jdyöung
2023-09-01 05:31:20 UTC
Hello and welcome to the end of Zoo Pride Week 2023! Tomorrow we'll be
diving right back into our regular content so you're getting articles
three whole days in a row! Wow! But for now, I wanted to share one
more totally not controversial article on pride. Specifically, I
wanted to directly compare the struggles of the LGBTQ community, and
the zoo community.
Possibly the worst argument against zoosexuality is the idea that
"It's illegal, and therefore it's bad." There are a ton of really
awful zero thought takes out there, but I really think that one takes
the top spot. There's a million ways you can refute that comment in
very complex and nuanced ways that explain how the social standards of
society, especially when it comes to its specific laws, are not
indicitave of morals in any way. And in fact, the legal status of
ideas tends to lag behind the general social perception. But, if
someone is using that point as an argument that's probably way too
many words for them. So instead, the easiest way to get the point
across is thus.
"Well, homosexuality wasn't legalized in the United States until 2003.
Does that mean that before then, homosexuality was immoral?"
However, this point usually leads to a flood of people stating that
"You can't compare homosexuality to zoophilia!" "Being gay isn't the
same thing as wanting to fuck dogs!! (skull emoji)"
But what if I told you it was? In fact, I would argue that not only is
it an apt comparison, I would say that the similarities between the
LGBTQ rights movement and the zoosexuality rights movement are so
clear that you could practically call someone homophobic for being
against zoos. Let's start at the beginning.
Why do people hate the gays? Well, there's a lot of reasons nowadays,
but back in the good old years, it was a lot simpler. The argument
mostly came down to one simple idea. It's not natural. It's different.
Obviously, different cultures had different ideas on the idea of
homosexuality, and there were plenty of amazing societies out there
that were more progressive on LGBTQ issues 2000 years ago than we are
today. But, unfortunately, those societies weren't the ones interested
in taking over the world (I wonder if that's related?). Instead, we
got a movement that viewed the idea of women as lesser, of pleasure as
bad, and of homosexuality as unholy. If you've read any of my articles
before, you may have heard me harp on this point already, but it's
something I think can't be understated. The world was told for a long
time by its most important people that any kind of sexual liberty was
going to cause your soul to burn in hell for all of eternity. Imagine
if Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, Obama and Rihanna all came out and said
that masturbating would literally cause you to die. It's impossible to
quantify the effect that a body of authority preaching a repressive
sexual culture has had on the world.
Anyway, tangent aside, people hate the gays because a long time ago
everyone was told to hate the gays. If you ask a homophobe nowadays,
it's pretty unlikely that's what they're going to tell you though.
This is exactly true to why people dislike zoosexuality as well. There
are lines and excuses built in as to why they think they dislike it,
but the root is the same.
Speaking of lines and excuses, there sure is a lot of crossover
between the dumb shit gays have to listen to, and the dumb shit that
we have to listen to! Just to crack off a few easy examples from the
top of my head:
-Oh, you're gay? I guess you must want to diddle kids too!
-You're gay because something in your brain is broken.
-If you're gay you need to get therapy, because it's not normal.
-You're so scared to talk to (the other gender) that you'd rather just
fuck (your gender).
-You're gay because you're a sex addict and can't stop yourself.
-I'm sure your family is disappointed in the fact that you're gay.
-Homosexuality is an addiction that you need to cure yourself of.
-You're gay? What trauma happened to you growing up?
If you're someone who grew up in a homophobic area, or if you've ever
spent time around homophobic people, I'm sure that all these lines are
very familiar to you. But, if you're a zoo, chances are you've also
heard these lines almost verbatum used against you, just with the
focus of the attractions mixed around.
Whether you're same sex attracted, or different species attracted, the
flavor of bigotry is exactly the same. And that's because the words
that they use don't actually really matter. Very few people, if any,
are honestly going to try and logically argue someone out of their
homosexuality, the same way that people aren't really hoping zoos are
going to change their ways when they use the same rhetoric against us.
All of these lines are shorthand for "You're bad and that's that."
They're the end of a conversation. Even lines that are absolutely
provably false still are used all the time specifically because it's
more about saying something than it is about actually putting forward
a rational opinion. People are homophobic because they were told to
be, and they didn't bother asking questions. People are zoophobic
because they were told to be, and they didn't bother asking questions.
However, it's not all doom and gloom. There's another really awesome
way that we're similar to the gay community, and that's our culture.
