A final type of gender-role mixing seen in homosexual interactions involves behavioral amalgams—more balanced combinations of “male” and “female” traits in the same individual, a sort of behavioral “androgyny.” This can involve sexual activities: during homosexual interactions between male Gorillas, for instance, the mounter (i.e., the animal “playing the male role”) usually also “plays the female role” of initiating the interaction (female Gorillas typically initiate sexual activity in heterosexual contexts). Mallard females who perform the “male” activity of mounting other females nevertheless display postcopulatory behaviors typical of females, while the mountee in male Black-crowned Night Heron homosexual encounters may perform typically “male” courtship behaviors. The mounter in Hanuman Langur female homosexual encounters often exhibits otherwise “female” behaviors such as initiating the sexual interaction and grooming her partner following the mount. Behavioral amalgams can also involve courtship and parenting activities. When one male Emu is courting another, for example, he stretches his neck and erects his neck feathers—a behavior characteristic of both females and males in heterosexual courtships29—yet neither male makes the booming vocalization typical of females, and each may follow the other (usually only males follow females in heterosexual courtships). Younger male Swallow-tailed Manakins that are courted by adult males exhibit a combination of male and female behavioral traits that makes them distinct from either (and also parallels their plumage, which is a mixture of adult male and female appearance). Their vocalizations and participation in some noncourtship displays are distinctly masculine, while their generally quiet and inconspicuous demeanor is unlike adult males, and in courtship interactions they may assume the role that the female usually does.30 In Snow Goose homosexual pairs, both females perform typically female activities such as incubation and typically male activities such as defense of the goslings.31
A multiplicity of gender-role mixtures that defy categorization into any of these three types is the norm in species like the Black-headed Gull. Detailed comparisons of both heterosexual and homosexual pairs showed that birds in same-sex pairs exhibit neither stereotypically “male” nor “female” behaviors. Rather, the frequency with which they perform various courtship and pair-bonding activities tends to be distinct from, or intermediate between, that of both males and females in opposite-sex pairs. For example, the maximum rate of “ceremonial encounters” (a type of courtship interaction) in homosexual pairs exceeds that of both partners in heterosexual pairs. On the other hand, rates of “long-calling” and “head-flagging” (other forms of courtship) tend to be intermediate between those of heterosexual males and females, while the rate of courtship “begging” by males in homosexual couples is generally as low as that of males in heterosexual pairs (which itself is generally lower than that of heterosexual females).32 In addition, both males in homosexual pairs usually build the nest (which is a typically “male” activity in heterosexual couples), although there is also variation between individuals in this regard, with only one partner contributing to the nest in some male pairs.
The “pseudoheterosexual” interpretation of animal behavior offers striking parallels to stereotypical views about human homosexuality. Scientific puzzlement over assigning animals “male” or “female” roles echoes the refrain often heard by gay and lesbian people, who are frequently asked, “Which one plays the man (or woman)?” The assumption is that homosexual relationships must be modeled after heterosexual ones—a view that is as narrow a conception of human relationships as it is of animal sexuality. Each partner in a gay or lesbian relationship (or sexual encounter) is thought to “play” one-half of a heterosexual couple. In reality, far more complex and multidimensional expressions of gender categories are involved, even (or perhaps especially) when the partners appear most “heterosexual” to outside observers. Some people do not structure their homosexual interactions along gendered lines at all; others do, but re-create typically “male” and “female” patterns in new configurations. To give just one example: butch-femme lesbian relationships have long been viewed as simplistic imitations of heterosexuality, in which the butch partner is the “man” and the femme partner is the “woman.” Lesbians whose erotic lives are organized along these lines, however, describe eloquently how their actual experiences are far different from this. Neither partner is “copying” heterosexual roles; rather, each is taking elements of masculinity and femininity and alloying them in different combinations and intensities to create female-specific genders. As one lesbian has said about the kind of women she is attracted to, a masculine lesbian is not an imitation man, but a real butch.33 If even this most superficially “heterosexual” gender presentation is more than what it appears, imagine the possibilities when homosexual interactions are gender-role-defined in other ways, or not at all. Such “possibilities” are in fact everyday realities in the lives of both humans and animals.
Over the past thirty years, a sophisticated analysis of gender categories has been emerging from within the feminist, gay and lesbian, and transgender movements, one that challenges basic notions such as “male” and “female,” “masculine” and “feminine,” “mannish” and “effeminate.” These movements are also calling for a recombining and reimagining of categories such as these, rather than simply their denigration or abolishment. Unfortunately, zoologists for the most part are still operating under an earlier, outmoded conception of gender roles (both heterosexual and homosexual)—one that is inconsistent with the actualities of sexual and gender expression within the animal and human worlds. If any progress is to be made in the study and understanding of animal homosexuality and transgender, scientists and nonscientists alike will need to acquire the sort of multifaceted view of gender and sexuality that is now being articulated within these human liberation movements.
“The Lengths to Which Deprived Creatures Will Go”—Homosexuality as Substitute Heterosexuality