Zoophilia

Leda and the SwanA copy of the centuryXVI of a missing painting by Michelangelo of 1530 (National Gallery of London).

The term zoophilia was introduced in the nineteenth century by the German sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing.

The zoophilia (from the Greek zoon, "animal", and philia, "love"), also called bestiality, bestiality, zoosexuality or zooerastia, is a paraphilia that consists of of the sexual act between a human being and an animal. People who feel this affinity or sexual attraction are known as zoophiles, zoophiles, or zoosexuals.

Boophilia can cause injury and even death to the animal, which is why in some countries it is considered illegal, regardless of whether or not it causes damage.

According to the Kinsey Report based on studies carried out in the United States between 1948 and 1953, on a sample of 8,000 men and 12,000 women, 8% and 3.6% respectively admitted to having had sexual contact with animals. Of these, 17% were inhabitants of rural areas.

Definition

The term zoophilia was first used in the context of studies of sexuality by the sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing at the turn of the century XIX. The ambiguous term sodomy has sometimes been used in a legal context to refer to acts of bestiality.

In pornography, material depicting sexual practices between humans and animals is called zoophilia or bestiality.

Historical-religious perspective

The man who penetrates a mare. Image on the outside of a Hindu-Japanese temple of Khajuraho, India.

Zoophilia in an Indian painting.

Having sexual relations with animals is a behavior documented since Prehistory: in a cave in Val Camonica, in northern Italy, a painting dated to 8000 BC can be seen. C. in which a man is about to penetrate an animal. References to this behavior are found in biblical texts.

The bestiality of the Ancient Ages could be linked to religious rituals. Pindar, Herodotus, and Plutarch all claimed that the Egyptians engaged in rituals that included mating or mating with goats, but it is difficult to say that they had any evidence.

In most of Europe, during the Middle Ages, under Judeo-Christian morality, bestiality was punished by burning at the stake, including the sacrifice of the animals involved. The New Testament of the Bible forbids bestiality—1 Corinthians 6:9; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 22:15—, for being immoral. In the same sense, to condemn bestiality, Jewish and Christian theologians cite the verses of Leviticus 18:23:

"And you must not lie with beasts, making yourself unclean for it, and no woman should lie with beasts; it is perversion"

and 20:15-16:

"Anyone who has a copult with any beast must be killed; and you will also kill the beast. And when a woman comes near and has a copult with any beast, they must both be killed; their blood shall be upon them."

On the other hand, there are various references in Hindu scriptures to religious figures having sexual relations with animals (for example, the god Brahmā copulating with a bear, or a semi-human sage born of a doe mother). In Vedic art there is also evidence of bestiality (the religion practiced by the Vedic civilization is the forerunner of Hinduism) and figures of people copulating with animals among the thousands of sculptures depicting "life events" outside the Khajuraho temple. Orthodox Hindu doctrine advocates that copulation should be restricted to married couples, prohibiting bestiality. And in the Manusmrti, mating between human beings and animals is allowed.

As for Buddhism, it treats sexual behaviors according to whether they harm oneself or others. Buddhist ethics in sexual matters generally prohibits any sexual act where one of the participants does not consent (rape, pedophilia, etc.), therefore, since animals could never consent, bestiality would be implicitly prohibited in Buddhism. Some sexual conduct, including sexual conduct with animals, is explicitly prohibited for Buddhist monks and nuns.

In the case of Islam, it has different positions on bestiality. This is because it is not mentioned in the Qur'an, or because intercourse and sexuality were treated less as taboo in Muslim society than in Christian society. Some Muslims claim that intercourse with animals is detestable; others, that despite being condemnable, it must be treated with a certain leniency, such as lesbianism or masturbation.

Psychological aspects and research

The fisherman's wife's dreamKatsushika Hokusai's work.

Pastor penetrating a goat. Lithography of Édouard-Henri Avril.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) diagnoses Zoophilia as F65.9 paraphilia unspecified [302.9]. Medical research indicates that some zoophiles are only attracted to a specific species; others are attracted to multiple species (which may or may not include humans), and some zoophiles are not attracted to humans in general.

One of the main criticisms of bestiality is that bestiality activity is harmful to animals and necessarily abusive. Animals could be traumatized even by a non-violent, sexual approach from a human being. Coordinator of Professionals for the Prevention of Abuses (CoPPA), several reports on experiments carried out with prisoners concluded that individuals who carry out acts of bestiality eventually vary from one type of sexual abuse to another, so that the risk that they could be similar sexually assault an animal to do it with a human.

Nevertheless, non-abusive bestiality can be reciprocally pleasurable to both human and animal. Defenders of bestiality say that it does not constitute animal abuse since they rarely physically harm animals when carrying out these practices. In fact, they argue that in certain cases the animal can enjoy the practice. It has also been determined that species (such as dolphins) are attracted to individuals from other species, and some animals may even be willing to have sexual relations with humans. Likewise, the fact that animals cannot consent may be irrelevant as this is not prevents other practices (such as animal testing, castration, etc.) from being carried out without the consent of the animal.

