Nature Quickie: Sex Is Natural-- Just Ask The Animals

with SUP instructor & wildlife enthusiast Kelly Simmons

Brought to you by Après Delight

Sex Outside Nature Quickies are short, 5-minute dives into a specific, practical topic about our bodies and the outdoors. This one features Kelly Simmons, whose background studying animals and plants opened her eyes to the wide world of sex happening all around us outdoors. And we agree! Because the more we started to look into “what animals are having interesting sex?” we quickly learned that the answer is all of them. Tune in to hear just a handful from Kelly as she uncovers fact after fact about how quirky all of our sex lives actually are, and how natural that truly is.

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Hosted by Laura Borichevsky.
Cover artwork by Hailey Hirst.
Music by Calica licensed via MusicBed.

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This transcript was lightly edited and created using a transcription service. As such it may contain spelling errors.

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

You’re listening to a Sex Outside Nature Quickie-- a short 5-minute dive into a specific, practical topic about our bodies and the outdoors. I’m Laura Borichevsky.

Kelly Simmons:

Look, if you think it's “weird” and shouldn't be done in humans, it's probably already done in nature, so calm down and know that nature made it, so it has a use. It's not dirty. It's not vile. It's not “bad” or unnatural.

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

When we first dove into what Sex Outside could be, we knew that one of the founding philosophies was that we’d be looking to the outdoors and nature whenever possible to help make more connections between human behavior and what we already accept in our surrounding environment as “natural”. And to be honest, we didn’t know if it would be an idea that resonated. But almost immediately after our premiere episode, we heard from Kelly Simmons. Kelly has a strong background in biology and is the owner of a paddleboard yoga and tour company based in southern Florida, and she sent us an extremely enthusiastic message because she too saw so many connections between the behaviors of plants and animals and how it can inform us about our own sexuality as a human collective.

Just listen to her explain what something called “parthenogenesis” is, and you’ll see what we mean.

Kelly Simmons:

So there's a lot of animals-- not mammals, but lower vertebrates... so things like fish, birds, lizards-- that can do this thing called parthenogenesis. What happens is a female can fertilize her own eggs. A lot of times that's the result of an environmental stressor, where for whatever reason, the males are not as popular and they can't reproduce asexually with two separate sets of genes, or maybe they've adapted that way because they know they're in an environmentally stressed environment, right? One of the lizards I'm thinking of is a type of Komodo dragon. They live on a remote island. So the chances of them finding a mate to have two sets of genes to make babies all the time is really remote. So the females have that ability to fertilize their own egg.

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

As someone who went to school to study animals and plants, Kelly has dedicated a lot of her life in one way or another to surrounding herself with the outdoors-- in fact, it’s this love of the natural world that stemmed from her childhood and shaped her early views on not only sexuality, but religion, too… which of course, has a pretty great story attached.

Kelly Simmons:

I was raised in the Catholic tradition, but I was also always outside with my dad. And I'm the oldest by six and eight years. So it was always him and I outside. And as a family, we'd go camping on the weekends or holidays, always at the shore, always in the woods. And he was always pointing things out to me. And so at a very early age, I'd say before the age of eight, I knew what parthenogenesis was. And so when I went to Sunday school and they taught you about how it was so controversial that people taught evolution in school and the way that you know, Jesus came to be was a virgin birth, I thought, “No it’s not. Mary fertilized her own egg. It’s parthenogenesis. That’s how Jesus got here.” I didn't know at the time that that's not possible in female mammals, but as a little kid, that's what I thought.

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

Parthenogenesis isn’t the only thing that Kelly finds totally applicable when it comes to how we as humans conceptualize sexuality and just how natural it all is… as you’ll hear, there is so, so much more. 

Kelly Simmons:

Going to school and learning about these things for me was just an extension of that part of my childhood. So one of the first things I remember learning about in school that stuck with me was about these things called Slippers Shell Snails-- say that five times fast-- they're called crepidula. And in the Northeast and the Atlantic, they're very common on the beach. They take on all kinds of colors from peach to pink, to kind of orangy browns. And they're a pretty shell. And what these animals do is amazing. They actually will start out as a female and they'll grow in a clump of like 12 and the larger ones are the females. And then the younger ones will be the males. And if they need to flip that they can, because they're hermaphroditic and female can become a male and start the cycle all over again. And I just thought that was like, wow. 

And so learning about those animals, the crepidula, that have the ability to be two things in one body and then learning about other animals, things like amoeba, and you probably remember them from biology classes, things called planarians. They have like a little triangle shaped head. They actually reproduce asexually. So what happens is they just divide themselves in half-- and sea stars can do this too. They just pinch off a part of themselves. And it's like a little clone, a little thing can grow off and be another planarian or another sea star. So like no sex at all. And there's a new mini them. And I'm like, “that's pretty neat because now you don't have to go through the hassle of finding a mate.”

