Category Archives: 70 Sexuality and gender
Queer Bonobos: Sex As Conflict Resolution
One female facing another clings with arms and legs to a partner that, standing on both hands and feet, lifts her off the ground. The two females then rub their genital swellings laterally together, emitting grins and squeals that probably reflect orgasmic experiences.
De Waal first became interested in bonobo behaviour not for its sexual component, but as part of a study into primate aggression. In continuous observations of bonobos in a zoo, he found that a standard feature of the behaviour was sexual arousal and intercourse immediately before feeding. As soon as a caretaker approached with food, the males would develop erections, and the animals would invite each other for sex. (This is not just an aberration of captivity. Other researchers have observed the same association between food and sex in the wild: after a group had entered trees with ripe fruit, or after they had killed a young prey animal, there would be a flurry of sexual contacts before settling down to eat.)
During reconciliations, bonobos use the same sexual repertoire as they do during feeding time. Based on an analysis of many such incidents, my study yielded the first solid evidence for sexual behavior as a mechanism to overcome aggression. Not that this function is absent in other animals–or in humans, for that matter–but the art of sexual reconciliation may well have reached its evolutionary peak in the bonobo. For these animals, sexual behavior is indistinguishable from social behaviour.
Related Posts on Animal Sexuality:
- The Wildlife Rainbow
- Flirty fish may solve riddle of gay animals
- New Scientist: Fish that change sex – and back again
- Penguin (Gay) Parenting: Lessons for Gay Adoption
- The Saga of the Toronto Gay Penguins
- Tough Survivors: Gender Fluid Eels.
- Bisexual squid ‘can’t tell mates apart’ in dark waters – Telegraph
- A Lesson in Couple Stability From Homosexual Zebra Finches
- Breaking Up Is Hard To Do….. Also For Vultures
- The Real Mama Grizzlies: Lesbian Moms?
- Our Queer Primate Cousins
- Albatross Same- sex Parents
- Bisexual Snails
- Same-Sex Parents, Furred and Feathered.
- Queer Bonobos: Sex As Conflict Resolution
- Animals Use Sex Toys, Too
- Bighorn Rams: Macho Homos, Wimpish Heteros
- Lesbian Lizards
- The Pygmy Chimpanzee: Evolutionary Biology and Behavior
Edited by Randall L. Susman. Plenum Press, 1984.
- THE COMMUNICATIVE REPERTOIRE OF CAPTIVE BONOBOS (PAN PANISCUS) COMPARED TO THAT OF CHIMPANZEES. F.B.M. de Waal in “Behaviour,” Vol. 106, Nos. 3-4, pages 183-251; September 1988.
- PEACEMAKING AMONG PRIMATES. F.B.M. de Waal. Harvard University Press, 1989.
- Understanding Chimpanzees Edited by Paul Heltne and Linda A. Marquardt. Harvard University Press, 1989.
- The Last Ape: Pygmy Chimpanzee Behavior and Ecology Takayoshi Kano. Stanford University Press, 1992.
- Chimpanzee Cultures: With a Foreword by Jane Goodall
R. Wrangham, W. C. McGrew, F.B.M. de Waal and P. Heltne. Harvard University Press, 1994.
Animals Use Sex Toys, Too
Relationships are equally diverse, including long term pair bonds, in both between-sex and same-sex couples, one-off copulation, strictly monogamous and non-monogamous relationships, polygamy, polyandry and group orgies.
Families and child rearing are diverse. There’s male and female pederasty, incest, and likewise butch/femme female relationships. There are single parents, between- sex parent couples, and same-sex parent couples, who may acquire kids by finding sperm donors (if female), surrogate mothers (if male), or by adoption. (In some species, male couples turn out to be more successful parents than between-sex parents, just like research suggests for humans).
As in humans, there are a range of “purposes” of sex, from the obvious one of simple pleasure, to asserting domination and status, to procreation. Bonobos even use it as a form of social peacekeeping. There’s also a negative side: rape and sexual violence also occur. I confess I’ve not yet come across the wildlife equivalent of consensual S/M, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. Just about everything else is there, including transgender (routine in some species), transvestism, and the use of sex toys.
