Bruce bagemihl biological exuberance
Bruce Bagemihl > Quotes
“The historical record also shows that attitudes toward homosexuality hold little to do with whether people believe it occurs in animals or not, and consequently, in its "naturalness". True, throughout much of recorded history, the charge of "unnaturalness" - including the claim that homosexuality did not occur in animals - was used to justify every imaginable form of sanction, control, and repression against homosexuality. But many other interpretations of "naturalness" were also prevalent at various times. Indeed, the very fact that homosexuality was thought to be "unnatural" - that is, not found in nature - was sometimes used to justify its *superiority* to heterosexuality. In ancient Greece, for example, same-sex love was thought to be purer than opposite-sex love because it did not involve procreation or "animal-like" passions. On the other hand, homosexuality was sometimes condemned precisely because it was considered *closer* to "nature", reflecting the base, uncontrolled sexual instincts of the animal world. The Nazis
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
This meticulously researched and documented account catalogues mammals, birds, fish and others demonstrating what humans would call long term homosexual and heterosexual relationships, bisexuality, cross-dressing as well as transgender transformation, group sex, masturbation and the utilize of sex toys – just to name a few examples.
When I asked my mother how she brought liberal attitudes to homosexuality to our family in the s, she said “growing up on a farm in the Karoo, I saw that even the sheep are homosexual sometimes - it is natural.” While Bagemihl doesn’t document domesticated sheep, he does note that male wild mountain sheep live in “homosexual societies” where “same-sex courtship and sexual activity occur routinely among all rams” inc
This book is in two parts: (1) A Polysexual, Polygendered World, and (2) A Wonderous Bestiary.
The first part of the book is an independent page exposition of homosexual, bisexual and transgendered animal sexuality. If you desire to know what the birds and the bees are doing when Jerry Falwell isn't looking, this is the place to find out. Don't await to find traditional family values in these pages. What you will verb instead is that animals aren't doing it for Darwin, they are doing it for fun. There are amazingly detailed descriptions, pictures and illustrations here of animals having all kinds of sex (that will amaze you), and most of it isn't for procreation.
More curious to me, though, is the speculation on the sexual origins of language and culture in chapter 2 and the devastating examination in chapter 3 of bigotry in the biological sciences in over two hundred years of observations of animal homosexuality. Begemihl shows, for example, that
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Paperback)
By Bruce Bagemihl
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A Publishers Weekly Best Book
One of the New York Widespread Library's "25 Books to Remember" for
Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, filled with fascinating facts and astonishing descriptions of animal behavior, Bruce Bagemihl's Biological Exuberance is a landmark book that will alter forever how we glare at nature.
Homosexuality in its myriad forms has been scientifically documented in more than species of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and other animals worldwide. Biological Exuberance is the first comprehensive account of the subject, bringing together accurate, accessible, and nonsensationalized information. Drawing upon a rich body of zoological research spanning more than two centuries, Bagemihl shows that animals engage in all types of nonreproductive sexual behavior. Sexual and gender expression in the animal world displays exuberant variety, including same-sex courtship,