A QUEER AND DELICATE SHAPE PT. 3- SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN ANIMALS AND NATURE
Many opponents of queer sexuality would probably like to point to either religion or science for support of their beliefs. However, instances in nature show that in many cases some homosexuality can be beneficial to organisms. Not always, but there’s no way that it can be proven that homosexuality is universally detrimental to species. Homosexuality in the animal world as in the human world is not a direct mechanism for reproduction, but it can function as a social mechanism that can bring animals into an intimacy with one another. This intimacy can provide an organism with a buddy whose protection or aid will increase their individual fitnesses. For example, around 75% of male bottlenose dolphins live in highly sexual pair bonds of two or sometimes three males. These dolphins help each other find food, protect one another from various ocean threats, and engage in a wide variety of sexual behavior which includes mounting, oral sex, and genital/flipper stimulation. In some cases, homosexuality has evolved in the form of physical traits. Female Hyena’s are born with a vagina whose clitoris is capable of engorging to the size of a penis. Female hyenas can use these members to mount one another and female hyenas who have been documented mounting are known to offer a greater deal of parental care to one anothers’ young. (4) Why do they do this? Because sexual interaction in this species has come to promote a level of intimacy that causes partners to care for one another. Some would argue that pleasurable, intimacy gaining sex could only occur as a mechanism in species that had some degree of parental care. (7) So for a female hyena to evolve to traits that make her more attractive to other female hyenas would be highly beneficial to her fitness, because then not only males would be interested in helping her raise young but the females would be as well and her young would be more likely to survive.
Another way that homosexuality can serve as a useful tool is as a conflict resolver. In Bonobos, a species of pygmy chimpanzee, conflicts are often ended when one aggressive chimp decides to offer the other oral sex, or genital rubbing. (4) In these circumstances sex works as a tool to alleviate tension which will prevent animals from becoming injured or wasting their time fighting. This protection that sex offers will also increase fitness because it helps ensure that the Bonobo will be uninjured when it comes time to mate. (8)
A QUEER AND DELICATE SHAPE PT. 2- SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN ANIMALS AND NATURE
If we take a closer look at the sexual patterns of animals that posses two sexes, we also find divergences from the darwinian model of sexuality in which all males are competitive with one another for female mates. many males of a species co-operate to find mates or share mates, which is in conflict with the notion that with very few exceptions, competition must occur between males. Ruffs, a species of sandpiper that live throughought Europe and Asia, have one gender of female and three genders of male with different behavior patterns surrounding mating. The first species of ruff, the black collared ruff, has a collar of black plumage around it’s neck and spends most of it’s time in a competitive mating nesting pattern called a lek. Females fly over the lek area and scope out which black collar males they find more appealing. The second type of ruff, a white collared ruff, does not have it’s own space in a lek and often flocks with females. However, when it’s time to mate, White collared ruffs will often settle down in the nest of a black collared male. The black collared ruff tolerates this behavior because female ruffs will be more attracted to a nest in the lek that has a black and a white collared ruff in it. This is because the female may already know the white collared male in the nest from flocking with it, and will be more trusting of it. Thus, the white collared ruff works as a sort match maker for the black collared ruff and in exchange is allowed the opportunity to share parentage of the eggs that the female produces. There is also a third gender of male ruff which possesses the color patterns of a female. Although I haven’t found any information on it’s heterosexual habits, This ruff has been documented engaging in mutual same sex mounting with other crested male ruffs- with both partners taking on the female and male position. (8)
Another case where male cooperation in gaining female mates occurs is in the Sunfish. Sunfish mating occurs with larger older males staking out territories and waiting for females to enter those territories while scaring off other potential males. However, younger and smaller sunfish of a different coloration will often come into the territory of an older male and the two males will solicit each other in a courtship ritual. In sunfish, fertilization occurs after a female has released her eggs. After release, the males sprinkle their ejaculate on the eggs and they are fertilized. A female entering the mating territory of two males who have engaged in a courtship ritual will allow both males to fertilize her eggs, and the paternity of her young will be shared by both. So why is the older, larger male allowing the smaller male to inseminate the eggs deposited in his territory? Because the female is more likely to mate with a male that also has a younger male partner with whom the older male has engaged in a courtship ritual with. Why is this? Joan Roughgarden, a Biologist at Stanford University, believes that these homosexual male courtships allow females to examine the behavior patterns of the larger male and see if he is healthy and will also not prove to be an aggressive mate. Thus she will be able to ensure her safety and increase her fitness. (2) These sort of behavior patterns seem odd because evolutionary theory promotes the idea that all species only reproduce for the purpose of furthering their individual genetic material. But in the case of the ruff and the sunfish, a shared parentage may actually increase fitness for the male because a female will feel more likely to mate with him if he has a partner.