The use and manufacture of tools by primates is considered an important example of cultural behaviour in animals, and a forerunner of the activities that are so widespread among human beings.although many different forms and functions are evident in animal tool use, these examples show that nonreproductive sexual activities are part of the overall behavioral pattern: the primate capacity for object manipulation extends seamlessly into the sexual sphere.
Similar types of activities occur among people too, of course, and sexual implements of various sorts have a long and distinguished history in human culture. …Examples have been found from as far back as the Palaeolithic through to medieval times – including some Biblical references – as well as in the ongoing traditions of many indigenous peoples throughout the world.
Related Posts:
Related Posts on Animal Sexuality:
- The Wildlife Rainbow
- Flirty fish may solve riddle of gay animals
- New Scientist: Fish that change sex – and back again
- Penguin (Gay) Parenting: Lessons for Gay Adoption
- The Saga of the Toronto Gay Penguins
- Tough Survivors: Gender Fluid Eels.
- Bisexual squid ‘can’t tell mates apart’ in dark waters – Telegraph
- A Lesson in Couple Stability From Homosexual Zebra Finches
- Breaking Up Is Hard To Do….. Also For Vultures
- The Real Mama Grizzlies: Lesbian Moms?
- Our Queer Primate Cousins
- Albatross Same- sex Parents
- Bisexual Snails
- Same-Sex Parents, Furred and Feathered.
- Queer Bonobos: Sex As Conflict Resolution
- Animals Use Sex Toys, Too
- Bighorn Rams: Macho Homos, Wimpish Heteros
- Lesbian Lizards
At Seed Magazine:
Sex At Dawn The effeminate sheep and other problems with natural selection
Books:
Bagemihl, Bruce: Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions)
Long, John A: Hung Like an Argentine Duck: A Journey Back in Time to the Origins of Sexual Intimacy
Roughgarden, Joan: Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People
Sommer, Volker and Vasey, Paul: Homosexual Behaviour in Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective
Bighorn Rams: Macho Homos, Wimpish Heteros
For Bighorn and Thinhorn Sheep, heterosexuality is definitely not “normal”.
From “Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People ” (Joan Roughgarden):
“The females live separately from the males. The sexes associate only during the breeding season, from mid fall to early winter. A female is receptive for about three days, and will not allow herself outside of these three days.”
This emphatically does not mean that the males endure sexual abstinence for the rest of the year.
The males have been described as `homosexual societies`. Almost all males participate in homosexual courting and copulation. Male-male courtship begins with a stylized approach, followed by genital licking and nuzzling, and often leads to anal intercourse in which one male, usually the larger, mounts the other. The mounted male arches his back, which is identical to how a female arches her back during heterosexual intercourse. The mounting male ahs an erect penis, makes anal penetration, and performs pelvic thrusts leading to ejaculation.
The few males who do not participate in male sex are described as “effeminate”,. These males are identical tin appearance to other males but behave quite differently. They differ from “normal males” by living with the ewes rather than joining the all-male groups. These males do not dominate females, are less aggressive overall, and adopt a crouching, female urination posture. These males refuse mouning by other males. These nonhomosexual males are considerd “aberrant”, with speculation that that some hormone deficiency must underlie their behaviour. Even though in physical appearance, including body size and horn development, these males are indistinguishable from other males, scientists urge further study of their endocrinological profile.
This case turns the meanings of normal and aberrant upside down. The “normal” macho bighorn has full-fledged anal sex with other males. The “aberrant” male is the one who is straight – the lack of interest in homosexuality is considered pathological. Now, why would being straight be a pathology, requiring a hormonal checkup? According to the researchers, what’s aberrant is that a macho-looking bighorn ram acts feminine! He pees like a female – even worse than being gay.
Related Posts on Animal Sexuality:
- The Wildlife Rainbow
- Flirty fish may solve riddle of gay animals
- New Scientist: Fish that change sex – and back again
- Penguin (Gay) Parenting: Lessons for Gay Adoption
- The Saga of the Toronto Gay Penguins
- Tough Survivors: Gender Fluid Eels.
- Bisexual squid ‘can’t tell mates apart’ in dark waters – Telegraph
- A Lesson in Couple Stability From Homosexual Zebra Finches
- Breaking Up Is Hard To Do….. Also For Vultures
- The Real Mama Grizzlies: Lesbian Moms?
