Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

On a related point, a number of insightful analyses of otherwise puzzling aspects of sexual and reproductive behavior are now being offered by two relatively recent (and complementary) strains in biological thinking. One of these is the theory of “sperm competition,” which contends that reproductive anatomy, physiology, and behavior are fundamentally shaped by the phenomenon of sperm from different males competing for fertilization by being present simultaneously in the female’s reproductive tract. The other is the theory of “cryptic female choice,” which argues that females themselves exert considerable influence on paternity after mating takes place by controlling whether and how sperm is utilized for fertilization. However, the complete absence of any discussion of sexual pleasure in these analyses (even where human beings are concerned) is notable. Not only is sexual pleasure as a “motivating force” compatible with many “sperm competition” and “cryptic female choice” analyses (and should therefore be considered as an important cofactor), it also offers significant insights into phenomena that continue to elude even these approaches (such as the extraordinarily high copulation rates of monogamous raptors, or mating far in advance of sperm storage periods in birds, or extrapair copulations with nonfertilizable females). For some discussion of these theories, see Baker and Bellis, Human Sperm Competition; Birkhead and Møller, Sperm Competition in Birds; Ginsberg and Huck, “Sperm Competition in Mammals”; Smith, ed., Sperm Competition and the Evolution of Animal Mating Systems; Eberhard, Female Control; Birkhead and Møller, “Female Control of Paternity.” For a critique of the general male-centeredness of most sperm-competition studies, see Gowaty, P. A. (1997) “Principles of Females’ Perspectives in Avian Behavioral Ecology,” pp. 97-98, Journal of Avian Biology 28:95- 102. For additional observations on the limitations of sperm competition (and sexual selection) theory as applied to species such as Oystercatchers, see Ens (1998:637).

159

On the “function” of kissing in various species, see Common Chimpanzee (Nishida 1970:51-52); Orang-utan (Rijksen 1978:204-6); Squirrel Monkey (Peters 1970); West Indian Manatee (Moore 1956; Hartman 1979:110). For similar analyses applied to human kissing in various cultures, see Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (1972) Love and Hate: The Natural History of Behavior Patterns, pp. 134-39 (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston).

160

cummings, e. e. (1963) Complete Poems 1913-1962, p. 556 (New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich).

161

Dawson, W. L. (1923) The Birds of California, pp. 1090-91 (San Diego: South Moulton Co.); Jehl, J. R., Jr. (1987) “A Historical Explanation for Polyandry in Wilson’s Phalarope,” Auk 104:555-56. Likewise, an even more “innocuous” phenomenon—the existence of female choice in mating among a wide variety of organisms—was considered “controversial” less than 20 years ago (Eberhard, Female Control, pp. 420-21), owing to the widespread belief among biologists that females are merely passive participants or “receptacles” in mating activities. Unfortunately, this idea still persists among many biologists today (cf. Gowaty, “Principles of Females’ Perspectives in Avian Behavioral Ecology”). Similarly, de Waal (1997:76) suggests that cultural biases and sexism may have contributed to scientists’ denial, until 1992, of the occurrence of female dominance in Bonobos. Indeed, he points out that if any scientists had proposed this thirty years ago—along with the full set of traits now known to be a part of Bonobo life (including a richly elaborated nonreproductive sexuality)—they would simply have been “laughed out of the halls of academe” (ibid., p. 160).

Chapter 6. A New Paradigm: Biological Exuberance

1

Boswell, J. (1980) Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, pp. 48–49 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press); Carse, J. P. (1986) Finite and Infinite Games, pp. 75, 159 (New York: Ballantine Books).

2