Frankenstein and the Monster you Know
How familiar are you with the story of Frankenstein? I'm guessing you know the premise. Scientist creates a guy but the guy is scary. He tries to find his place in the world, but he's a monster, and people hate him for it. Hijinks ensue. This leads to a whole bunch of other stuff (did you know the original novel ends in the North Pole? It's a wild story), but I think the basic idea here is so interesting. And, it seems like lots of people agree. The trope of the monster created being shunned and then turning on their creator is something we've seen time and time again in storytelling. The original story has been remade and retold at least 10 times, and then there are likely hundreds of stories inspired by the narrative. It's a pervasive concept in our culture, and one no doubt you can think of plenty of examples of as well.
The whole motivation for the creation of the monster is an attempt to overcome death. To give life to the lifeless. In a lot of ways, that's a noble pursuit, even if the methods aren't exactly great. The monster is created by fusing together body parts from various people and then giving the assembled corpse the proverbial spark of life. And at first, things seem really good. The monster is alive, and is for the most part pretty chill. Sure, he's kinda dumb, but that's hardly the worst thing in the world. Not only that, but the monster can *learn*. That's right, in the original story, the creature actually learns how to speak, and even how to read, and gets really into philosophy. It's finding its place in the world.
But things are more complicated than that. The scientist that created the monster quickly grows to be repulsed by it. He abandons the monster to wander the world, and with each encounter with other humans they shun it, attack it, and demonize it. At one point the monster even dives into a river to save a drowning child. He pulls the girl out from the river and in return the girl's father shoots him, assuming based off of the monster's visage that they were attacking the girl.
Anyway, let's get to the point here. I don't think anyone really hates zoosexuals, or zoophiles if you prefer. Okay, maybe some people do, but I think the VAST majority of people out there don't actually. What they do probably hate is what they see as the idea of zoosexuals. Let me explain.
Recently I was talking with someone that was pretty against the idea of zoos. They replied to a post of mine out of the blue, and we had a bit of a conversation. It went something like this.
Them: What made you want to be a zoophile?Me: Nothing? I just am a zoophileThem: Why do you like hurting animals and sticking your penis in them? You have your whole future ahead of you and you're already ruining it.Me: I'm the one getting mounted, I don't like hurting animals, and who says I have a penis?Them: You shouldn't do this, why did you change yourself into this?Me: I didn't? There have been zoos forever.Them: Why can't you be a normal human and find some human to love? You can't find a person to get laid with so you resort to animals?Me: I think you've got some misunderstandings about me.Them: I'm not misunderstanding anything. You're just dodging everything I'm saying, blah blah.
I found this conversation really interesting. They were the ones that came to try and harass me on a tweet that really didn't anything to do with zoosexuality to be honest. And they came at the conversation looking for a fight, pretty clearly. But the things they were saying just weren't real. And not in a general zoo arguments kind of way, bickering over consent or animal intelligence or whatever. Just in the absolute fundamentals. They presumed to already know everything about me, a stranger on the internet that they'd never spoken to before, based solely on the knowledge that I like to kiss dogs.
If you're a zoo on the internet, this probably isn't all that unfamiliar to you. I'm sure you also deal with people making assumptions about you all the time. I know I certainly do. But something about this, having it all laid out one after another in a single conversation with someone I've never really talked to before kinda opened my eyes to it. This person who took time and energy out of their day to write multiple notes app screenshot replies to me, who was so angry at my very existence, doesn't even know me enough to really hate me. They just hate the idea of me.
To some not insignificant percentage of the outside world, they look at us, just people living their lives, going to work, paying taxes, struggling to pay our bills, and they see monsters. Shadows that walk amongst them, preying on weak and helpless animals. But their perception couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, most zoos I know are more animal conscious than non zoos by far. They treat the animals in their lives better. They're more likely to be vegan or vegetarian, and if not they certainly understand why the animal agriculture industry is horrible.
And I mean, the most sought after animals by zoos tend to be animals that are similar in size to humans. Sure, there are all types out there, but even if you believe all zoos are just out there to smash, the vast majority of zoos want to do so with partners that are going to be able to do that comfortably. Large dogs tend to be much preferred to small dogs. Horses are up there as well. But even past that, look at the animals that are most visibly in the outskirts. Dolphins, which are again generally pretty comparable. Deer or Elk. Big cats. You don't tend to see smaller animal like rabbits or mice very often, and then similarly you don't see huge animals all that much either. Whales, or Giraffes or Hippos.
This isn't even to say that relationships with animals of different size categories are bad, to be clear! I'm just saying that at even a super base level, the assumption that zoos are interested in abusing small and weak animals is just factually wrong. I mean hell, my partner drags me around much more than I do him. If I was just looking to abuse a tiny animal, there were some MUCH easier options out there.