- Our Queer Primate Cousins
- Albatross Same- sex Parents
- Bisexual Snails
- Same-Sex Parents, Furred and Feathered.
- Queer Bonobos: Sex As Conflict Resolution
- Animals Use Sex Toys, Too
- Bighorn Rams: Macho Homos, Wimpish Heteros
- Lesbian Lizards
Also The effeminate sheep and other problems with natural selection (at “Seed Magazine”)
Books:
Bagemihl, Bruce: Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions)
Roughgarden, Joan: Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People Sommer,
Volker and Vasey, Paul: Homosexual Behaviour in Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective
Lesbian Lizards
In the deepest darkest depths of Vietnam, two new herpetological (reptile and amphibian) species have been discovered. These creatures – dubbed ‘lesbian lizards’ and ‘psychedelic geckos’ – were found by expert Lee Grismer and his son, Jesse on a 2 week expedition to Southeast Asia. The lesbian lizards are asexual and arouse each other by mock mating. This in turn causes them to ovulate and lay eggs – and produce clones of themselves.
So far biologists have identified 27 kinds of parthenogenetic lizards—all-female species that lay eggs to produce exact genetic copies of the mother. On field trips in Arizona and Colorado, a team of researchers headed by Psychobiologist David Crews found that four of these species engage in mock male-female sex. An active female mounts a passive one, curves the tail under the other’s body, strokes the partner’s back and neck, joins genital regions, and rides on top for one to five minutes. The active female lizard always has small undeveloped eggs, while the passive female has large pre-ovulatory eggs. But there are cyclic variations in behavior and egg size in these reptiles, and roles reverse; the passive female of one encounter can be the active partner of the next. Says Crews: “We are now trying to determine whether this malelike behavior facilitates reproductive function.” Translation: the psychobiologist does not yet know why the females mock the male-female behavior of related two-sex species. The eggs hatch with or without the lesbian courtship.
The Wildlife Rainbow Queer Bonobos: Sex As Conflict Resolution Bisexual Snails Exclusive Heterosexuality Unnatural? Natural Law and Laysan’s Albatross
Exclusive Heterosexuality Unnatural?

In 1999 the standard work on the topic, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions) by Bruce Bagemihl, was published.
“On every continent, animals of the same sex seek each other out and have probably been doing it for millions of years,” Bagemihl wrote. …….According to Bagemihl, “Homosexual behavior occurs in more than 450 different kinds of animals worldwide, and is found in every major geographic region and every major animal group.”
“Female western gulls sometimes pair off for several years and mount each other while incubating eggs,” Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson wrote in Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia. “Similar behaviors have been documented among female sage grouse, male mallard ducks, and female and male greylag geese and turkeys.” According to the authors of Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America, same-sex behavior has been documented in all kinds of animal species, including antelope, bugs, butterflies, cats, cattle, cockroaches, crickets, dogs, donkeys, elephants, flies, geckos, guinea pigs, hamsters, horses, hyenas, lions, martens, mice, moths, octopuses, orcas, porcupines, raccoons, rats and wasps.
Gay animal behavior seems to alarm religious conservatives almost as much as the human variety, and they have tried their best to deny it. Those who do admit that same-sex behavior exists in the animal kingdom try to explain it away as being playful antics or dominance behavior to assert hierarchy.
“Some conservatives and religious groups now admit that homosexuality is common in the animal kingdom, but many of them have also put forward theories to explain the phenomenon,” said Myriam Schärz of the Zurich Zoo. “Some argue that homosexuality only occurs when animal populations become too large, or that animals only turn to homosexuality when they have no other alternative, but there is no evidence to back up the population theory, and there is plenty of proof against the harem argument. Dominant silver-back gorillas, for instance, have frequently been seen engaging in homosexual activity and deliberately shunning available females.”“Humans seem to be the only species where homosexuals are not readily accepted in society,” Schärz said
Books:
- Bagemihl, Bruce: Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions)
- Roughgarden, Joan: Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People
- Sommer, Volker and Vasey, Paul: Homosexual Behaviour in Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective
- Hogan, Steve: Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia
- Witt, Lynn: Out in All Directions: Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America
- Some Albatross Same- sex Parents (rooting-for-gay-marriage.blogspot.com)
- Our Queer Primate Cousins (itsaqueerworld.blogspot.com)
- Natural Law, Natural Sex, Natural Families. (rooting-for-gay-marriage.blogspot.com)
- The Gay Side of Nature (time.com)
- Lesbian Lizards
- Bisexual Snails
- Natural Law and Laysan’s Albatross
- Bighorn Rams: Macho Homos, Wimpish Heteros
- The effeminate sheep and other problems with natural selection.
