So! I wanted to share a story of something which happened recently.
I was, as the title says, walking along with my family, and there is the most drop-dead gorgeous dog. I just have to stop, so I crouch down, and she comes up and sniffs my face. Her owner says something along the lines of "As you can tell, she's a real flirt with guys".
My family - or at least the two of them with me at the time - know that I'm a zoophile, so this was a rather amusing comment to me. As we're walking away, my eyes are glued behind me on this dog. I realize then that my family is asking me some question, and I respond with "Uh... wait what? Sorry, I was... distracted". Which, again, they know I'm a zoophile (and are accepting about it), so I'm very curious what their thought process was at that time.
I'm bringing this up for a few reasons. First, I need to vent a bit, because she's still on my mind. Holy hell.
Also, I reminded myself of the way many people act when they see a pretty girl or a hot guy on the street. And it made me wonder... Is this how most people see celebrities? I've never understood the fascination that people have with celebrities, but now I think I might get it. Do you think that comparison is apt?
I wonder which of you have experienced something like this? I've seen attractive animals when walking around, naturally, but this is the first time I was utterly floored. My brain was screaming a nonstop heavenly chorus.
cool story, bro. ;) seriously, i don't know .. i guess that could be a reasonable comparison, though why not simply compare it to a person seeing a drop-dead gorgeous human of their preferred type/gender? definitely also fits.
edit: added an accidentally omitted word that changed the meaning quite a bit...
I think you misunderstood the direction of my analogy.
I'm trying to use this to help my understanding for why people are so obsessed with celebrities. If you remove the celebrity aspect from the analogy, you remove the entire point of the analogy and have a pointless analogy.
To use an analogy to describe my analogy, let's say I said "imagine a heavy ball held on a stretched sheet - it distorts the sheet. You can use this to visualize how mass bends spacetime". Your objection to my analogy with the celebrities would be similar to if someone said "Well yeah but instead of throwing gravity in there, why not just imagine a ball distorting a nylon net. That's much more similar to a ball distorting a sheet. Definitely also fits."
Do you see what I'm getting at here?
Also, "cool story, bro"? Really?
i was joking about the "cool story, bro" part .. hence the wink.
and i didn't realize the whole point of your analogy was the celebrity thing. without knowing that, of course i'm not going to get it.
Oh. Fair enough. Sorry, I've been in a... I've been rather stressed recently, I didn't mean to snap at you. I apologize.
I know the feeling of seeing a lovely dog. The positive thing is that even non-zoos can find certain dogs so cute that stop and look at it, or ask if it's okay to pet it. Ah yes, it's wonderful to see a beautiful, happy dog.
But I think the celebrity thing is more like... catching a shiny pokémon? While fans might find celebs hot, I think the reason why people think it's cool to meet celebrities is because it's a rare opportunity and something to brag about? Like "what are the chances I would run into this person we've seen on TV", rather than "oh my, gorgeous human!!".
The shiny Pokemon analogy appeals to me.
I know what you mean, especially when I see big dominant male dogs (I'm female), they definitely give me feels
Had this experience the other day, driving by a gorgeous lab on his walk. My heart fluttered...
I'm not sure the celebrity thing has to do with the person themselves as the way they are mythologized and seen as greater than human. The attractiveness helps, of course, but ultimately I don't think they would get a swooning reaction from a large section of the public if not for having been marketed so well.
I can imagine this very well. Not so often since I have my own canine partner who I love, because I see her every day, so this special-effect is not there. But still, when I see a pretty dog on the street, my heart starts beating faster and the feeling is really intense when I'm allowed to touch one. (does that make me disloyal? D:)
And yeah, I only get this feeling when I "check out" animals, humans are not interesting for me. When I notice a dog, I don't even need to think, my brain automatically focuses on four-leggers. For example I don't care if the owner is an attractive girl, I'm not even looking at her lol.
I guess what you mentioned is comparable indeed. On the internet I see posts about people like Emma Watson, and people commenting what they would like to "do" with her, while I can't even imagine what the big deal is. The situation is different as a zoo, but the feelings are the same, i believe.
Emma Watson.. still a big crush of mine.
I get that feeling when I see a nice horse.
Where I work, people are allowed to bring dogs into the office on certain days. One day, someone brought in the most adorable husky I've ever seen. She was a little smaller than average and was super sweet. I think I was reeling from that encounter for a week.