Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

Wolfe, L. D. (1991) “Human Evolution and the Sexual Behavior of Female Primates,” p. 130, in J. D. Loy and C. B. Peters, eds., Understanding Behavior: What Primate Studies Tell Us About Human Behavior, pp. 121-51 (New York: Oxford University Press). For another example of the extent to which scientific information about animal homosexuality remains unpublished (thereby perpetuating inaccuracies), see Weinrich’s account of how he had to obtain much of his information from personal conversations and letters with zoologists—a procedure that was still necessary, a decade later, in the preparation of this book (Weinrich, J. D. [1987] Sexual Landscapes, p. 308 [New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons]).

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See, for example, Hubbard, R., M. Henifin, and B. Fried, eds., (1979) Women Look at Biology Looking at Women: A Collection of Feminist Critiques (Cambridge: Schenkman); Hrdy, S. B., and G. C. Williams (1983) “Behavioral Biology and the Double Standard,” in S. K. Wasser, ed., Social Behavior of Female Vertebrates, pp. 3-17 (New York: Academic Press); Shaw, E., and J. Darling (1985) Female Strategies (New York: Walker and Company); Kevles, B. (1986) Females of the Species: Sex and Survival in the Animal Kingdom (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press); Haraway, D. (1989) Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (New York: Routledge); Gowaty, P. A., ed. (1996) Feminism and Evolutionary Biology: Boundaries, Intersections, and Frontiers (New York: Chapman Hall); Cunningham, E., and T. Birkhead (1997) “Female Roles in Perspective,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12:337-38. On the general male-centeredness of most biological theorizing, see Eberhard, W. G. (1996) Female Control: Sexual Selection by Cryptic Female Choice, pp. 34-36. (Princeton: Princeton University Press); Batten, M. (1992) Sexual Strategies (New York: Putnam’s); Gowaty, P. A. (1997) “Principles of Females’ Perspectives in Avian Behavioral Ecology,” Journal of Avian Biology 28:95-102.

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This is not to suggest, of course, that only scientists who are themselves homosexual can deal with the subject in an unbiased way. Certainly many contemporary heterosexual biologists do not harbor negative views about homosexuality, while some gay and lesbian zoologists have undoubtedly perpetuated the silences and prejudices of their field. (There are also those who believe that being homosexual actually invalidates a gay or lesbian scientist’s objectivity on the subject. However, if sexual orientation resulted in such bias, then heterosexual zoologists should confine themselves only to research topics that have nothing to do with breeding or male-female relations.) Nevertheless, sexism and male bias in biology have been exposed most directly through the work of women and feminist scientists, and it is likely that similar insights regarding heterosexism and homophobia will be forthcoming from openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual zoologists—that is, once such people no longer have to fear losing tenure, research grants, or jobs because of their outspokenness. Regardless of their own sexual orientation, however, many zoologists have avoided studying homosexuality or speaking widely about their results because the topic is still far from being considered a “legitimate” area of inquiry (see, for example, Wolfe’s commentary above; also, Anne Perkins’s decision not to discuss her findings on homosexuality in domestic sheep until after she had secured tenure, reported in “Counting Sheep,” Advocate, July 8, 1997, 737:21). A parallel situation exists in the fields of anthropology and history, where denial, omission, suppression, and condemnation of information about human homosexuality have long been carried out by researchers studying other cultures or historical periods. For a particularly good discussion of this phenomenon, see Read, K. E. (1984) “The Nama Cult Recalled,” in G. H. Herdt, ed., Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, pp. 211-47 (Berkeley: University of California Press). On the myth of observer “objectivity” where discussion of homosexuality by anthropologists is concerned, see Lewin, E., and W. L. Leap, eds. (1996) Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press). For further discussion of indigenous human homosexualities, see chapter 6.

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