Animals are very intriguing to me, and that is probably why I contributed so much about them in regards to sexuality science to the site. In my research, however, I found it so odd that so much of this behavior was just not being discussed in the general science community. In the documentary I watched, the study of homosexual behaviors in animals was described as "the science that dare not speak its name," as if this behavior was taboo in animals and deserved to be ignored. Why is it so astonishing that animals show homosexual behaviors? In animals, sex is not forbidden or dirty, it is the norm, something done often and in plain view. Unbounded by cultural perceptions like humans, it seems no wonder that animals partake in homosexual behavior for various reasons. This behavior may not be 'normal' to us, but then again what is normal?
Science beginning with Darwin has classified sexual behavior as purely reproductive in function. There is no room in scientific literature for sexual behavior that could not possibly result in reproduction, as is the case with homosexual behavior. But how do we know this does not offer a fitness advantage? In the animals I have seen, homosexual behaviors, however you define them, occur in a variety of contexts and for many purposes. In some cases it is beneficial for parenting, in others it seems to help maintain group social bonds, and in many cases we still do not know. How would these not offer advantages to animals? Surely the way to decipher what types of advantages these behaviors offer is not to remain quiet about them, letting the biases of scientists get in the way of understanding what is in come cases core behavior exhibited by animals. After all, if we cannot understand the basis of sexual behaviors in animals, how can we ever understand them in humans?
Levi
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