Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

22

Bighorn Sheep (Berger 1985:334; Geist 1971:161—63, 185, 219). Another possible case of heterosexual interactions being modeled on homosexual ones occurs in Atlantic Spotted Dolphins: during heterosexual copulations some individuals have been observed apparently “mimicking” the sideways mounting position used during interspecies homosexual copulations with Bottlenose Dolphins (Herzing and Johnson 1997:96). Interestingly, the patterning of heterosexual relations after homosexual ones is also found in some human cultures. In medieval Baghdad and Andalusia, for example, the preeminence of (largely intergenerational) homosexual relations was such that heterosexual women often cross-dressed as male youths—sometimes even with painted mustaches—in order to compete with boys for the attentions of men (Murray and Roscoe, Islamic Homosexualities, pp. 99, 151). In contemporary North America, some men cross-dress as women when having sex with their wives/girlfriends because they enjoy imagining themselves as a lesbian couple, or they become transsexual/transgendered women and live with their female partners in a lesbian relationship (see, for example, Money, J. [1988] Gay, Straight, and In-Between: The Sexology of Erotic Orientation , pp. 105-6 [New York: Oxford University Press]; Bolin, A. [1994] “Transcending and Transgendering: Male-to-Female Transsexuals, Dichotomy and Diversity,” p. 484, in G. Herdt, ed., Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History , pp. 447-85 [New York: Zone Books]; Rothblatt, M. [1995] The Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender, pp. 159-60 [New York: Crown]).

23

This is to some extent an arbitrary classification, since these three “types” may overlap with each other or even co-occur to varying degrees within the same species or individual. Nevertheless, they represent broad patterns that are a useful point of departure for discussion.

24

In the words of the scientists studing this species, “Female sexual displays formed a continuum from male-behaving females to normal females” (Buechner and Schloeth 1965:219).

25

Gorilla (Yamagiwa 1987a:13 [table 7], 1987b:36-37 [table 4]); Hanuman Langur (Srivastava et al. 1991:492— 93 [table II]); Bonnet Macaque (Sugiyama 1971:260 [table 9]); Pig-tailed Macaque (Tokuda et al. 1968:291 [table 7]).

26

Western Gull (Hunt et al. 1984).

27

On the rarity of incubation feeding in male-female pairs, see Evans Ogden and Stutchbury 1994:8.

28

Some cases of apparently role-differentiated behavior are not so clearly gendered when examined in more detail. Kitagawa (1988a:65—66) suggests that females in homosexual pairs of Black-winged Stilts can be divided into “malelike” and “femalelike” partners. However, many of the courtship and pair-bonding behaviors that are used to make this distinction, such as “splashing water” or “irrelevant preening,” are described by other sources (e.g., Goriup 1982; Hamilton 1975) as being performed by both sexes in heterosexual pairs. Even if we accept Kitagawa’s classification of some behaviors as more typical of males or females, though, in at least one of the homosexual pairs described, it is difficult to see how this translates into gendered behavior. Both partners in this case performed putatively female activities such as “extending neck” and egg laying, putatively male behaviors such as “half-circling round,” and putatively nongendered activities such as “showing nest spot” and incubation.

29

This behavior is exhibited by females when initiating pair-directed courtships, and by males when pursuing promiscuous matings (cf. Coddington and Cockburn 1995).

30

Swallow-tailed Manakin (Foster 1987:555; Sick 1967:17, 1959:286).

31

On the role differentiation of these parental duties in heterosexual pairs, see Martin et al. 1985:258.

32

Black-headed Gull (based on figs. 3-6, van Rhijn 1985:92-94). These comparisons are drawn from studies of captive birds; however, the behavior of wild Gulls appears to be similar—in a homosexual pair observed in the wild by Kharitonov and Zubakin (1984:103), for example, at least one partner exhibited a combination of both “male” and “female” behaviors.

33

For more extensive discussion of the full complexity and diversity of lesbian butch-femme, see Nestle, J. (1981) “Butch-Fem Relationships: Sexual Courage in the 1950’s,” Heresies No. 12, 3(4):21-24; Nestle, J., ed. (1992) The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (Boston: Alyson); Burana, L., Roxxie, and L. Due, eds. (1994) Dagger: On Butch Women (Pittsburgh and San Francisco: Cleis Press); Newman, L. (1995) The Femme Mystique (Boston: Alyson); Pratt, M. B. (1995) S/HE (Ithaca: Firebrand Books); Harris, L., and E. Crocker, eds. (1997) Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls (New York: Routledge).