A QUEER AND DELICATE SHAPE PT. 1- SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN ANIMALS AND NATURE
DEAR READER,
BEFORE BEGINNING TO READ THIS PAPER, I WOULD JUST LIKE YOU TO KNOW THAT MUCH OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN WAS TAKEN FROM THE WORK OF STANFORD PROFESSOR JOAN ROUGHGARDEN. FOR A MORE COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT OF SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN NATURE, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ HER BOOK NATURE´S RAINBOW .
A QUEER AND DELICATE SHAPE PT. 1
In Darwin’s origin of the species, the god of evolutionary science outlines that throughout nature, mating occurs largely between “coy” females and “aggressive” males and that evolution will eliminate any trait which does not lend itself to the individual animal’s fitness (or it’s chances of reproducing.) Darwin states that
“males of almost all animals have stronger passions than females.” (3) whereas with females he claims that “the female… with the rarest of exceptions is less eager than the male… she is coy.” (3) It is largely believed by the scientific community that this is because female reproductive output (carrying a pregnancy to term, possibly rearing the young) has a higher fitness cost than with males, and so females must be more selective than males when it comes to selecting a mate. Many members of the scientific community also believe that in sexual selection males should be more promiscuous, mating with as many females as possible, because this will increase their fitness, and females should conversely be more coy because of their greater reproductive output. (1) Darwin also states. “Females choose mates who are more attractive.. vigorous and well armed just as man can give beauty to his male poultry.” (3) For someone not familiar with Darwin this might sound very odd. well what does this mean? What Darwin was suggesting was that it is in the females’ interest to have competition between males, based on ornaments (things like peacock feathers, which are only present in the male) and armaments (things like antlers on deer and various undulates,which can be used in physical competition for mates) which determine genetic fitness. It is in the females best interest to have these competitions because in this way she can determine which male has the best genes so that her fitness is increased by having offspring that is stronger and healthier. This hetero normative passionate male, coy female model for sexuality has been adopted so readily by our culture from biology classes to super market magazines. However, what it doesn’t take into account is the importance of the survival of oneself and one’s offspring in relation to fitness and the conditions that a species exists under outside of it’s reproductive habits. One major clue to the complicated nature of sexual selection, the antlers or “armaments” of a buck which allegedly only exist to engage other males in conflict over mates, also function as parabolic reflectors that increase the buck’s ability to hear. Although the primary function of the antlers has to do with mate choice, it also has a secondary function which is also valuable to fitness in a seemingly less direct way.
Many animals couldn’t ever fit into the darwinian model because they simply don’t exist within this male/female sex binary. Some organisms, like dandelions, reproduce asexually. Even some bigger organisms are asexual or at least partially asexual. The mighty Komodo dragon, for example, does not need to have sexual intercourse to reproduce, and can simply begin the process of generating eggs using their own genetic tissue. Although a female Komodo dragon might prefer to find a mate to sire her offspring, if one does not make himself available than she will just say the hell with it and begin producing eggs using only her genetic material. (5) Many species of gecko are asexual. Little did you know that the Geico mascot is probably female and is capable of reproducing without extra genetic material. A few other organisms capable of reproducing asexually are grasshoppers, dandelions, moths, and even some turkeys. (2) Other species are intersex, possessing both two different size gametes. Plants in general are both male and female, possessing both pollen (relatively similar to sperm) and ovules (relatively similar to eggs). Many animals such as starfish and snails posses both male and female gametes simultaneously. The Leopard slug, an organism native to Europe and the east coast of America, mates by entwining itself with it’s partner as they hang from a tree branch on a thin line of mucus. They then extend there sexual members, large brilliant blue translucent organs located on the sides of their heads, and then the two slugs will connect them in a flower-like form. Leopard slug mating is not only one of the most aesthetically stunning and awe inducing mating processes in the animal kingdom; it is also one of the most queer. When the leopard slugs unite organs, they are passing male genetic data to one another. Both slugs will become pregnant, and both will lay eggs. (6)
