Zoos are pornographic?!

Ralph Acampora depicts zoos to be overly pornographic and demeaning to animals in his essay, “Zoos and Eyes: Contesting Captivity and Seeking Successor Practices.” When I first read the title of the essay I was confused as to how an educational facility would be portrayed as pornographic. According to www.dictionary.com, the definition for pornography is: –noun obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, esp. those having little or no artistic merit. I found this interesting because I do not think of a zoo in this fashion. Acampora suggests that Zoos take animals out of their natural state and force them to be what humans’ desire. He said, “they are visual objects whose meaning is shaped predominantly by the perversions of a patriarchal gaze.” I agree that zoos take animals out of their natural habitat and force them to live awkwardly among other zoo animals, but I do not see this as pornographic. I agree with Acampora when he makes the connection that both pornography and zoos alienate their subjects and force them into non natural situations and expect them to perform a certain way. But I do not agree that zoos are completely pornographic, they are learning facilities that are not obscene in any way.