34

Australian Shelduck (Riggert 1977:60-61); Ring-billed Gull (Conover and Hunt 1984a); Mute Swan (Kear 1972:85-86); Mountain Sheep (Geist 1971:162); Bottlenose Dolphin (Tavolga 1966:729—30); Killer Whale (Rose 1992:112); White-handed Gibbon (Edwards and Todd 1991:234); West Indian Manatee (Hartman 1979:107-8); Hanuman Langur (Srivastava et al. 1991:508—9); Asiatic Elephant (Ramachandran 1984); Lion (Chavan 1981); Sage Grouse (Scott 1942:488).

35

For explicit rejection of (and evidence against) the shortage hypothesis by various zoologists studying animal homosexuality, see Gorilla (Harcourt et al. 1981:276); Japanese Macaque (Fedigan and Gouzoules 1978:494; Vasey 1996:550, 1998:17); Rhesus Macaque (Akers and Conaway 1979:77); Flamingo (King 1994:107); Common Gull (Riddiford 1995:112); Jackdaw (Röell 1978:103); Galah (Rogers and McCulloch 1981:90; Rowley 1990:59-60).

36

Orang-utan (Rijksen 1978:259); Japanese Macaque (Vasey 1996 and personal communication; Corradino 1990:360; Wolfe 1984); Stumptail Macaque (Chevalier-Skolikoff 1976:520); Rhesus Macaque (Akers and Conaway 1979:76–77); Common Gull (Riddiford 1995:112); Black-headed Gull (van Rhijn 1985:91–93); King Penguin (Murphy 1936:340—41); Galah (Rogers and McCulloch 1981:90; Rowley 1990:59–60).

37

Bottlenose Dolphin (Ostman 1991:310); Squirrel Monkey (Mendoza and Mason 1991:476–77; Travis and Holmes 1974:55, 63); Bonobo (Kano 1992:149; Savage-Rumbaugh and Wilkerson 1979:338); Stumptail Macaque (Chevalier-Skolikoff 1976:524); Savanna (Yellow) Baboon (Maxim and Buettner-Janusch 1963:176); West Indian Manatee (Hartman 1979:101, 106); Pukeko (Jamieson and Craig 1987a:1251); Common Murre (Birkhead et al. 1985:614); Sociable Weaver (Collias and Collias 1980b:248); Bonnet Macaque (Sugiyama 1971:252, 259—60); Japanese Macaque (Vasey 1996:543 and personal communication). Homosexual mounting rates can also be independent of the presence of animals of the opposite sex: in an all-female group of Pig-tailed Macaques, for example, the rate of same-sex mounting was virtually identical both before and after introduction of a male into the group (Giacoma and Messeri 1992:183 [table I]). The finding of a positive correlation between homosexual and heterosexual rates is paralleled by some data on humans in sex-segregated environments. Researchers found that married men in prisons who receive conjugal visits with their wives are actually more likely to have sex with other male prisoners than men without conjugal visits (Wooden, W. S., and J. Parker [1982] Men Behind Bars: Sexual Exploitation in Prison, pp. 55–56 [New York: Plenum]).

38

For species with skewed sex ratios but no homosexuality, see Welty, J. C., and L. Baptista (1988) The Life of Birds, 4th ed., p. 154 (New York: W. B. Saunders); Newton, I. (1986) The Sparrowhawk, pp. 37, 151 (Calton, England: T. and A. D. Poyser); Taborsky, B., and M. Taborsky (1991) “Social Organization of North Island Brown Kiwi: Long-Term Pairs and Three Types of Male Spacing Behavior,” Ethology 89:47-62. For verification of balanced sex ratios in populations exhibiting homosexuality, see Bonobo (Thompson-Handler et al. 1984:349); Bonnet Macaque (Simonds 1965); West Indian Manatee (Hartman 1979:139); Snow Goose (Quinn et al. 1989:184); California Gull (Conover et al. 1979); Pukeko (Craig 1980:594).