Natural Families: Africa's Female Kings and Husbands.
Female Husbands
The records show that in these societies, women who have sufficient wealth to come up with the required bride price may take wives. When they do, they form households in which they take on the traditional roles and duties of husbands, while the other women behave exactly as any other wives, taking on the domestic chores and the child-rearing.
Children? Clearly, all-female marriages are not able to conceive children. Instead, some or all of the wives will have sexual relationships with men outside the marriage, sometimes with men chosen for them by their husbands, specifically for the pusposes of procreation. The biological father’s role though, stops right there. The children are raised in the all female household, by their mothers – and their female stepfather. physical procreation is entirely distinct from the chikl-rearing that follows. Sexual relationships too, may be distinct from both the marriage, and from procreation. In some cases, the marriages will include lesbian sexual relationships, but in others some or all of the women have erotic relationships outside of the family which are not necessarily geared to procreation.
Africa is a large, diverse continent, so it should not be a surpsie that there are many other forms of same sex relationship observed as well. Here, I have only touched on one little-known aspect of some female relationships. Later, I will also look at other unusual forms of relationships that totally contradict the idea that homoerotic relationships are foreign to Africa and introduced by outsiders, either European colonials, or the Arabs.
See also:
African Myths about Homosexuality – Guardian
Books:
Naphy, William: Born to be Gay: A History of Homosexuality (Revealing History)
Greenberg, David F: The Construction of Homosexuality
Ifi Amadiume Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society
Murray, Donald O: Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities
LGBT community: The Real Defenders of Traditional Marriage.
Ironically, and of course totally unrecognized by defenders of “traditional marriage,” it’s the gay-marriage crowd that is the staunchest proponent of traditional norms. They’re the ones saying that monogamous marriage is so great, let’s extend it to everyone. The real opponents of marriage are the folks who question whether it’s such a good idea in the first place.
Whatever we think about such normative questions, the facts of the matter are beyond dispute: monogamous marriage as an ideal that’s actually meant to be upheld is a very recent, and not very successful, innovation. Personally, I recognize that as an deal, it plays an important role in creating stable families, stable communities, and stable societies. I am not forgiving the sin of infidelity. But I do wonder if it’s more a peccadillo than some kind of ethical felony.
Read the full article at Monogamous Marriage is an Anomaly, (Huffpost)
Same-Sex, Opposite-Sex, or "Apposite" Sex? : Churches Grappling With Inclusion, Equality
“Marriage cultivates concern for one another; it offers lifelong hospitality; it enacts love; and it exposes our faults in order to heal them. It is the marital virtues that the Church needs, not only with respect to the Bridegroom [Christ] but just now, with respect to one another.” The liberal group defined orientation in terms not of gender, but of morality: “A sexually oriented person is someone who develops and is morally improved through a relationship with someone of the apposite sex, typically but not necessarily the opposite sex. Those called to same-sex relationships are those that need them for their own sanctification . . . because neither opposite-sex relationships nor celibacy could get deeply enough into their hearts to promote lifelong commitment and growth.” It said that same-sex couples should not be denied the moral worth of each putting their body “on the line” for the other “until death us do part”; that was an accountability “far beyond what counselled celibacy can provide”. Nor should they be denied the “delight” they had in each other; for that was necessary for action: Eros did not turn into charity through self-control, but through self abandonment, and the self-dispossession that led to self-donation. “It is the daily version of finding one’s life by losing it.”
AMA Condemns the Dangerous Heterosexual Perversion.
Well, not exactly – but they could just as well have done, as I will explain later. first, what they actually did say:
“The nation’s largest doctors’ group has agreed to join efforts to repeal the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.
The American Medical Association also voted to declare that gay marriage bans contribute to health disparities for gay couples and their children.
Both gay-rights policies were adopted Tuesday at the AMA’s interim policy meeting in Houston.
