question..

[cricketskies]

Are you guys still reading?

and
if you are..

What's the deal with "the birds and the bees"

I mean..

why did people start referring to sex talk as..

"birds and bees?"

Comments

[galactic_dev]

I think when most people grew up on farms, they learned about sex by seeing animals do it.

[cricketskies]

but birds and bees didn't do it ..
i mean, with each other...

3 cents

[spectraltektite]

I think that it is more about passing genes on generation to generation... SO in that sense, birds and bees and butterflies and other out-of-doors creatures do it, but without all of the hullabaloo and fun that us mammals put into doing it... i suppose that is why these are 'safe' creatures for parents and others to explain sex through, because they propagate their species without all the mammalian 'raunchiness' n@. This gives shy or even perhaps ashamed peeps a way to explain the scientific mechanics of sex and babe making without the actual sex. Also, the birds give a clue to parenting with their egg nestin' and feedings and caregivin'. I think that the phrase has been around as a reference to the natural world for ages and that you would have a very hard time locating the true origin of it coming to mean sex talk.

[sassalicious]

wikipedia (can't believe i'm actually quoting this) basically says that birds and bees are metaphors . . .birds are men free to fly and bees are women, enslaved to the queen bee for their entire life . . . also gives a couple of potential literary and musical influences for the specific phrase. what i got out of it was that it was a bit of a misogynistic phrase, at least one of the potential sources is.

must sleep now.