What are Zoosexuals?
Last weekend, I did something really fun. I hung out with some other zoos. It was me, my boyfriend, my partner, and then two other zoos who happened to bring their partners as well. I'm good friends with one of those people, but the other I'd never met before. We met at my friend's house, and chatted for a little bit. I got to know the new person who ended up being very cool, and my partner got to know his partner. The relationship started out a little rocky, but they ended up warming up to each other quickly, no doubt helped by my friend's partner who helped to be a friend to both sides. After an hour or so, it was clear that the dogs wanted to be able to run around a little bit more, so we got back in the car and drove to a nearby hiking spot. It was a beautiful forest trail that roped through the woods. The trail was less a path and more just somewhere people had been walking for a long time, that was mostly cleared of foliage, allowing us to slip into nature without tripping over things non-stop. We ended up hiking for close to two hours, stopping every so often for a quick pee break, or to take a picture or two of the beautiful scenery. Then, we were back at the entrance. We loaded ourselves back into our cars, and drove back to my friend's place again.
Once there, we cooked dinner. I'm (trying my best to be) vegan, and one friend was vegetarian, so we ended up making a really yummy curry type thing, with the dogs of course getting plenty of little bits here and there. They were tired from the walk and so mostly lounged around as little by little dinner was prepared, and then we ate. Afterwards, we played a round of Mario Party and had a couple drinks. I won (Or at least, I'm writing the article so I can say I won), but it was a really close game and lots of fun. Once we were done that, it was starting to get pretty late, so we said our goodbyes, and me, my boyfriend and my partner all got in the car one last time and drove home. It was a really nice day. It's not like anything special happened, it was just fun hanging out with friends, and meeting new people.
When we say the word "Zoosexuality", for some people, especially people outside the community, it means something different. For us, the word is simple. It describes people that are attracted to animals. For others, they seem to really focus on that middle part of the word. "Sex". It's something we see all the time when interacting with people outside the community. The assumption that all we care about is that one specific thing. We see it all the time. From people assuming that zoo parties at cons can't exist without a dog there to smash, to thinking that zoos can't help but be attracted to every single animal we see. They think that as zoos, being sexual is the only thing that defines us.
But that's so not true. Zoosexuality is a sexuality, just like being gay, being straight, being queer in any other denomination. It describes one specific thing about us, leaving plenty of room in the middle for the rest of us to fill out. When I was hanging out with those other zoos, sure we talked about animals a bit. But we also talked about politics, video games, music, food (especially while we were all starving waiting for our food to be done). I talked about how my job was going. My boyfriend, who isn't a zoo, had plenty to contribute to the conversations even though he doesn't happen to be animal attracted himself. You could have swapped any one of those zoos out for any other person and they probably could have had the same nice day that we ended up having, although they may have been very confused why every now and then I would talk about a zoo article I have on the go, or my friend would talk about the state of zoo groups on Telegram.
It's so easy to put people in boxes when you describe them. If you think of a "gamer", there's probably a picture that you have in your head to go along with that person. If you think about a lawyer, you probably have a picture for that too. This kind of thinking is stereotyping, and while I think everyone recognizes that stereotypes are bad, at the same time for a lot of people it's hard to escape that trap. Especially when that group is a group of people that you don't like very much. It's easy to look at groups through the worst possible lens and say "This is who they are." And when someone is looking at a group like that, it's impossible for them to listen, and learn, and engage with a topic in an honest way. But, take that same person judging a group, and introduce them to someone from that group in a setting where that bias isn't there, and they can get along perfectly fine. They could even be friends.
Some of my favorite moments in the zoo community had nothing to do with being a zoo, and so much more to do with just being a person hanging out with other people. Whether that's at conventions, hanging out with friends, or just hanging out having a blast in zoo spaces. As of writing this, on Tuesday the Zooey Dot Pub Discord server is having a Taco Tuesday night, where a bunch of people are all going to make tacos together. I think it's going to be really fun cooking a meal not just with the few people that I was hanging out with last weekend, but with lots of people all sharing pictures of their progress, hanging out together as we all cut veggies and cook whatever protein people are cooking and sharing the results. And also giving their partners a bite or two.
Zoos are just people. The only thing that makes us different is that we happen to love animals a little bit more than most.
Article written by Tarro (February 2025)
Find ZDP on Telegram at https://t.me/zooeydotpub
Find the ZDP RSS feed link in our footer any time you're on the website! That url for anyone interested is https://zooeydotpub.zdu.se/feed.xml
Questions, comments or concerns? Check out our Discord server! http://discord.gg/EfVTPh45RE
Find Tarro at https://twitter.com/hereforthezoo
