Reversed Polarity

[steepholm]

I only have Frozen Planet on because Jessie likes it. She sits on my lap, fascinated by the picture of birds on the screen, and I'm fascinated by her watching.

I do quite like wildlife programmes, but I find myself increasing squeamish. I squirmed last night when two musk oxen spent half an hour head-butting each other (with the force of a car at 30mph, so Attenborough told us). I was afraid one of their heads would crack open on the Arctic ice like an egg. I also squirmed at the "cute" music that came on whenever a juvenile bird or animal did something ungainly. I mean, this is the BBC, not Disney! Though, without the malagauche (which is the proper term in the southern hemisphere) antics of baby penguins, where would trombone and bassoon players be? If I met them busking in the Tube, I wouldn't be able to look them in the eye.

But I feel very uncomfortable when a female reindeer flees the attentions of a group of randy male reindeer for several miles (all of whom are, it seems, intent on raping her) and David A describes her as "playing hard to get". Now, by all means say that human morality doesn't apply to the animal kingdom, and that "rape" is a word I shouldn't apply to reindeer. I'm certainly not calling for the arrest of the Arctic fox who killed a guillemot chick later in the programme. But then, don't anthropomorphize the female by attributing coy motives to her like some 1960s judge.

Don't you know that metaphors work in both directions, David? You're better than that.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

One has to admit, though, that there is something inherently comical about penguins incredible survivors though they are! :o)

The photography on those progs never ceases to amaze me.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, they are quite funny - but I can appreciate that without the musical equivalent of someone tickling me under the arm with a feather.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I suppose one has to keep the MU in gainful employ!

[sheenaghpugh]

But she is doing precisely that thing. She does have motive, though it may not be conscious; she wants to ensure that her young are fathered by the strongest, fastest, most determined male around, so they have a better chance of survival. To that end she does, literally, make herself hard to get, she's not running away to avoid her suitors but so that all but the most determined will be discouraged; it's a handy endurance test. So I think the phrase is pretty well justified.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

See, I think several things are getting mixed up here. It's true, of course, that the evolutionary effect of her running away and then being mounted by biggest/strongest male is that her children are more likely to be strong themselves, and hence to survive. If Attenborough had put it like that I'd have had no objection at all.

What I do object to is this being put in terms of desire, as if she'd given the matter some thought, worked out the principles of sexual selection, and decided to set up a test that would enable her to cream off the top of the gene pool. Or even - since that's a bit too patently ridiculous - that she'd known all this unconsciously, somehow. I saw no evidence of this - such as her outrunning the chasing males and then waiting for them to catch up, for example. Nor is there any need for the hypothesis, comforting as it is: the evolutionary mechanism would work just as well (or possibly better) if she were really trying to get away with every fibre of her being and were mounted against her will.

Another common move is to devolve the intent onto Evolution itself ("Evolution drives her to test the males' strength and ardour"), but that's a bit like saying that gravity wills a stone to fall.

I know that wildlife programmes have anthropomorphized since the foundation of the genre, and no doubt it's an effective way of engaging people in the lives of their fellow organisms. But when it takes the form of projecting onto animals a narrative that we'd find offensive and dangerous if applied to humans ("She says no, but she means yes"), then my hackles levitate.

[sheenaghpugh]

"She says no, but she means yes" is offensive applied to any living thing, but in this case I didn't hear that implication because she clearly isn't saying no; she's saying come on if you're hard enough (in several senses) and there is no real parallel with humans because we, alone among species, have overcome the drive to reproduce, to the extent that some of us actually don't want to and choose not to. That's why I find the term "playing hard to get" offensive when applied to humans, because it implies deceit, but in this case I hear it literally. I don't think we can possibly know how much of her behaviour is learned, instinctive or thought out; you'd think breastfeeding was instinctive but in fact zoo-born female apes who haven't seen it in the wild frequently have to be shown how (as of course do humans, who still quite often can't get the hang of it).

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

she clearly isn't saying no; she's saying come on if you're hard enough (in several senses)

Well, of course she isn't actually saying anything on account of being a reindeer. Anything else has to be speculation, founded on observation. And what we observed was her running in the opposite direction as hard as she could until overcome by exhaustion. I can imagine behaviour that might have weighed on the side of your interpretation, as I said above - such as loitering if she seemed in danger of outrunning the males - but I didn't see it. And it may be that DA has talked to old reindeer hands, who have observed something of the sort - but if so, he didn't mention it. Given all that, the obvious prima facie interpretation is that she was trying to avoid sex - or saying no, to put it that way.

The evolutionary outcome is the same either way (she has sex with the strongest male, voluntarily or otherwise), so I don't think we can use arguments from evolution to settle the question. And I don't see that it makes much difference where that behaviour came from: it's her desire that's at issue in the phrase "playing hard to get".

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I must admit, these days I find the output from the BBC Wildlife Unit increasingly voyeuristic, and tend to avoid watching... The commentary is often a bit flippant for the subject matter, too.

ron burgundy davy jones dead

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