Is there really a huge controversy over reptile ownership??

[Maymay]

It's totally unfair, but I think for you ladies a part of it is gender expectations. When I was a kid and catching lizards and mantids to put in a jar people never batted an eye. A female friend in elementary school was told it wasn't good to join me because only boys do that.

No way!! That poor girl. I used to catch spiders and let them crawl all over me as a kid. I developed a phobia only after I saw that everyone else was afraid of them. This stuff is learned.
I really think exposure helps, people are probably just misinformed. c: a friend of mine was afraid of my ball at first but now always wants to see her. He's a hip hop dancer, and says watching her movements has been a huge source of inspiration. Interesting stuff. I'm just glad to be converting people muahaha

[redshepherd]

It's totally unfair, but I think for you ladies a part of it is gender expectations. When I was a kid and catching lizards and mantids to put in a jar people never batted an eye. A female friend in elementary school was told it wasn't good to join me because only boys do that.

I actually never thought about it this way before, but it's totally true! If one of my dude coworkers owned/bred snakes, I don't think people would think it's out of norm at all. Or even better, they'll most likely think he's the cool wildlife guy.
Whereas owning snakes would make a girl "weird".

[redshepherd]

I developed a phobia only after I saw that everyone else was afraid of them. This stuff is learned.

I developed more of a spider phobia when one too many spiders dropped an inch in front of my face while I'm just minding my own business... And they JUMP and run fast and have too many legs. Like dang. LOL

[Maymay]

I developed more of a spider phobia when one too many spiders dropped an inch in front of my face while I'm just minding my own business... And they JUMP and run fast and have too many legs. Like dang. LOL

Way too many legs, scurrying towards you like they're coming to consume your soul LOL. I don't have to worry about too many legs with my ball python :-)

[cletus]

No way!! That poor girl. I used to catch spiders and let them crawl all over me as a kid. I developed a phobia only after I saw that everyone else was afraid of them. This stuff is learned.
I really think exposure helps, people are probably just misinformed. c: a friend of mine was afraid of my ball at first but now always wants to see her. He's a hip hop dancer, and says watching her movements has been a huge source of inspiration. Interesting stuff. I'm just glad to be converting people muahaha

When my kids were little my daughter was all about snakes and bugs. Every time we would catch a snake in the yard she would play with them and my boys would be spazzing. lol You are totally right. My daughter was never taught to be afraid of them. My sons on the other were taught by their mother to be afraid of everything she is afraid of. So I ended up with 2 boys that are afraid of anything that crawls and a daughter that to this day isn't afraid anything.

[dkatz4]

To be brutally honest, i am intentionally secretive about being a snake-owner. I dont own a giant (or even a "big") but there is definitely a stigma attached to keeping snakes that i just dont care to be assaulted with. If someone flat out asks what kind of pets i have i dont lie about it, but i must admit i do sort of deliver it with this "this is totally crazy, but..." tone, as if to voice my own disapproval with myself, not proud of it, but i do. Then i base my follow up on the reaction; sometimes i get a positive reaction at which point i turn into a kid on xmas morning. I was talking with an old college friend recently and the pet thing came up and i mentioned Irwin and then my friend lit up and told me he had a bearded dragon with this delighted relief in his voice, like we were two lost tribesman who had found each other in the wilderness. But more often i get shock and thinly veiled judgment and i'll assure them that its just a little snake and really its b/c my kid wanted one; shameful.
Snakes are just not regarded positively. You have all sorts of cultural and religious bias, and i'm not even talking about, "god says you're gross for liking snakes", but when the best known snake in all of western literature is satan himself, its no wonder there is a collective aversion to serpents. So when someone sees you have an affinity for something they regard as bad/gross/evil, it creates dissonance that has to be dealt with, sometimes by reassessing and then restructuring their own constructs, but more often by quickly establishing a moral hierarchy between the two of you with themselves on top.
I think the "true" controversies involving giant snakes, either their danger to people or to the environment are just fuel for these preexisting biases, i've yet to meet someone who truly thinks snake are great but admonishes snake owners out of a genuine concern for the everglades.
-sorry for the rant, i guess i just feel guilty for being a self-loathing snake owner.