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

Even when it comes to other mammals, things can get pretty interesting. Take the dolphin for instance, for which there is a lot to potentially unpack when it comes to sex.

Kelly Simmons:

We think about for ourselves, “sex outside”, right: sex on a beach or sex on a waterfall. But think about if you’re a dolphin. A dolphin's a mammal. It has to breathe air. Think about trying to do the deed underwater while you're swimming and coming up to breathe for air. And also there are male dolphins that will hear me for life, meaning they will pair up and partner, not necessarily that they're having sex, but they partner for life kind of like Maverick in his wing man, right? That's kind of like what, that's kind of what they do. Two males will hunt together and work together to help find a female to make it easier for the more dominant male to mate. Ultimately, that's why they form these little bromances.

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

And when it comes to pleasure, there’s a lot we can learn from other mammals, too.

Kelly Simmons:

There are people that think, “Well, you know, sex is just for procreation and continuation of the species.” Not true! Because humans, bonobos-- which is a subspecies of ape-- and dolphins are three species known to have sex just for pleasure-- just because it feels good and they can. So there's nature again, showing us that, “Here I am, let’s have some sex! This is good stuff. You get to reproduce and feel good. Imagine that!”

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

So, there are clearly endless things to learn about when it comes to the sexual behaviors of other animals and plants out there. In fact, this is one of the things we research often and share about on social media because the more we started to look into “what animals are having interesting sex?” we quickly learned that the answer is ALL OF THEM. But, aside from some interesting facts, what can all of this teach us about sexuality?

Kelly Simmons:

I think nature is a great teacher of-- look, if you think it's weird and shouldn't be done in humans, it's probably already done in nature. So calm down and know that nature made it, so it has a use. It's not dirty. It's not vile. It's not “bad” or unnatural. And I get it because there's an evolutionary tendency to think that “different” means “bad”, right, as a self-protective mechanism. So like if I'm as a human approaching a group of wolves, they know I'm not one of them. That, that thing, as in me, is probably going to hurt them. Same thing if I'm trying to approach a fish in the water, like it gets that, okay, I'm not a fish. “You're probably going to try to eat me”, and get out of the way. But for us as humans, we have that ability to shut off that evolutionary trigger and just accept. Just let it be. If it's not like you, you're also not like it.

Even continuing on through flowers, right? Like pollen-- how many people are allergic to pollen? It gets in your eyes and makes your eyes feel grainy, makes you sneeze. Pollen is actually the male sex cell of flowering trees. It's out there. It's everywhere. Look at flowers, okay? Flowers are the ultimate in garishness and perversion, right? Look at a hibiscus. The flower parts that attract the pollinator are right out for the eyes. Like they come out in 3D. Same thing with an orchid, right? They're all ornate and they have these opposite colored pedals to kind of let the insects know like, “Hey, land here, come in here! You know, fertilize here.” They actually rely on other animals for fertilization, right? So there's like interspecies sex, as it were.

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

Okay-- so sex is all around you. Just embrace it. It’s not dirty, it’s not gross. It’s not weird, and it’s nothing to feel shame about. With this in mind, Kelly has a challenge for you the next time you step outside.

Kelly Simmons:

The next time you're out, just observe where you are, right? So if you're in the Northeast and spring is going to come, what happens is the ground gets saturated. The earthworms come out just at dusk, just as it’s starting to get dark. See if you notice two earthworms stuck together, with connected parts, right? They're swapping sex cells. See if you see dragonflies connected with their butts, right? What you might see here in Florida, we have these things called Kissing Bugs and these little black bugs that will fly around literally with their butts stuck together. When animals are doing the deed or having sex, they're just out doing it, right. They don't, they don't stop like, “Oh, someone might see us!” So just look around. Because kids are going to ask, “What are they doing?” They’re doing something natural, bud.

Laura Borichevsky - Narration:

Thanks for tuning in to this Sex Outside Nature Quickie, and for Kelly Simmons for joining us for this episode. By the way, if you ever stumble upon plants, animals, or insects in the wild getting a little sexy, we would love to see it if you’re able to photograph or video from a distance that doesn’t disturb the wildlife or land. Simply send us a DM or post using #tinysex. For more information to continue your research, click through our show notes and check out our other resources. Kelly is the owner of an amazing stand up paddleboard yoga and tour company called Koastal Paddleboard Yoga based in St.Augustine, Florida-- so make sure to check out what they’re up to @koastalsupyoga, and follow along with us @sexoutsidepod for more action between episodes. Music is by Calica. I’m Laura Borichevsky. Thanks so much for joining us. Until next time!

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