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Bestiality

Bestiality involves sexual intercourse with an animal. It does not always involve zoophilia, which is a condition where having sex with animals is a preference. Accounts of bestiality have existed throughout history, mostly reflected in literature and art. Bestiality is not always against the law.

Bestiality Versus Zoophilia

Bestiality involves intercourse with animals due to opportunity and sexual impulse. For the human, the animal is seen as a legitimate substitute for a sexual partner. Studies indicate that a little more than 8% of males engage in bestiality, while between 3% and 4% of women do. The average age of first contact is 17. Participants usually have low educational backgrounds, and 40% exclusively come from rural areas where the opportunity to engage in bestiality is higher given the farm-based nature of the social context. Rural cultural terminology implies that rural males find a level of acceptability with bestiality. Consider the expression “stump broke.” A stump-broke animal will back up to a structure such as a stump because it is so familiar with the routines of a human attempting to gain sexual entry from a high position. Some scholars have argued that rural males sometimes consider bestiality a rite of passage into manhood. Little academic work supports this proposition. Evidence does indicate that people from rural areas are highly influenced by childhood experiences involving sex. For example, children on farms regularly learn about sex by seeing animals having intercourse. Therefore, they are more susceptible to viewing animals in a sexual way later in life. As with other sexual forms of deviance, such as telephone sex and necrophilia, men who engage in bestiality lack confidence with women. Bestiality provides a sense of empowerment in a sexual situation, while avoiding feelings of inadequacy. Scholars argue that people from religious backgrounds under pressure to restrain from normative sex sometimes justify bestiality as a legitimate alternative, though religious regulations may be just as condemning of intercourse with animals. Some who engage in bestiality consider it a viable alternative to consequences of regular promiscuous sex, such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.

Zoophilia comes from the Greek words zoön (which means animal) and philia (meaning love or friendship). Psychiatrists classify it as a paraphilia, which involves sexual arousal to an object that is not part of standard stimulation. Though scholars recognize zoophilia as distinct since it involves a preference of having sex with animals, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not make a distinction between zoophilia and bestiality. Some classifications consider zoophilia to include people who regularly view bestial pornography, have persistent fantasies involving bestiality, or regularly feel urges to have sex with animals. An offshoot of zoophilia is formicophilia. This involves arousal from interaction with ants, snails, frogs, or small rodents, which typically crawl on and nibble the anus or genitals to trigger stimulation. In some cases, people will use insect bites to prolong orgasm or produce swelling to enlarge sexual body parts.

History of Bestiality

Bestiality has existed since prehistoric times. Carvings from prehistory portray humans having sex with animals. An engraved bone rod from the Ice Age depicts a female lion licking a penis. In ancient Mesopotamia, citizens used dogs to maintain sexual activities for orgies. Even the Old Testament notes that bestiality occurred despite religious condemnation. In ancient Egypt, rumors abounded that Cleopatra used trapped bees, with an intense vibrating effect, to stimulate her genitals. Accounts from the same period also note that men had mastered the ability to have sex with alligators. In Roman times, men had sex with sheep, while some women kept snakes trained to penetrate their vaginas. In the Middle Ages, the influence of Christian doctrine changed public attitudes by connecting sin and bestiality. By the Renaissance, people were regularly prosecuted for bestiality—a popular sermon topic for clergy. Townships burned people at the stake for engaging in sex with animals and soon the wide-sweeping stigmatization of bestiality was firmly in place. Regardless, legitimate themes involving animals and sexuality remain linked in some areas of popular culture; consider animal-print lingerie and the utilization of animal imagery in advertisements for perfumes and colognes. There are even subcultures of people, such as furries, who dress in animal costumes, sometimes for sexual purposes.

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