[BeksNY]

Ahhh... the societal norms and gender norms questions. Always fun ones. I'm a female motorcyclist and I have a very buttoned up kind of job (Director of Development for a nonprofit), in which it benefits me to present myself in a traditional, conservative way. So, people are typically quite surprised when they see me running a gala in a fancy dress and high heels and then changed into my gear and helmet to commute back home on my big bike. It's the same when people hear I have snakes. They're just kinda surprised. For both, I usually smile widely and show that "kid on Christmas morning" enthusiasm and express how great both are to me. e.g., "Riding motorcycles for me is freeing and it's something I'd always wanted to do. I can't imagine not riding. I LOVE my bike." [At this point I usually pull out a picture of my bike.] and "I didn't think it was possible to love snakes as much as I do. My boa is like a big, friendly puppy and my ball pythons are shy and curious." [At this point, I usually pull out my phone and show pictures, especially the cute ones like my crystal ball Duncan -- see my avatar -- or the story of Clifford, my boa who was found in a parking lot.] I try to take time to answer questions, no matter how many times I hear the same one and no matter how off the wall they seem. I think showing your enthusiasm and interest can go a really long way. It also opens the door for teachable moments when the questions start coming -- "How do you ride that thing?" "Do they bite?"

Re: the religious bias -- After a few enthusiastic conversations about Clifford, I had the little old ladies at church asking why I didn't bring him when they did the blessing of the animals service.

TD;LR -- It's good to be an ambassador! Wave your herp flag high! Take time to answer questions and break down gender norm biases.

[Jeanne]

I have never experienced any of those things... Ever.

But..let me say this... Frankly, I dont give a crap about other peoples opinions on my pet ownership... Its like this... I dont have time to worry about what others opinions are. So maybe because I am like this, I dont have some of the experiences you guys have had in regards to your choice of pets w others. And I have learned one important thing..when you quit caring what others opinions are, you end up worrying less about what someone may be thinking, enabling you to be free of tht crap and enjoy life more.

Sent from my LG-V500 using Tapatalk

[redshepherd]

Religious? Like how?!?! I'm a Christian as is my family and I've never heard one religious objection to snakes!

Same here- but there are always some unreasonable people in the world, and use their religion as a reason for their bias.

The funny thing is that (I mentioned in another thread recently), the "serpent" in the genesis story isn't stated as a snake. God actually "took away the serpent's limbs and cursed it to crawl on the ground forever" or something or other only after the fact, which means it had limbs. Which means that the serpent was not a snake. These people need to stop using the serpent=snake excuse! LOL

[Coluber42]

I got in the habit of not talking about my pet snakes in college, because a professor that I worked with very closely for the whole time (and who is still a friend, colleague, etc, years later) was/is a super veganazi PETA type, who would go off on animals being kept in cages if I wasn't careful to avoid the subject. It wasn't snakes in particular, just caged pets in general. And I'd had the same snakes for years, since way before everyone had a phone with a camera, etc.
But then when my old guy died and I got my first new baby in almost 20 years, I was grieving for the old guy and excited about the new guy and started talking about and posting about it. Mostly, the reactions I've gotten from people who don't like snakes are along the lines of, "I don't like 'em, but whatever floats your boat". I've had a few people respond with questions who were receptive to learning something.
But what has really surprised me is how many people unexpectedly turn out to have had snakes themselves in the past, or had housemates/friends/relatives who did, or various other positive snake stories. My landlady told me a story about a group house she lived in for a couple of years where the previous occupants of the house moved out and left behind a boa constrictor. No one moving in had any experience with snakes and they didn't really know anything much about this one, but were gamely taking care of it because it was already there. They found out it was female when one day they found a pile of babies in the cage!