Reaction to the film Zoo

Diana Papa.

After watching the documentary, Zoo directed by Robinson Devor, I am very sure that the class, including myself, left with strong feelings, reactions and questions. The documentary was, in fact, beautifully and tastefully created. Dr. Nerio was very correct when he told us that the film did not hype the matter and no opinion by the producer was given. That is why I enjoyed Zoo; it told me a true story about a group of zoophiles and their experience through the life and death of Mr. Hands.

The film told us about the lives of a group of men who travel to a farm in Washington, where the living is easy and quiet, and engage in anal sex with the horses. They made the point early on in the film that the internet changed their lives. This new access led this group of men and many people around the country to find others who share the same sexual desires.

 I found it interesting when one of the men explained that he “did not need a high level of emotion and interaction; that he felt a closer affinity to non human animals.” The men went on to explain that they loved the horses as much as they would a wife or a child. They felt like they were able to get away and “let everything hang” because the horses live in their small, simple, classless world. Questions still rose in my mind after these explanations. I was left wondering if their reasoning was legitimate or if they were using the horses to escape the restraints they felt coming from society. I believe the latter; these men craved pleasure and sexual affirmation just like other men and women do, however I think that something happened in their experience which turned them off from sex with humans. There is something about the power over an animal, a child, a sex doll, an inanimate object that allows some people who have that disconnect, find affirmation and love. Their egos are not at risk when they connect to dolls or horses; those just accept the men in their classless society.

After I watched Zoo and read the book The Other Side of Desire by Daniel Bergner, I found some parallels. Bergner’s book described four cases of unusual sexual attraction to feet, pain, children and bodily mutilation. He researched and wrote heavily about the biological side of these paraphilias. When I thought about zoophilia, I couldn’t agree with the biological stand point. I could not understand how natural selection can even act on interspecies sex; it is not possible to mate with horses so how could there be a natural, biological desire for animals of different species?

These questions that I brought up are questions asked by many and much research is being done to provide answers. Obscure sexual desires make many people feel uncomfortable and reactions to films like Zoo are passionate. It must be liberating for people who live those lifestyles to see themselves being represented in a non bias, informational way. Whether these things are biological or learned from what surrounds us, they are real and should be discussed because it is part of human life and experience.