In Seeking Zoo Acceptance IRL
Some zoos are walking along through a pride festival:
Zoo 1:Zoo 2: "...What is ?"Zoo 3: "Ugh, some Twitter brainrot, don't worry about it."Zoo 2: "Okay! :D"
I think that the internet is a lot of fun. I grew up watching YouTube channels like Game Grumps and Jacksepticeye, and had a lot of laughs as well as a lot of experiences that felt emotionally fulfilling. I love scrolling through my favorite meme channels: the hivemind of the internet can produce some absurdly hilarious content, especially if you've been keeping up with the latest meme trends, and you can fully appreciate the snort-laugh-inducing twist that someone has made on a format. And, I've made a lot of friends on the internet too, people who I've been chatting with for years at this point, and also people who I only met more recently, but who seem cool.
As someone who was on sites like Reddit (as well as different furry platforms that I would embarrassed to death if my irl friends found out I was visiting,) I always had a sense of privacy drilled into me. "This is the internet. We don't do real names here." And, conversely, I would never have told my in-person friends what my Reddit username was.
Being a zoosexual, this sense of privacy was compounded even further. If someone found out what me and my boyfriend, who happened to be a dog, were doing behind my bedroom door... They could tell everyone, I could have the police at my door, my family would find out and hate me, I would be *lucky* if I was able to run away to another city and take on a new name and start from scratch.
That's what I thought back then, in high school.
I realize now that that was a very, very "internet" way of seeing things. If I was in a forum, and I made some embarrassing slip up and said something that was really insensitive or incorrect, I could just be like, "Oh no everyone hated that, time to delete this account, wait a couple days, and make a new account with a different name and try from scratch." It was like reloading your save in a video game if you chose the wrong dialogue option. And in real life, I don't have any ability to reload, so if I make any mistakes irl, it's game over.
Again, that's what I thought back then.
But in recent years, kind of since the covid lockdowns, I've been trying out a different attitude. I might not be here forever. I certainly will not be, in fact. And in the time that I do get to have, however much it may be, I want to hide my love of animals behind closed doors and zipped lips
I took baby steps. I started journaling, first. Just writing down my honest reflections on what it has been like to have this attraction, the experiences I've had, how I feel about all of it. It was really freeing to allow myself to put this down, on paper, and then hide the journal behind my desk.
I started making friends with some zoos online, people who openly had zetas in their bios and would post about how much they love canids.
I came out to my parents. Maybe that sounds like I skipped some baby steps, but, I was no longer dependent on them, if they rejected me it was going to be a huge blow emotionally, but I wasn't going to be out on the streets. It went well though: they could see the love me and dogs always showed to each other. We still call and visit frequently, everything there is honestly better, now that I don't have this secret. I had forgotten, until writing this now, how awkward it was not really having anything to say when they asked if I was ever going to date someone. We chat about some of the latest happenings in the zoo world, if there's something that's big news.
I came out to friends, online and in person. Some rejected me. Others have said that me+dogs seemed cool and loving, and we still continue to talk.
So far, my world has not come crashing to the ground. So far, even when I have been rejected and lost a friend, that's kind of been the end of it. I haven't had a swat team come and shoot me after they got a tip that someone in apartment number 213 is smooching their dog.
That's not to say opsec isn't important. I would never post my name, face, and address to Twitter along with a manifesto about how zoosexuality is good actually. But, at the same time, people who have been doxxed, or even arrested, have still seen their life go on afterwards.
The world is messy. There are people stealing, assaulting, abusing, and recklessly endangering one another all the time, in ways that make zoophilia seem like pretty small potatoes to people who are using the real world as a baseline. There are wars, natural disasters, and starvation.
I think to make zoos out to be the biggest monsters you can imagine, you pretty much have to be a furry on Twitter who doesn't care about a lot else
This year, I've been meeting zoos in person. People who I had been chatting with for a while and are definitely cool. It has been healing, to experience how different the atmosphere is in person vs on Twitter or in an online chatroom. Online it can feel like EVERYTHING is on the record forever, and you have to be vigilant to maintain this perfect presentation of yourself. You have to say the right things, disapprove of the right things, and God save you if your mask comes off.
In person, there are zoos who have never listened to , they're not on zoo Twitter, they are just out living their lives, doing their jobs, watching their shows
Hanging out with has been, literally, no different than hanging out with my non zoo friends, except that we make knot jokes a lot more. And, that's been very healing to experience, and I'm thankful to have gotten to the point where I was able to do so.
Article written by Locust (September 2024)
