It starts with you (why activism is important)
Is zoosexuality ever going to be legalized? Is the social stigma around zoosexuality ever going to go away? Are we eventually going to live in a world where you can have an animal companion as a life partner, and have that be accepted?
No.
At least, not without you.
Social change is created when there’s enough volume to make people actually take notice. When someone believes something, it’s very hard to shake them of that belief. Just think about it for yourself. What would it take for you to suddenly believe that the moon is made of cheese. It wouldn’t matter how many tweets you see, or how often you see “cheese moon” stickers around town. The idea is so ingrained in your brain that it would take something insane for you to even entertain the notion. Of course, you’ve never been to the moon. You have no way of knowing whether or not the moon is in fact cheese. The reason that you hold that belief is because it’s what you were raised on, and what prevalent science tells you.
People feel the same way about zoosexuality as you do about the cheesification of the moon. People have been hearing all their lives that “Bestiality is abuse” and that “Sex with animals hurts them”, and “everyone who fucks their animal is a rapist because animals can’t consent.” When you’re surrounded by that messaging all the time and you don’t have any reason to question it because you don’t feel an attraction to animals, you take that opinion as fact. Add to that the huge social stigma around it and you don’t even want to ask questions. It becomes an assumed truth. Sex with animals is bad.
So, what changes people’s minds? First of all, they need to be introduced to the idea from a trusted source. Whether that’s seeing a special or an interview about zoosexuality on the news, having zoos on podcasts, or reading books about it. Name recognition means so much. are the From there, the conversation needs to be loud enough. There needs to be enough noise around a subject that it makes it worth looking into. One interview here and there and someone can see it and forget about it, but enough different sources all at once and it catches people’s attention. And finally, there needs to be a sense of legitimacy if they decide they want to know more. That comes from things like zoo podcasts, zoo magazines, zoo Youtube videos. Things that the outside world can look at and understand. Things that positively advocate for our community. When all three of those things happen, here’s what it looks like.
Say there’s someone who’s against zoo, but not strongly, it’s just something that’s never come up in conversation before. They see a news article with the headline “Zoosexuality, a deeper look.”. They might not even read the article, but they see the headline. From there, they hop on twitter and see a tweet circulating about animal consent. Maybe after that they hop onto Youtube and see a video from a zoo content creator about how zoosexuality is misunderstood. By this point, they’re curious and decide to watch it. The content of the video goes over the positive aspects of zoosexuality. Now, they might immediately realize that they were looking at things the wrong way, but what’s much more likely it might take even more time than that. But the more the conversation is happening, the more likely it is that something is going to click in their brain.
And that’s where you come in. Like I said at the beginning, this doesn’t happen without you. If the news is going to run a story on something, they’ll probably want to talk to people in that community. For something to get popular on twitter there needs to be enough people talking, retweeting, interacting in general. For a youtube video to get recommended to someone there needs to be enough engagement on that video, not to mention someone to make it. And all of those things are what we call activism.
Activism isn’t just making signs and picketing at government offices. It’s not just calling your local representative. One day we’ll get to that point, but not yet. Right now, it’s about making the conversation louder. It’s about creating positive content in the hopes that more people will see it. It’s about using your time and energy to try and further a cause that you care about. I know that not everyone is a writer, a video producer, a musician. But you can still be an activist by making sure that the voices standing up for your community are heard. And that matters more than ever now.
Maybe it’s the recent prevalence of the furry fandom, or the slow falling out of religion, but it seems like zoosexuality is becoming more of a conversation. Which is why right now we need to come together as a community and keep that conversation going. One person can only do so much, it takes everyone working together to make this happen. We can’t let drama or bad actors keep us at each others throats. We need to unite, and show the world that zoosexuality should be legalized. That there shouldn’t be a stigma around it. And most importantly, that the love that you have with an animal partner is something that should be celebrated, not shunned.
It’s possible, but it all starts with you. You have to work to make it happen.
So, what are you going to do?
Article written by Tarro (July 2022)
Find them at https://twitter.com/hereforthezoo