The LGBTQ grew from very modest places. It wasn't always the huge
social movement that we see today. There were gay people all over the
world, but most of the time they would exist in small local
communities, or hole in the wall bars. It was a very underground
scene. That's very similar to the way that the zoo community is too.
However, the way that we exist in the world has changed. While you may
have a group of zoo friends that you hang out with in real life, or
have a zoo room party at a furry convention, it's pretty unlikely that
there's a secret zoosexual bar everyone's meeting up at. Our secret
spaces tend to be online. It's safer, easier and cheaper. While
there's always been some people talking about their zoosexuality
online, much more commonly there were IRCs, which became forums, which
became Telegram channels and Discord servers. And most of those places
functioned similarly to those old school gay bars. They were built to
be semi private, hard to find. You could get in, but usually it was by
having someone already there invite you. It wasn't that long ago that
fully advertised public zoo spaces didn't really exist at all.
And once the gay rights movement did start picking up momentum, it's
not like it went from nothing to today all at once. The movement
started small and slow. A big hurdle for us zoos is trying to get
science and media to legitimize us enough that people feel like it's
even worth taking a critical look at us. Right now, we tend to be so
assumed negative that even the idea of trying to understand zoos is
met with apprehension. This was the same with the LGBTQ movement too.
Much of the social shift in perception came from the media attention,
but that could only exist when there was enough pressure that the
story was worth the potential bad publicity. Before that point, it
wasn't about trying to organize marches or stage protests. Instead, it
was small media being passed between individuals, solidifying the
concept of what the "homosexual community" even was. Things like
zines, publications, music. Queer media in all its forms, whether
romanticized stories about the boy next door, art of same sex couples,
or punchy non fiction articles talking about the importance of
understanding queer history. Similar to the way that we now have
Podcasts like Zooier Than Thou and Zoo & Me, artists like Milk and
Kodaac, musicians like Shiv and Zipwok, and punchy non fiction
articles talking about the importance of understanding queer history
like those found in Zooey Dot Pub! While the LGBTQ movement is decades
ahead of us, it's easy to see that we have our cultural roots in the
same place, and we're headed in the same direction. While I can't
claim to have been around in the spaces where people were first trying
to launch the idea of "gay pride," I can easily imagine that it felt a
lot like the places where we try and plan out our very own zoo pride.
https://zooey.pub/directly-comparing-zoosexuality-with-being-gay/
jdyöung, Official
***@gmail.com
diving right back into our regular content so you're getting articles
three whole days in a row! Wow! But for now, I wanted to share one
more totally not controversial article on pride. Specifically, I
wanted to directly compare the struggles of the LGBTQ community, and
the zoo community.
Possibly the worst argument against zoosexuality is the idea that
"It's illegal, and therefore it's bad." There are a ton of really
awful zero thought takes out there, but I really think that one takes
the top spot. There's a million ways you can refute that comment in
very complex and nuanced ways that explain how the social standards of
society, especially when it comes to its specific laws, are not
indicitave of morals in any way. And in fact, the legal status of
ideas tends to lag behind the general social perception. But, if
someone is using that point as an argument that's probably way too
many words for them. So instead, the easiest way to get the point
across is thus.
"Well, homosexuality wasn't legalized in the United States until 2003.
Does that mean that before then, homosexuality was immoral?"
However, this point usually leads to a flood of people stating that
"You can't compare homosexuality to zoophilia!" "Being gay isn't the
same thing as wanting to fuck dogs!! (skull emoji)"
But what if I told you it was? In fact, I would argue that not only is
it an apt comparison, I would say that the similarities between the
LGBTQ rights movement and the zoosexuality rights movement are so
clear that you could practically call someone homophobic for being
against zoos. Let's start at the beginning.
Why do people hate the gays? Well, there's a lot of reasons nowadays,
but back in the good old years, it was a lot simpler. The argument
mostly came down to one simple idea. It's not natural. It's different.
Obviously, different cultures had different ideas on the idea of
homosexuality, and there were plenty of amazing societies out there
that were more progressive on LGBTQ issues 2000 years ago than we are
today. But, unfortunately, those societies weren't the ones interested
in taking over the world (I wonder if that's related?). Instead, we
got a movement that viewed the idea of women as lesser, of pleasure as
bad, and of homosexuality as unholy. If you've read any of my articles
before, you may have heard me harp on this point already, but it's
something I think can't be understated. The world was told for a long
time by its most important people that any kind of sexual liberty was
going to cause your soul to burn in hell for all of eternity. Imagine
if Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, Obama and Rihanna all came out and said
that masturbating would literally cause you to die. It's impossible to
quantify the effect that a body of authority preaching a repressive
sexual culture has had on the world.
