know of any other ethically justifiable lifestyles which are treated nearly as badly as zoophilia? I'm looking to educate myself.
/r/zoophilia archive
Well... Let's see here...
People in incestuous relationships tend to be treated very badly, even when those relationships are reasonably equal (cousins or siblings, for instance) and when genetic issues are not a problem (when birth control is used or in same-sex pairings).
Non-acting pedophiles tend to be treated very badly as well by many people. The idea that they are pedophiles seems to be for many people more significant than the "non-acting" component.
Muslims in many western nations are often lumped in with extremists, even when they are clearly not happy with the extremists, often speaking up against them. There is a lot of racism against arabs in particular.
Finally, prisoners and felons are treated very badly. Even when they've served their time, and may have genuinely repented their crimes, they still face an extremely uphill battle trying to be accepted by society. Indeed, there is a significant portion of the population that finds the idea that prisoners are getting raped in prison to be amusing, which is just horrible.
Not as unlucky as those you mentioned, but still met with prejudice are people in poly relationships, swingers and other non-monogamous people.
But I guess everything depends on location and culture? Atheists/non-religious are the norm were I live, for instance, not Christians. And having several wives would be normal in Saudi Arabia.
Hey. I am surprised to see the first post here I see is a non-zoo such as myself seeing that I have not been on this subbreddit in a long time. Swibblestein pretty much summed it up as well. Beyond that homeless people also tend to get treated very very poorly even though many of them are actually good people who just got unlucky.
Perhaps to a lesser degree today, but people with HIV/AIDS have been somewhat shunned by society.
As for us, thank you for keeping an open mind. :)
In America? Not much. I'd actually say zoophilia takes the #1 spot easily (especially for male zoos; a male zoo is viewed as a deranged rapist pig who should be executed/have their genitals cut off, a female zoo is just viewed as a trashy whore), but it's easier to lead a good life as a closet zoo than for other groups. Like in your case. You're an atheist in an overwhelmingly Christian community and there's presumably societal pressure there to go to Church, and if you're not going there or you're just clearly not into it, people are going to start wondering.
I see the others already gave you good answers.
But nice to know that there are people like you too. :) I have seen so many, who spread hate against zoophiles, even after they hear of the word "Zoophilia" for the first time, and get a wrong view of what it is actually like to be a real zoo...
I would get some flack for saying this in many places on reddit, which is exactly it's an appropriate response I feel.
But being a woman in many places in the world instantly condemns you to being irrelevant, voiceless and less than human by cultural norms. Even in the so-called developed world there are still a frightening number of people who just seriously hate women, or at best mistrust women to the point of being unable to relate to them.
I grew up in the boonies and didn't have a lot of social experience until I was a little older, so I didn't really think much of the different ways that people interact with women versus men, I accepted the way things were without questioning and just thought that something was wrong with me when certain individuals dismissed my opinions, I thought I was the one who was ill-informed or as childish as they made me feel.
So one of the most formative experiences I ever had regarding gender issues was when my now-husband and I were living together during college and he got me into online games like WoW and Everquest and a few others. They were fun and I loved the escape and the socializing, but one day when we started a new game and new characters he told me that I should make a male character as my main. I ribbed him that he had a secret fantasy, but he told me he needed a partner for running a guild that the kids he knew would "take seriously." Of course I was a little hurt, but curious so I tried it.
The first thing I noticed is that I didn't get free stuff anymore! People rarely came up to me and talked to me, it was like I was invisible. However as soon as I got into a social group and needed to make decisions, nobody questioned anything I said. This was new to me, I was used to at least a few a people teasing me, ignoring me, or directing their own questions over my head. I could go on and on about the subtle differences between playing as different genders, but what really struck me is going out into the real world with this new perspective. It definitely made me more assertive in conversations and more aware that there really are men, and even women, who have preconceptions about your abilities to think and communicate if you are a woman.
And I'm going to get some flack for saying this too:
I've noticed a lot of blatant sexism in the zoo community, FROM zoos.
By and large it comes from male zoos going on and on about how much better female animals are than female humans. I know they don't mean much by it, but it's somewhat deragatory in it's own right.
I've even been told by a zoo whom I respect and normally would not consider a sexist:
"If sheep could cook, women would be in big trouble!"
It's rather disturbing when your eyes are opened to it. I am sure it's not serious / good intentions and all, but still... it's very very present.
But is it much different than in the gay community?
Being heterosexual in all my aspects, I would not know.
For some reason I'm reminded of things I've seen in other reddit communities and things that have been highlighted in some of the odd subcultures and fandoms about young guys saying how they are so unhappy with real women that they prefer the "company" of imaginary animated girls to real women, or other jaded guys creating idealized fantasies in their mind that foreign, Asian girls are preferable to to "Western" women because they are so much more obedient and submissive. (Boy would they be in for a shock if confronted with the reality.)
But I wonder if there is an overlap in some of that sentiment mindset among some zoos.
I guess in a way, everyone just wants to feel like they've "cheated the system" so to speak in alternative sexualities. But it's still wrong to run over heterosexual men and women with the bus even if you're happy with what you've discovered.
For the most part most zoo's I've talked to are always wonderful, compassionate and sensitive people that want nothing more than to be left in peace and to teach people about love and understanding. But there's always at least a couple sour grapes in the bunch huh.
Always. That's humanity for you.