The Wilder Side of Sex

Smithsonian Zoogoer ^ | May 2004 | John Tidwell

[Jim Noble]

in nature, gender is not something fixed and immutable, but a survival strategy. Some use genes, some use temperature, others use the social club, and some (probably most) use all of the above. The only rule is “survive and reproduce.” If you can manage that and it feels good, do it!

We are not fish.

[DefCon]

Sounds plausible to me.
I am a male lesbian.

[Junior]

TUCvER ping.

[AntiGuv]

Famous sex theory questioned

A popular explanation for why we have frequent sex has been challenged by a report published in Science magazine.

According to the Red Queen Hypothesis.....

....But scientists have constructed a model, which suggests this "arms race" alone is not enough to account for sex.

[ovrtaxt]

—John Tidwell is a freelance journalist living in Silver Spring. He has written numerous articles on conservation for ZooGoer, as well as articles on history for American Heritage and American Legacy magazines.

I'll bet a buck that John Tidwell is also a bone smuggler. A rump ranger. A nancy boy.

[longtermmemmory]

Scientist should consider homosexual conduct among mamals akin to sexual conduct of humans who are in single sex prisons.

[Paul_B]

Indeed. Or insects, or anything else in nature. And he conveniently leaves out the other side of the story, the vast majority of animals which know their gender, some of which, like swans, mate for life. Our tax dollars at indoctrinational play.

[metesky]

My grandfather was born on Lesvos, really making me a Lesbian trapped in a man's body.

[AntiGuv]

What are you talking about?

[syriacus]

Starfish and leeches multiply when they are cut up. That doesn't mean humans should increase their populations that way.

[arasina]

Have they really become this desperate? Using fish stories to make a case for same-sex marriage?

[Esther Ruth]

"The only rule is “survive and reproduce.”

IN the beginning of God's creation there were rules BUT they were broken and now all the earth, and all the creation are under a curse and nothing is as God intended it should be because of sin. This article is evidence that the effects of sin can be seen in even the smallest areas of God's creation.

Someday the lion will lay down with the lamb - everything will again be just as God intended it to be. The rules will be followed in all of nature and in all the earth.

Our Father who art in Heaven... Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done! Some day God promises His Kingdom will be as it was intended but for now....

[jscd3]

The only rule is “survive and reproduce.” If you can manage that and it feels good, do it!

Pretty good rule if you are an animal living in the wild.

However, when people behave this way, society starts to resemble modern day South Africa, the South Bronx, or the Clinton Whitehouse. Not very pretty...

[Savage Beast]

I have the feeling that some day genetic engineering is going to but the gender reassignment surgeons out of business.

And imagine the joy of all those self-adoring politicians and moviestars if they could appropriate the endowments of the Convallaria majalis.

If you think same-sex marriage is open a can of worms--just wait until the can of Physarum is opened!

As for the Daphnia--that's not much different from the human world as it is. When things are cushy and luxuries abundant, everybody and everything tends to get feminized. When times get hard and things get crowded, the alpha-males emerge. The problem is that there are always alpha-males, domestic or foreign, who escaped the cushy life and are eager to dominate all those feminized luxury-lovers, and the feminized luxury-lovers tend to be too mind-numbed and luxury-dazed to understand this.

[SpyGuy]

Not only is it absurd to try to compare mammals to lower species (since no male mammal is capable of spontaneously producing ovaries and a uterus, nor is any female mammal capable of spontaneously producing testes), but human homosexuality runs completely counter to the basic premise of his argument: that sexuality is flexible in nature "to solve the problem of how to survive and make as many babies as possible."

When humans engage in homosexuality, they produce zero progeny and their average individual life spans decrease dramatically.

[syriacus]

but human homosexuality runs completely counter to the basic premise of his argument: that sexuality is flexible in nature "to solve the problem of how to survive and make as many babies as possible."

Good point.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"You and me baby,
Ain't nothin' but mammals.
So let's do it like they do
On the Discovery Channel.

Gettin' horny now..."

[syriacus]

Starfish and leeches multiply when they are cut up...

Sorry. I meant starfish and planaria multiply when they are cut up.

[Savage Beast]

"Invertebrates take the prize for the most sexes, genders, sex organs, and acrobatic means of coitus."

Oh come on, John. You've never been to California.