Anyway, tangent aside, people hate the gays because a long time ago
everyone was told to hate the gays. If you ask a homophobe nowadays,
it's pretty unlikely that's what they're going to tell you though.
This is exactly true to why people dislike zoosexuality as well. There
are lines and excuses built in as to why they think they dislike it,
but the root is the same.
Speaking of lines and excuses, there sure is a lot of crossover
between the dumb shit gays have to listen to, and the dumb shit that
we have to listen to! Just to crack off a few easy examples from the
top of my head:
-Oh, you're gay? I guess you must want to diddle kids too!
-You're gay because something in your brain is broken.
-If you're gay you need to get therapy, because it's not normal.
-You're so scared to talk to (the other gender) that you'd rather just
fuck (your gender).
-You're gay because you're a sex addict and can't stop yourself.
-I'm sure your family is disappointed in the fact that you're gay.
-Homosexuality is an addiction that you need to cure yourself of.
-You're gay? What trauma happened to you growing up?
If you're someone who grew up in a homophobic area, or if you've ever
spent time around homophobic people, I'm sure that all these lines are
very familiar to you. But, if you're a zoo, chances are you've also
heard these lines almost verbatum used against you, just with the
focus of the attractions mixed around.
Whether you're same sex attracted, or different species attracted, the
flavor of bigotry is exactly the same. And that's because the words
that they use don't actually really matter. Very few people, if any,
are honestly going to try and logically argue someone out of their
homosexuality, the same way that people aren't really hoping zoos are
going to change their ways when they use the same rhetoric against us.
All of these lines are shorthand for "You're bad and that's that."
They're the end of a conversation. Even lines that are absolutely
provably false still are used all the time specifically because it's
more about saying something than it is about actually putting forward
a rational opinion. People are homophobic because they were told to
be, and they didn't bother asking questions. People are zoophobic
because they were told to be, and they didn't bother asking questions.
However, it's not all doom and gloom. There's another really awesome
way that we're similar to the gay community, and that's our culture.
The LGBTQ grew from very modest places. It wasn't always the huge
social movement that we see today. There were gay people all over the
world, but most of the time they would exist in small local
communities, or hole in the wall bars. It was a very underground
scene. That's very similar to the way that the zoo community is too.
However, the way that we exist in the world has changed. While you may
have a group of zoo friends that you hang out with in real life, or
have a zoo room party at a furry convention, it's pretty unlikely that
there's a secret zoosexual bar everyone's meeting up at. Our secret
spaces tend to be online. It's safer, easier and cheaper. While
there's always been some people talking about their zoosexuality
online, much more commonly there were IRCs, which became forums, which
became Telegram channels and Discord servers. And most of those places
functioned similarly to those old school gay bars. They were built to
be semi private, hard to find. You could get in, but usually it was by
having someone already there invite you. It wasn't that long ago that
fully advertised public zoo spaces didn't really exist at all.
And once the gay rights movement did start picking up momentum, it's
not like it went from nothing to today all at once. The movement
started small and slow. A big hurdle for us zoos is trying to get
science and media to legitimize us enough that people feel like it's
even worth taking a critical look at us. Right now, we tend to be so
assumed negative that even the idea of trying to understand zoos is
met with apprehension. This was the same with the LGBTQ movement too.
Much of the social shift in perception came from the media attention,
but that could only exist when there was enough pressure that the
story was worth the potential bad publicity. Before that point, it
wasn't about trying to organize marches or stage protests. Instead, it
was small media being passed between individuals, solidifying the
concept of what the "homosexual community" even was. Things like
zines, publications, music. Queer media in all its forms, whether
romanticized stories about the boy next door, art of same sex couples,
or punchy non fiction articles talking about the importance of
understanding queer history. Similar to the way that we now have
Podcasts like Zooier Than Thou and Zoo & Me, artists like Milk and
Kodaac, musicians like Shiv and Zipwok, and punchy non fiction
articles talking about the importance of understanding queer history
like those found in Zooey Dot Pub! While the LGBTQ movement is decades
ahead of us, it's easy to see that we have our cultural roots in the
same place, and we're headed in the same direction. While I can't
claim to have been around in the spaces where people were first trying
to launch the idea of "gay pride," I can easily imagine that it felt a
lot like the places where we try and plan out our very own zoo pride.
https://zooey.pub/directly-comparing-zoosexuality-with-being-gay/
jdyöung, Official
***@gmail.com