On the other hand, it is argued that the fact that these practices are not legalized or penalized violates the constitutional rights of zoophiles, for example the right to equality before the law. The fact that bestiality is considered incorrect or morally objectionable is due to the belief that the human species is superior to the rest, which for the defenders of these practices is a consequence of an irrational speciesism and anthropocentrism existing in society..

Legal status

Acts of bestiality are considered illegal in many laws, while in others no direct reference is made to bestiality (only animal abuse is highlighted as a crime). In many countries the laws do not stipulate whether sexual relations with animals are implicitly abusive or mistreatment. This means that bestiality is not clearly contemplated in their legislation.

Zoophilia and health

Sexual contact with animals is associated with various health risks, including infection, injury, and allergic reactions. Infections that can be transmitted to humans from animals are called zoonoses. Most are transmitted by casual contact, or vectors, but can be easily spread by activities involving contact with vaginal fluids, urine, saliva, animal feces, and blood, and facilitated by bites or scratches.

Some health risks include brucellosis, leptospirosis, Q fever, rabies, and campylobacteriosis.

Although there are suspicions that bestiality would be associated with an increased risk of penile cancer, the evidence is only anecdotal and based on local studies.

References in culture

Europe and Jupiter transformed into bull.

In the watercolor series The Bourbons in the ball, attributed to the brothers Valeriano Domínguez Bécquer and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, you can see Isabel II of Spain fornicating with a donkey.

In ancient times, Greek mythology described the legend of Pasiphae, wife of King Minos, who disguised herself as a cow to copulate with the Cretan bull. In the Middle Ages, the work The Thousand and one night recounts two manifest scenes of bestiality in the Middle East. The centuries-old mythology of the Island of Chiloé in Chile also includes the legend of the mythical Trehuaco, a creature that has sexual relations with women.
In Films of this type began to appear in the cinema, the playwright Peter Shaffer wrote the play Equus (1973), in which one of the protagonists is a teenager who feels a sexual and religious fascination for horses., in the 1970s, productions are made in the midst of controversies of different magnitude. Such is the case of The Beast (1975) by the Polish director Walerian Borowczyk, which tells the story of a French noblewoman who has sexual relations with a creature inspired by the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan. Also the director Spanish Eloy de la Iglesia dealt with this taboo when he directed the film The Creature (1977), in which a woman falls in love with a dog named Bruno. Shortly after, the Japanese director Shôgorô Nishimura directed the film Dan Oniroku: Nawa-geshô (1978), in which a woman, played by Naomi Tani, attends classes to become a perfect woman-dog. The following year was the Spanish Bigas Luna who directed the film Poodle, in which the leading couple have zoophilic relationships with their dogs.

In 1998, the American director Lavinia Currier brought to the screen the work Passion in the Desert, based on a short story by Honoré de Balzac in which a Napoleonic soldier, lost in the desert Egyptian, has an intense romance with a leopard named by him Simoom. After that action, he has to learn to live with that secret for fear of rejection by his family, for fear of loneliness.

In the documentary genre, the American production Zoo, from 2007, stands out, which tells the true story of Kenneth Pinyan, an engineer who died of peritonitis in 2005 due to a perforation in his colon after being in contact with sexually with an Arabian horse that penetrated him anally.

Television series have also addressed bestiality. For example, in episode 4 of the fourth season of Nip/Tuck (2006), Melissa Gilbert plays Shari Noble, wife of a soldier who, while he is at war, loses a nipple in one of his constant adulteries with his guard dog. Another series that dealt with the subject, although this time broadcast on streaming by Amazon Prime Video, was The Grand Tour in its third season, when Jeremy Clarkson claimed to have witnessed zoophilic practices among an inhabitant of the Region Colombian Caribbean and a donkey. After consulting with the locals, several of them assured that it is a common practice in that part of the country.
The Mexican-American television series Caso Cerrado shows crazy cases of bestiality.

In episode 1 of the first season of Black Mirror, titled The National Anthem, the National Anthem (LA): Prime Minister Michael Callow is faced with a shocking dilemma when Princess Susannah, beloved member of the royal family, is kidnapped. The captor requests that the Prime Minister have live sex with a pig in exchange for the princess's life.

The pornographic genre has its own subgenre dedicated to bestiality or bestiality. In 1971, actress Linda Lovelace starred in Dog Fucker, a bestiality short.

Celebrity accusations

In 378 Pope Damasus I's detractors, led by the antipope Ursinus, accused him of abominations such as raping a goat. He was not the only pontiff about whom rumors of this type were launched, since among the many aberrations of which Pope Benedict IX (1012-1056) was accused was the rape of animals.

In the VI century, according to the work Secret History of Procopius of Caesarea, before Before being empress, Theodora of Byzantium made a living with erotic shows where barley grains were sprinkled on her vulva for trained geese to eat.

In France, in 1601, Claudine de Culam, a 16-year-old girl, was hanged along with her dog after a trial found her guilty on the charge of bestiality.