View source for Fediverse zoo flag project (2023)

This project was started by Null, the admin of a fediverse instance offkey.cat. On November 16, 2023, it made a post with the following text<ref>[https://offkey.cat/notice/AbqSrBTKaVXor6EUkK nullitope] on offkey.cat.</ref>:
<blockquote>'''Hey, pro-MYAP zoophiles: how about we design a new zoo pride flag?'''

The blue, white, and purple zoo flag is all well and good, but I can’t help but think the symbolism of the colors being gender-related is a little boring, and almost irrelevant to the actual zoophile experience, y’know? Meanwhile the zeta flag has a pretty decent aesthetic and great symbolism, but the movement it’s associated with is pretty staunchly against paraphile unity, which makes a lot of people uncomfortable with using it.

I know creating an entirely new flag for an identity that has two well-established designs already is kind of a fool’s errand and it’s unlikely to get super widespread, but I feel frustrated enough about this to try. If you wanna give it a shot too, maybe you can tag it with #NewZooFlag, and we can try combining different ideas together to really make it a community effort. :)

Let me know what you guys think!

<br>#zoopride #zoosexual #zoophilia</blockquote>

== Creations ==
In the following days several designs were created.

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" 
! width="100px" | Name
! width="100px" | Design
! width="300px" | Meaning
! width="300px" | Additional information
|-
|'''R0tNCh0rd's first flag'''
|<gallery>File:Zoo flag by R0tNCh0rd 1.png</gallery>
|<gallery>File:Zoo flag by R0tNCh0rd 1 (definition).png</gallery>
|The author says: ''I wanted something more than just the basic "sky water earth" meanings and something that included those that often get left out without singling anyone out.''
|-
|'''R0tNCh0rd's second flag'''
|<gallery>File:Zoo flag by R0tNCh0rd 2.png</gallery>
|
|The author says: ''Th[is] is one I enjoyed the look of but was unhappy with the color pallet.''
|-
|'''R0tNCh0rd's third flag'''
|<gallery>File:Zoo flag by R0tNCh0rd 3.png</gallery>
|
|This is a mix of the previous two flags.
|-
|'''The original alef flag'''
|<gallery>File:Alef zoo flag original.png</gallery>
|The author says: ''Alef or 𐤀 is the first letter of Phoenician alphabet that literally means "bull". It also is the origin of the letter A, as in "animal". I use it instead of zeta to cut the ties with the zeta movement. The colors stand for animals of the sky, animals of the land, animals of the water, and animals of the underground accordingly.''
|
|-
|'''The warm tones alef flag'''
|<gallery>File:Warm tones alef flag.png</gallery>
|The meaning of the stripes is similar to the one of the original alef flag, but the water and land stripe switched places.
|
|-
|'''Alef with Zeta colors'''
|<gallery>File:Alef with Zeta colors.png</gallery>
|The meaning of the stripes is similar to the one of the original alef flag.
|This edit's color palette is almost identical to the one of the [[Zeta zoophile flags]].
|-
|'''The bright tones alef flag'''
|<gallery>File:Bright tones alef flag.png</gallery>
|The meaning of the stripes is similar to the one of the original alef flag.
|'''This is the final edit of the original alef flag.''' The author of the original flag says: ''I like the change from blue to green for water, because water life is predominantly sea and ocean life, and I like black for underground, because many underground animals are blind.''
|-
|'''Arrows flag'''
|<gallery>File:Arrows zoo flag.png</gallery>
|The author says: ''The design of this flag is an abstraction of the Assyrian version of the cuneiform "mu". It is the ending sound of two of the Assyrian words for animal "emammu" and "umāmu". It is also a reference to the greek character "μ," which is anglicized the same way, meant to be an inclusion of zoomaps. The Green stripe represents animals of the land and earth, while the teal represents animals of the sky and sea. The center red line is meant to represent those with sexual attraction to animals, and the other two lines are meant to represent identities that I think are sometimes excluded from zoo representation. The darker red representing zoosadists and the lighter red representing zooromantics. The horizontal arrow represents animal rights, and the vertical represents zoophile acceptance, something I believe are intersecting ideals for many zoos.''
|
|-
|'''Circled alef flag'''
|<gallery>File:Circled alef zoo flag 1.png</gallery>
