Sunday, May 29, 2016

It's Now!

Lots of interesting human rights things surrounding sexuality and gender have been going on in the western world, particularly its high seat in the United States.  In the last two years, more gender options have appeared on many official documents, same-sex marriage has been legalized, bills passed to protect transgender people from discrimination, and of course the issue with bathroom rights in the US is ongoing.  Now more than ever we have a large liberal community, a global community, who are united behind these issues and the liberation of the people they affect.

My question is, why not us?  Perhaps it is a huge leap to go from saying people with penises should be allowed to use the women's washroom, or that mothers should be able to breastfeed their children in restaurants, to the suggestion that perhaps those who have intercourse with animals may not be sick or abusive.  But the wonderful thing about this day and age is that we have the internet, and people read what they see on the internet.  And if there is vocal support in their camp — if other Bernie Sanders liberals are giving things their Like and sharing on Facebook with a captioned #damnright — people follow.  It's what people do.

But the issues are flowing like cheap beer on campus, and if we want to ride this train of social libertarianism in the most conservative country in the English-speaking world, we need to start acting now.  Communities of people who want their rights acknowledged, who don't want to be worried about blackmail or arrest for the love they share with their animals, need to start popping up and going public on the internet.  I'm not talking about names; we can use handles, just as we have done for decades now, and we can continue using our security so that if someone creates #zoogate we needn't worry about being leaked.  What we need isn't organization, although that's part of it; what we need is numbers, and to get the word out to one another so that people can see what those numbers are.  That, and reasonable dialogue, using phrases like "safe space" and "government out of my bedroom" will draw the positive attention we need.

And there will be negative attention.  A lot of it.  What needs to be done is to simply ignore it, and acknowledge any allies we might receive very strongly.  It's the allies that will make the difference here, and as soon as we start alienating them, we cripple any movement that might be started here.

Think about it.  Talk about it.  Our timing is right, and it's time to organize.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Bear

Time for another review!  And finally, it's a good one: This is an excellent book I have for some reason never been aware of until now.  It's a Canadian piece written in the 70s by second-wave feminist Marian Engel about a Toronto women made to live out in the boondocks, where she meets and eventually falls in love with — you guessed it — a tame bear.

First of all, let me get the not-so-zoo stuff out of the way: It's a really well-written book.  At first it may come across as a bit purple; it starts with the same tired and frustrated young city woman undergoing major changes in her life.  The author does this on purpose, saying that she originally just wanted to write pornography, and then a bear came into the picture so she went with it, in typical style of writers.  But it picks up, and a nice array of literary tools are used throughout the story to deliver a strong message just beneath the surface of the plot regarding the liberation of women's sexuality, and outside the sphere of feminism (or is it?) the rediscovery of what is natural and wild, beyond the scope of the niches society fits us into.

Some critics have toted it as a very spiritual book, but to me it's quite the opposite: with its length and its style, it reads like a significantly less chaste Paulo Coelho, but it actually paints a rather believable and down to earth story.  If anything it's about pulling the wool away from one's eyes and just embracing the simple, almost a sort of nihilism, rather than a spiritual feeling or doctrine.

That realism extends to the zoophilic aspect, too: the bear's actions are in my experience very believable, right up to the ending, if not tragic then simultaneously disappointing and liberating in all the best ways.  It doesn't ever disparage or abuse, and indeed even glorifies the zoophilic actions and feelings at hand, and really, I think some of us zoos could learn a thing or two about our relationships with animals from this book, and help bring us into a more moderate state of mind.

I really can't recommend this book strongly enough, not only to zoophiles but also to feminists, real libertarians, and anyone who enjoys good literature.  It's erotic, but doesn't revel in it, and instead uses that eroticism to teach us things about our own existence and personal liberation in measure.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Hello!

It's been over two years since I've updated this thing.  My life has been quite hectic during that time, and I've just had more things to do in developing myself than paying attention to the side of me that's wont to fall in love with quadrupeds.  But I'm going to stockpile some posts, so stay tuned, tell your friends, as at least some of them should be quite interesting.

This one, however, will have no content at all but to let you all know that I'm alive, and tell you what being me has been like for the last little while.  I'm going through something of a career change; anyone in mental health who's making less than six figures will tell you that it gets very draining when done for years, not necessarily because of the clients but because of your fellow professionals.  Nothing is remotely set in stone yet but I may have to take out the "mental health professional" bit on that sidebar!  Perhaps a little academic credit lost when it comes to the nature of the blog, but to me, certainly worth it if I can find something that won't see me losing so much hair.

Something has occurred that has helped me keep that hair in, however, and that is this: I've gotten married.  To a human, even.  In fact, my beautiful genius of a wife's interests swing very much in the same way as mine, so you may be hearing a little about her end of things in the future.

So the next few posts will be about entertainment and media, as although I've been on a blogging hiatus I certainly haven't been on a reading one.  After that, who knows?  See you soon.

JD