The AMA says the ‘don’t ask, don’t-tell’ law creates an ethical dilemma for gay service members and the doctors who treat them.
The other measure declares that marriage bans leave gays vulnerable to being excluded from health care benefits, including health insurance and family and medical leave rights. The new AMA policy stops short of opposing the bans.”
There is a delicious irony in a medical group condemning discriminatory practices against gay and lesbian people, as it is well known that the much abused word “homosexual” was originally coined late in the 19th century as a medical term to denote what was then seen as a pathology.
Time has moved on, and personal orientation is no longer seen as a pathology for medical treatment, no matter what NARTH and the so-called “ex-gay” movement have to say about it. Even the Catholic Church agrees that the “inclination” in a person is natural and not in itself sinful – they just need to allow their theology to catch up with the implications of this. Unfortunately though, the simple recognition that there is no pathology is not enough: the damage has been done.
Let us now look at that late 19th century coinage, “heterosexual”. Yes, this too was a word invented in the 19th century, after its counterpart “homosexual”, and was also originally a medical term, used to denote a pathology. Yes, that’s right – a pathology – specifically,
“a morbid obsession with the opposite sex.”
Now, “homosexuality” is no longer taken seriously as a pathology, but I submit that heterosexuality, as “a morbid obsession with the opposite sex”, is indeed a pathology and requires serious attention. Let me explain.
In the context of a simple orientation, or as specific sexual acts, I obviously do not suggest that “heterosexuality” is diseased or unnatural, any more than I would make that claim about any other sexual orientation or activity. However, at the level of society as a whole, the 20th century fixation with heterosexuality as a cultural norm to be imposed on all, fostered by this belief that it was “diseased”, aided and abetted by religious misinterpretations of Scripture and selective extracts from theology purporting to show that it is grievously sinful”, can certainly be called a morbid fascination, which has caused untold damage to the mental and physical health of many millions of people. It is this insistence that people conform to externally imposed sexual norms, quite contrary to innate orientation and psychological health, that has caused much higher rates of youth suicide among gay and lesbian youth than among their peers; that has led to the bullying that is often the proximate cause of the suicides; that leads people in to lives of duplicity and fear in a closet; that has led to active persecution by many governments, from Nazi Germany to Iran, Sudan and Uganda today – and which lies at the bottom of the bans on gays in the military, or on gay marriage, which are the immediate issues addressed by the AMA.
This obsession is entirely unnatural. Le t me restate once again, what should by now be well known, but sadly isn’t:
The homoerotic orientation is entirely natural, and has been found in all periods of history, in all parts of the world, and in most animal species.
Scientific research suggests that most people are neither exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, nor exclusively to the same sex. We lean more or less strongly to one or the other, but most of us are capable of responding to at least some degree to either. Social pressures however, influence how we deal with this.
Societies too are not typically exclusively modelled on the patterned on the modern, misnamed Western idea of “traditional” marriage. This model, a monogamous union of one man and one woman joined in a love relationship consecrated in church to raise children, is unique to the last two centuries in the West. Before that, Western marriage was primarily about protecting property and inheritance rights. In many parts of the world, and among the Hebrew patriarchs, polygamy was commonplace. In classical Greece and Rome, where European culture largely began, men did not expect to find sexual or emotional fulfilment in marriage, but took it from slaves, prostitutes, concubines or male lovers – if they were privileged citizens. If not, chances are their sexual lives were determined by their owners or masters, not by themselves.
Among Christians, marriage in church was not required (and was sometimes not possible) until the 12th century. Indeed, it has been suggested that a church ceremony was obligatory only for priests who chose to marry.
Outside of Europe and North America, the so-called “traditional”, “time-honoured” model was even less typical until it was imposed by Western missionaries and colonial powers.
Even in the animal kingdom, exclusive heterosexuality is rare. Some degree of homosexuality is now known to occur in many, possibly most, animal species.
In short, the evidence from psychology, medicine, anthropology, history and zoology is that whereas homoeroticism is entirely natural if not common, exclusive heterosexuality is both unnatural and rare. As such, I have no hesitation in labelling the social “morbid obsession with the opposite sex” orientation as exclusive practice, and the resultant insistence on heterosexist laws and theology not only a social sexual perversion, but an extremely dangerous one.