|The author says: ''The aleph symbol <...> is the first letter of Phoenician alphabet, and literally means “bull,” while also being the origin of the letter “A.” Representing ourselves with the first letter of the alphabet when its origin is animalistic in nature feels like the perfect way to get away from the zeta symbol/movement, which is, of course, represented by the last letter of the alphabet. The circle around it represents the zoo community uniting in our passion for animals. <...> The deep red represents animals that live underground; the brown and green represent animals that live above the earth; the blues represent animals of the sea; yellow represents animals of the sky; the orange represents enthusiasm for animal rights, as well as our own rights as zoos; the red-orange represents passion for animals; and finally, the red represents attraction to animals. This unique rainbow overall represents the bizarre and beautiful variety of animals that share this planet with us.''
|This flag was inspired by several other flags presented here: '''R0tNCh0rd's second and third flags''', '''the original alef flag''', '''arrows flag'''.
|-
|'''Circled alef flag (simplified)'''
|<gallery>File:Circled alef zoo flag simplified.png</gallery>
|The meaning of the stripes is similar to the one of the flag above.
|
|-
|'''Nature-themed flag'''
|<gallery>File:Nature themed zoo flag.png</gallery>
|The author says: ''the black triangle at the bottom represents the void of space from which all life ultimately evolved from; this life is represented by the brown, blue, and green stripes (which stand for animals that live beneath the earth, animals that live in water, and animals that live above ground, respectively) that beam out from the center. The yellow represents the light animals bring into our lives, which becomes stronger and brighter when surrounded by our community, represented by the circled alef (which could be optionally removed if needed for simplification), which is red to represent our collective attraction to and passion for animals.''
|This flag takes direct inspiration from R0tNCh0rd's. It spawned the following chain of edits: <gallery>File:Nature zoo flag edit.png</gallery> <gallery>File:Nature zoo flag edit 2.jpeg</gallery>
|-
|'''Nature-themed flag (simplified)'''
|<gallery>File:Nature themed zoo flag simplified.png</gallery>
|The meaning of the stripes is similar to the one of the flag above.
|
|-
|'''Avery's flag'''
|<gallery>File:Zoo flag by Avery.png</gallery>
|The author says: ''the stripes up top stand for animals that reside on the land, animals that reside in the water, and animals that primarily reside in the air (birds, bats, etc.). all in order. the middle white stripe stands for unity within the zoo community as well as unity with the para community as a whole. the bottom stripes represent sexual attraction, romantic attraction, and other attractions (aesthetic, platonic, etc.)''
|The letter zeta is deliberately presented in a font, different from the standard one, to separate this flag from the ones made by the Zeta movement. 
|-
|'''Rainbow zoo flag'''
|<gallery>File:Rainbow zoo.jpeg</gallery>
|
|
|-
|'''Alef in corner flag'''
|<gallery>File:Alef in corner zoo flag.png</gallery>
|The author says: ''the purple, blue, and green stand for animals underground, animals in water, animals on and above land accordingly. Black stands for the origins of life and everything else, and that's where I placed the alef, to show that zoophilia lies closely to our core. Yellow stands for the feelings animals cause in us. The flag is positioned sideways <...> to emphasize the diversity of life and of how we develop our attractions.''
|This flag is a combination of several other ideas, presented here: '''R0tNCh0rd's second and third flags''', '''the original alef flag''', '''arrows flag''', '''nature-themed flag'''.
|-
|'''4 pointed star alef flag'''
|<gallery>File:Star alef zoo flag 1.png</gallery>
|The colors stand for earth/sky/ocean/underground animals. 
|The 4 pointed star is used in one of the Zeta flags.
|-
|'''4 pointed star alef flag (alternative)'''
|<gallery>File:Star alef zoo flag 2.png</gallery>
|The color meanings are similar to the flag above, with additional red for passion/love towards animals. 
|
|-
|'''Leaf zoo flag'''
|<gallery>File:Leaf aleph zoo.png</gallery>
|<gallery>File:Leaf zoo meaning.png</gallery> 
|
|}

== Voting ==
A vote took place on November 22. Null created a multiple choice poll with 11 options. 50 participants voted a total of 101 times, and the '''leaf zoo flag''' was chosen as the most favorite by 46% of them.
<gallery>
File:Zoo flag vote entries.png|Vote entries
File:Zoo flag vote results.jpg|Vote results
</gallery> 

== References ==