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Im gonna say smth that a lot of yall aren't gonna like but whatever Im tired of nobody talking about it.
The therian community's obsession with zoos is stunting a lot of the cultural growth that we could be having rn.
Soooo many of us are so goddamn busy with trying to prove that we're not zoos or accusing each other of being zoos or shouting from every rooftop available that we're different than zoos, when we could be doing so many more productive things.
You wanna keep potentially dangerous individuals out of the community, I understand that, really I do. But do you wanna know how many animals are saved from abuse by us dogpiling (no pun intended) on someone who incorporates their nonhumanity into kink? Or who speaks honestly about genitalia dysphoria, or instincts to court members of the species they identify as? Or hell, who even acknowledges that there is an overlap between therianthropy and zoo attraction? Zero.
It doesn't really protect anyone, all it does is prevent us from speaking honestly about our experiences, diving into the nitty gritty of what it actually means to be an animal living as and among humans, out of fear that something we told to someone in confidence is going to end up in a google doc next week. No, wanting to have nonhuman body parts does not automatically make you attracted to biological animals. No, being attracted to alterhumans over humans does not automatically make you attracted to biological animals. No, wishing you had a nonhuman family does not automatically make you attracted to biological animals. The only thing that makes you attracted to biological animals is being attracted to biological animals. It truly is not rocket science.
I haven't seen it be as much of an issue here on Tumblr because I guess there's overall less mob mentality and beings are more capable of using critical thinking skills, it's just been frustrating watching so many of the younger/newer members of the community turn into the "crucify zoos at any and all costs" club and trying to strong arm all forms of animalistic sexual expression out of the community to avoid any possible association with zoos from outsiders (spoiler alert: you could sanitize the entire community to the point of chemical burns and uneducated doorknobs would still swear up and down that every last one of us are zoos)