In a lot of ways, we're the monster from the book. It's not like we were the ones to define ourselves this way. We were just living our lives, but then society took bits and pieces of various stories and preconceptions and sewed them together to form some kind of malformed beast, and then uses that to paint us to be evil. Like the monster from Frankenstein, we're diving into the river to try and fight for animal rights. But, like the father, a large portion of people are judging us for our appearance and shooting us instead.
But why do we look like a monster to them? What does and doesn't make a monster comes down to perception. In the book, it's because the creature is literally dead flesh given life, assembled via the pieces of a number of cadavers stitched together. It's death given life in a horrible, putrid, evil seeming kind of way. The monster may have not had any choice in their creation, but all the same their creation was a perversion of nature. The monster is still, in essence, a human. Built from the same parts. It's just different.
I mean, think about it for yourself. If you saw a hulking beast standing 8 feet tall and sewn together, your first thought probably wouldn't be to say hello. And some of that fear is natural. The fear of something different is built into pretty much every animal on the planet, us very much included. But that's not the end of it. You also have presuppositions to inform you of the danger of various situations. You know about zombies, you know about monsters. You understand those things are bad. If you were playing a video game where you were killing hordes of skeletons, and you pop into a new room, and there's a skeleton in front of you, chances are you're going to smash it to bits. If actually that skeleton was an NPC you could talk to, that would be bad game design for not making that more clear. Similarly, if you saw Frankenstein's monster, you'd likely make a similar assumption about them too. This isn't something that I'm trying to criticize you, or anyone else for. This is just nature. It's the ancient reptilian parts of our brain feeding us information based on pattern recognition.
But this is a problem. For zoos, we're facing off against that nature. When most people hear about zoos, it's not about people who are just really in love with their dog. It's stories of people who were torturing animals, running brothels, or also involved in other bad things. Public perception sees zoos as monsters. That's just what they're conditioned to see when they see us. Those are labels that are assigned to us before we even come into the picture. Like how people assumed the monster in Frankenstein was going to be violent, people assume the same of us, even if it just isn't true. Nobody hates Frankenstein's monster as a person. They just hate monsters. And as I've been mentioning this whole article, they don't really have name past that. The monster.
I think it's really to remember this for our community, because the implications are really important. First of all, it's helpful from a self esteem perspective. As a zoo, people are going to try and say the most vile things about you possible. Every mean thing in the book is going to be levied against you to try and make you feel bad, but it can be helpful to remember that they're not actually saying those things about you, they're just saying them in your general-ish direction. Especially if you're starting to self internalize their words. If you do that, you're taking statements about you as facts when the people saying them have no idea who you are. Don't let someone else's hate define how you feel about yourself. Especially when that hate isn't even towards you, and instead towards a monster they made up in their heads.
Another reason this topic is important is to understand how to best fight back against aggression. Zoos tend to be on the defensive side. Very rarely are we the ones picking fights. But it makes it harder to defend ourselves when the person attacking us is swinging in the wildly wrong direction. Understanding that the person we're talking to is likely boxing with shadows gives us a lot more room to help assuage their fears and show them that at the end of the day we're on the same side. We don't even really need to fight them at all if we can just show them that we aren't a threat, and that their concerns are based off of preconception.
The third thing that's really important, is that it shows us where we can best direct our energy. It's extremely satisfying getting into intellectual discourse about the nature of animal sexuality and autonomy, but for the vast majority of people, that's ten steps further than where they actually are. The monster can't stop people for a conversation about whether or not his creation is bad actually if they run screaming before he can get a word out. Step one is to focus on showing that there's more there than just what people see. Then we can get into the details.
Thankfully, that's definitely something we're capable of. We're people, just like everyone else. And getting people to see that is as easy as just being our selves. Our real selves. Monsters don't make art. Monsters don't empathize with people. Monsters dont donate to charity. Monsters don't make friends, have hobbies, live lives. Monsters are creatures relegated to the darkness. They exist in the shadows. But we aren't monsters, and we don't have to live like that. We can be out and about in the day too And in the light, nothing seems as monstrous.
In the Frankenstein story, once rejected by humanity, the monster's goal is to find friends. The people reject him, and so he asks the scientist that created him to create him another monster just like him. Someone he can be with and relate to. Someone he can belong with. Thankfully for us, we don't have to rely on someone else to do that for us. There are so many amazing zoos out there, and so many places to find and engage with them. And I encourage everyone reading this to find their spaces, and make friends with other monsters just like them. In the end, Frankenstein's monster was made crazy by the loneliness. It doesn't have to be like that for us. We can come together and show everyone who we really are. Not who they think we are.
At the end of the day, nobody really hates zoosexuals. They'd have to know us to hate us. All they know is the monster they created.
Article written by Tarro (September 2025)
Find them at https://twitter.com/hereforthezoo
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