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Inspire Session

Hybrid Session

Session: : When the Window Is a Mirror: How Do Dominant Theories Limit Our Understanding of Nature?

INS 23-2 - Reframing the Lenses Through Which We Study Same-Sex Sexual Behavior

Thursday, August 10, 2023

1:30 PM – 3:00 PM PDT

Location: 251

Presenting Author(s)

JM

Julia D. Monk

Postdoctoral Scholar
University of California Berkeley, United States

Co-author(s)

EG

Erin Giglio

Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Minnesota
AK

Ambika Kamath

Assistant Professor
University of Colorado Boulder
ML

Max Lambert

Aquatic Research Manager
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
CM

Caitlin McDonough-Goldstein

Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Vienna

Same-sex sexual behavior is common in animals. Though western scientists long ignored this behavior or dismissed it as aberrant or repugnant, in recent decades the conversation among evolutionary biologists has largely shifted to a tone of perplexed fascination: how could this “Darwinian paradox” persist in nature if it does not lead to reproduction and presumably reduces individual fitness? As a group of largely queer and feminist scientists, we flip this conversation on its head, rendering explicit the unspoken assumptions underlying the study of same-sex behavior and putting forward new theory on the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior in animals.