Zoosexuality
From Fresh Dictionary
Contents |
English
Etymology
From Greek zoon, animal + sexuality, from Late Latin sexualitas, sexuality, state of being male or female.
Originated (apparently) in 1980's, possibly from zoophile subculture usage. Cited by Hani Miletski Love sex and Violence with Animals (1999), and accepted by other researchers in the field of psychology and sexology as an equal or preferred term for zoophilia, when the oreintation and not the paraphilia is intended to be implied.
Noun
zoosexuality
- The state of being emotionally or sexually attracted primarily to (non-human) animals.
Usage note
Zoosexuality is used in an analogous manner to homosexuality, and the related term zoosexual analogous to homosexual.
Zoosexuality is a value-neutral term covering the spectrum of human-animal sexuality, and implies nothing more than a person with an orientation towards animals. This may be loving or violent, incidental intermittent or long term, actual or wished-for, fantasy or reality, and may be sexual or non-sexual in nature.
Zoosexuality is often called zoophilia. In practice zoophilia refers to the clinical paraphilia or to the emotional and/or sexual attraction, and has multiple meaings, whilst zoosexuality refers to the sexual orientation.