I must admit that I considered skipping dolphins. They’re entirely too much like people, and I mean that in the worst ways. But while not necessarily a fun discussion, it’s one worth having.
Dolphins are best known for their intelligence. Or maybe for their backflips, but we all know they’re just in it for the fish. Their sexuality is also a widely discussed topic: They engage in copious amounts of sexual behavior of various types, including using their snouts and fins to stimulate their partners, with a significant amount being homosexual.
But that’s not the sex that’s problematic- it’s actually their heterosexual scenarios where they start getting scary. For all their smarts, they don’t give half a damn about consent, with multiple males often working together to isolate female dolphins. I’d like to say that something not awful happens at this point, but that would be a lie. This is why I say that they’re too much like people: Because they’re rapey.
The hardest part of writing about animal sexuality is the inclination to assume or seek human values in their behaviors. Anthropomorphism may make you think of furry art, but it’s a much broader concept, referring to the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things, whether animals, objects, or whatever else. We’ve already seen the potential pitfalls of declaring giraffes gay and assigning gender roles to sparrows, but the dolphin question presents a more serious angle to the discussion. Is consent something that animals can understand? Is it that the dolphins don’t realize, or just don’t care?
I attempted to look into this question, as I thought it was an interesting one and I wondered what papers had been published on the subject, but I’ll have to report back once I’ve refined my search terms. “Animal consent” gives me entirely different results than what I’m aiming for, and I’m staying far away from that rabbit hole.
No pun intended.
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